Joshua 24: Choose Today Whom You Will Serve

Introduction

"Choose today whom you will serve." For several days now, Davide Laurora has been carrying this thought in his heart. He says it simply: when a thought burns this strongly, it is hard to hold back. Preaching at Chiesa ADI Milano Baggio, he opens Joshua 24:14-17, very familiar verses that you have probably read more than once.

Joshua is very old, at the evening of his life. He addresses the people with what can be considered his farewell speech. The promised land has just been conquered and divided among the twelve tribes, and the people stand on the threshold of a new chapter in their history.

At this very moment, Joshua does not celebrate the past. He draws a line in front of the people and asks them to choose. The preacher then dwells on two words: "choose" and "today".

Outline of the message

1. Shechem, a place of spiritual transitions

Joshua took the baton from Moses to bring the people into the promised land. This speech is one of the last opportunities for the people to benefit from this man's leadership and authority.
"Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem" (Joshua 24:1). For the preacher, Shechem is "not a place like any other". When you come across it in the Word, you should stop and look up a commentary, because important spiritual transitions took place there.
It is the first place in Canaan where Abraham arrives. God appears to him and says, "I will give this land to your offspring." Abraham builds his first altar there, the altar of the promise (Genesis 12:6-7).
Jacob also raises an altar to the Lord there (Genesis 33:18-20). Later, he buries the foreign gods under an oak there, after asking his household to get rid of them once and for all (Genesis 35:2-4).
Shechem is therefore the place of promise, worship and purification. Joshua does not gather the people there to celebrate himself or to mark the crossing of the Jordan: he looks them straight in the eye to make them an appeal.

2. Up to here, and from here on

Joshua seems to anticipate what Samuel will do with the stone of Ebenezer: "Yahweh helped us until now" (1 Samuel 7:12). Up to here, God has revealed himself, delivered, and given his people victories and conquests.
But Shechem can no longer speak only of the past and the great things already experienced. It must become a new starting point, with a simple call: decide today whom you will serve.
The preacher uses the image of a parent who has walked with a child up to the age of independence. One day, the parent draws a line and says, "Up to here, I have tried to pass something on to you." Perhaps with mistakes, perhaps they could have done better. "From here on, it is you who must choose." He speaks to the teenagers present: there comes a moment when someone hands the responsibility for the choice over to you.
It is the same at the end of a worship service. Psalm 21 says that God meets his people with excellent blessings (Psalm 21:3). He prepares the table and puts it at their disposal. When the service ends, a furrow is drawn: what are you doing, from now on, with the blessing you have been given?

3. Serving means choosing on which altar to burn out your life

We risk associating the word "serve" with a task, an action to which our name is attached. It is that too, but not only that. According to the preacher, the word appears eight times in these few verses.
Joshua tells the people: choose today whom to follow, whom to honor. "Decide today on which altar you want to burn out your life." Abraham built his altar, Jacob did too, and so did your fathers. "When will it be your turn?"
Joshua is not speaking to a pagan people or to a people far from God. He is speaking to a people who have seen the Lord at work. "This people knew which side they should be on, but they had to choose which side to stand on. There is a difference."
Joshua is not content to inform the people that a choice is needed. He asks them to make that choice, to take a stand, to take their responsibilities. You have possessed the land: it is time to possess it spiritually as well. It is a matter of consecration.
In verse 22, Joshua adds: "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh yourselves, to serve him." And the people answer: "We are witnesses." Serving the Lord is a serious matter, a responsibility, a choice.

4. A generation that had not chosen

After David and Solomon, many kings follow one another in Israel. A brother in the church taught the preacher to put a plus or a minus next to the name of each king, depending on whether he did what was right or wrong in the eyes of the Lord. There are many minuses.
Yet these kings knew very well who they were. They knew their history and the promise made to the house of David. And of too many of them it is said that they did evil, without having their hearts fully turned toward God.
The generation Joshua speaks to makes a choice and follows the path he laid out. But afterward "another generation arose after them, who didn't know Yahweh, nor the work which he had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10).
That generation knew its roots, its heritage and Joshua's words. "It was a generation that had not chosen." It had stood very close to a choice, without ever taking a stand.

5. Choosing: how many loves are in your heart?

They say there is nothing harder in life than making a decision. To choose is to leave something behind. But choosing becomes the hardest thing in the world when the heart is not free, when it is divided among several loves and several passions, when it is pulled in every direction.
The rich young man was neither indifferent nor distracted. His question was a noble one: "Teacher, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" Jesus tells him to go and sell what he has, give it to the poor, and then follow him. That is where the crisis breaks out: "he went away sad, for he was one who had great possessions" (Matthew 19:16-22).
If the heart is fully consecrated to the Lord, choosing will not be difficult. Your question should not be: "Why is it so hard to choose?" It should be: "How many loves are there in my heart that do not leave me free to choose?"
This is what saved King David. He had the kingdom, authority, wealth and success. But at every crossroads in his life, he chose the presence of the Lord: "You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing" (Psalm 16:2). The preacher recalls a well-known hymn: turn your eyes upon Jesus, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.
The people had alternatives: the gods of the Amorites. So do we: our passions, sports, football. As a child, he found it heavy to be at church at 4:30 pm knowing that Inter was playing at the same time. "I didn't say Juve, otherwise, imagine." Then come children, career, relationships, commitments.
To choose, today, is to stand in front of a mirror. "If it is hard to choose, it means we have too many loves competing with the Lord for first place."

6. Today: a call that cannot be put off

Joshua does not rush the people and does not try to ride a wave of emotion. He even says, "If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh." Think it over, but when you choose, choose clearly and resolutely. It is a choice that cannot be postponed.
Too often, we think we can say: "Lord, thank you, I take what you have given me and put it in the drawer where I jealously keep the things of my life." When I see fit, I will take the next step. "That is not how it works with the Lord."
When Jesus calls Peter and Andrew, "they immediately left their nets and followed him" (Matthew 4:18-20). When he says to Matthew, sitting at the tax collector's booth, "Follow me," Matthew gets up and follows him (Matthew 9:9). There is a serious choice, but no pause.
"When were we granted the right to be a people who put off their answer to the Lord's calls?" In the Bible, there is a God who calls and a people who answer. It is not about following an emotion, "nothing would be more false or more useless". But if the Lord calls today, you must answer today.
At the Areopagus, some say to Paul: "We want to hear you concerning this yet again" (Acts 17:32). The governor Felix answers him: "Go your way for this time, and when it is convenient for me, I will summon you" (Acts 24:25). The Word says otherwise: "Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).
The preacher tells of the birth of his daughter, about a month earlier, in the night of September 16. Around 9:30 pm, they had to rush to the hospital, and she was born at 12:18 am. He stayed by his wife's side the whole time. During three quiet minutes, he ran to the restroom. When he came back, her water had broken and there were people all around the bed: "I missed everything in those three minutes."
"Life is made of moments." If Peter or Matthew had asked for time, the preacher does not know whether they would have lived those three wonderful years with Jesus.

7. Choose life

In Exodus 23:24-25, God had already given his instructions for the conquest: do not bow down to the gods of the peoples, overthrow them and break their statues, serve the Lord, who will bless the bread and the water and take sickness away. Everything had been planned, even this speech. Joshua does not ask the people whether they remember it: he asks them for the courage to make a choice.
Davide Laurora encourages you to ask God for a fresh anointing, to renew your covenant with him and your readiness to serve. And if you have not yet accepted Jesus as your personal Savior: "choose Christ". In a prayer, ask the Lord: "Lord, come into my heart."
He quotes Seneca: "There is no favorable wind for the sailor who does not know which port he wants to reach." Ask yourself what place you want to give God, what kind of believer you want to be, what company you want to keep, what spiritual depth and what closeness with God you are seeking.
"Don't wait for these things to come from who knows where. It takes the courage of a choice. Choose today the quality of your spiritual life."
He concludes with Deuteronomy 30:15-20: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants."
His prayer: that Shechem would no longer be only the land of the altars of Abraham and Jacob, but a place where our generation still raises new altars, to burn out its whole life there as an offering to God. It takes the courage of a choice.

Key takeaways

God has been faithful up to here, but remembering his faithfulness is not enough: from here on, it is up to you to choose.
Serving the Lord is not limited to a task. It means deciding on which altar you burn out your life.
Knowing your history and your spiritual roots does not replace a personal choice. A generation can stand close to the choice without ever taking a stand.
When choosing is hard, the real question is: how many loves are competing for first place in my heart?
When God calls today, the answer is given today, not put in a drawer for later.

Personal application

What blessing have you received recently that you put "in the drawer" instead of responding to it?
Which loves, passions or commitments are competing with the Lord for first place in your heart today?
Are you only standing close to the choice, or have you truly taken your stand to serve the Lord?
What spiritual heritage do you want to leave to those who come after you?
What concrete step is God asking you to take today for the quality of your spiritual life?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does "choose today whom you will serve" mean in Joshua 24?

For Davide Laurora, serving is not reduced to a task. It means choosing whom to follow, whom to honor and on which altar to burn out your life. Joshua is not speaking to a people who ignore God: he is asking a people who know him to take a stand and take their responsibilities. It is a matter of consecration.

Why does Joshua gather the people at Shechem?

Shechem is the place where God promised the land to Abraham and where Abraham built his first altar. Jacob also raised an altar there and buried the foreign gods there. It is the place of promise, worship and purification. Joshua draws a line there: up to here God has been faithful, from here on you must choose.

Why is it so hard to choose to serve God?

According to the preacher, choosing becomes the hardest thing when the heart is not free, when several loves pull it in different directions, as with the rich young man. The right question is not "why is it so hard?" but "how many loves in my heart keep me from choosing?"