Joshua 24:15 Study Bible: If it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

◄ Joshua 24:15 ►

But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!"

Study Bible

But if it is unpleasing to you
This phrase sets the stage for a choice, highlighting the freedom and responsibility given to the Israelites. The Hebrew word for "unpleasing" (רַע, ra) can also mean "evil" or "bad," suggesting a moral dimension to the decision. Joshua is addressing the people's hearts, urging them to consider their values and priorities. Historically, this moment comes after the Israelites have settled in the Promised Land, a time when they must decide whom they will serve amidst the surrounding pagan cultures.

to serve the LORD
The Hebrew word for "serve" (עָבַד, avad) implies worship, labor, and devotion. Serving the LORD is not merely a ritualistic act but a comprehensive lifestyle of obedience and reverence. The LORD (יהוה, Yahweh) is the covenant name of God, reminding the Israelites of His faithfulness and the covenant relationship established with their forefathers. This service is contrasted with the idolatry of the surrounding nations, emphasizing exclusive loyalty to Yahweh.

then choose for yourselves this day
The call to "choose" (בָּחַר, bachar) underscores the personal responsibility and urgency of the decision. "This day" indicates the immediacy of the choice, reflecting the biblical theme that today is the day of decision and action. The Israelites are at a crossroads, and Joshua is urging them to make a definitive commitment.

whom you will serve
This phrase presents the options before the Israelites. The choice is not between serving and not serving, but between whom they will serve. It acknowledges the inherent human inclination to worship and serve something or someone, whether it be God or idols. The historical context is crucial here, as the Israelites are surrounded by nations with various deities, each vying for their allegiance.

whether the gods your fathers served
This refers to the gods worshiped by the ancestors of the Israelites before Abraham's call, possibly including the deities of Mesopotamia. It serves as a reminder of the past from which God called Abraham, highlighting the transformative journey from idolatry to monotheism. The mention of "fathers" connects the present generation with their heritage, urging them to break from any lingering idolatrous traditions.

beyond the Euphrates
The Euphrates River is a geographical marker, representing the region from which Abraham was called. It symbolizes the old life and the pagan practices left behind. This reference serves as a reminder of God's call to Abraham to leave his homeland and follow the one true God, setting a precedent for the Israelites to forsake foreign gods.

or the gods of the Amorites
The Amorites were one of the prominent Canaanite tribes inhabiting the land before the Israelites. Their gods represented the immediate cultural and religious influences surrounding the Israelites. This phrase highlights the temptation to conform to the prevailing cultural norms and religious practices of the land they now inhabit.

in whose land you are living
This emphasizes the current context and the reality of living among people with different beliefs. The Israelites are reminded that they are sojourners in a land filled with idolatry, and they must consciously choose to remain distinct and faithful to Yahweh.

As for me and my house
Joshua's declaration is personal and familial, indicating his leadership role not only as a national leader but also as the head of his household. The phrase "my house" suggests that his decision impacts his entire family, emphasizing the importance of spiritual leadership within the family unit.

we will serve the LORD
This is a definitive and public commitment to Yahweh. Joshua's use of "we" includes his family in this covenant, setting an example for the Israelites. The phrase encapsulates the essence of faithfulness and dedication to God, serving as a model for the community. Joshua's resolve reflects the biblical principle of choosing to serve God wholeheartedly, regardless of the choices of others.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Joshua
The leader of Israel after Moses, who led the Israelites into the Promised Land. He is delivering his farewell address to the people of Israel in this passage.

2. The Israelites
The people of God who have settled in the Promised Land. They are being called to make a decisive choice about whom they will serve.

3. The LORD (Yahweh)
The one true God of Israel, who delivered them from Egypt and gave them the Promised Land.

4. The gods beyond the Euphrates
Refers to the deities worshiped by the ancestors of the Israelites before God called Abraham.

5. The gods of the Amorites
The local deities of the land of Canaan, where the Israelites now reside.

Teaching Points

The Necessity of Choice
Every believer must make a conscious decision about whom they will serve. Neutrality is not an option in spiritual matters.

The Influence of Culture
Just as the Israelites were surrounded by foreign gods, Christians today face cultural pressures that can lead them away from God. We must be vigilant in our commitment.

Leadership in the Home
Joshua's declaration, "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD," highlights the importance of spiritual leadership within the family.

Legacy of Faith
The decision to serve the LORD impacts not only the individual but also future generations. Our choices today can set a precedent for those who come after us.

Faithfulness in Adversity
Serving the LORD may not always be easy or popular, but it is a commitment that requires steadfastness, especially in challenging times.

Bible Study Questions

1. What are some modern "gods" or idols that compete for our allegiance today, and how can we recognize them in our lives?

2. How does Joshua's leadership and decision to serve the LORD inspire you in your personal walk with God and in leading others?

3. In what ways can you ensure that your household is committed to serving the LORD, and what practical steps can you take to foster this environment?

4. How do the cultural influences around you challenge your commitment to God, and what strategies can you employ to remain faithful?

5. Reflect on a time when you had to make a difficult choice to serve God over other interests. What was the outcome, and how did it strengthen your faith?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Exodus 20:3-5
The first commandment emphasizes the exclusivity of worshiping the LORD, which aligns with Joshua's call to choose whom to serve.

1 Kings 18:21
Elijah's challenge to the Israelites to choose between God and Baal mirrors Joshua's call for a decision.

Matthew 6:24
Jesus' teaching that one cannot serve two masters connects to the choice Joshua presents between serving God or other gods.

Romans 12:1-2
The call to present oneself as a living sacrifice and not conform to the world echoes the commitment Joshua demands.

Sermons

A Fated Decision	J. Robertson.	Joshua 24:15
An Honourable Servitude	G. E. Reed.	Joshua 24:15
Betweenites	Spurgeon, Charles Haddon	Joshua 24:15
Choice and Decision	W.F. Adeney	Joshua 24:15
Choose God Now -- a Sermon to Children	A. Maclaren, D. D.	Joshua 24:15
Concerning Family Religion	Abp. Tillotson.	Joshua 24:15
Concerning Resolution and Steadfastness in Religion	Abp. Tillotson.	Joshua 24:15
Decision for God	Dr. Pentecost.	Joshua 24:15
Decision for the Lord	Spurgeon, Charles Haddon	Joshua 24:15
God's Service as A, Choice	J. M. Sherwood, D. D.	Joshua 24:15
Hindrances to Home Religion	J. L. Withrow, D. D.	Joshua 24:15
Historical and Family Religion	Canon Diggle.	Joshua 24:15
Joshua's Choice	Bp. Horne.	Joshua 24:15
Joshua's Permission and Determination	H. Melvill, B. D.	Joshua 24:15
Joshua's Proposition and Resolution	J. Jortin, D. D.	Joshua 24:15
Joshua's Resolution	Essex Congregational Remembrancer	Joshua 24:15
Joshua's Resolution to Serve the Lord	R. Hall, M. A.	Joshua 24:15
Moral Masterhoods	Homilist	Joshua 24:15
National Religion	Archbp. Tillotson.	Joshua 24:15
On Choosing the Service of God	J. Hawes, D. D.	Joshua 24:15
Our Choice	W. Birch.	Joshua 24:15
Promptitude of Choice Recommended	Sketches of Sermons	Joshua 24:15
Reasons for Choosing God's Service	The Pulpit	Joshua 24:15
Religion Founded on Reason and the Right of Private Judgm	James Foster.	Joshua 24:15
Religion Voluntary, Personal, Powerful	Evan Lewis, B. A.	Joshua 24:15
Serving the Lord	W. E. Knox, D. D.	Joshua 24:15
The Charities of the Christian Household	Dean Alford.	Joshua 24:15
The Christian Household	Dean Afford.	Joshua 24:15
The Christian's Choice	A. Thomson, D. D.	Joshua 24:15
The Cloister of Grapes; Or, Family Prayer	J. C. Hare, M. A.	Joshua 24:15
The Evil and Danger of Fickleness in Religion	Archbp. Secker.	Joshua 24:15
The Mutual Duties of the Family	Dean Alford.	Joshua 24:15
The Only Alternative	Joseph Sommerville.	Joshua 24:15
We Should Think About the Religions Welfare of Others	W. Francis.	Joshua 24:15
Who Will Volunteer?		Joshua 24:15
The Renewal of the Covenant	E. De Pressense	Joshua 24:1-22
Dying Charges	W. E. Knox, D. D.	Joshua 24:1-33
Joshua's Last Appeal	W. G. Blaikie, D. D.	Joshua 24:1-33
Joshua's Last Farewell	G. W. Butler, M. A.	Joshua 24:1-33
A Rightful Choice Urged	S.R. Aldridge	Joshua 24:14, 15
The Great Appeal	R. Glover	Joshua 24:14, 15
The Grand Choice	J. Waite	Joshua 24:14-16
An Address to Image-Worshippers	W. Seaton.	Joshua 24:14-29
Joshua, and His Zest for the Service of the Lord	G. Woolnough.	Joshua 24:14-29
Marks of Being Sincerely Religious	G. Cart, B. A.	Joshua 24:14-29
The Last Days of Joshua	Sermons by the Monday Club	Joshua 24:14-29

People

Aaron, Amorites, Balaam, Balak, Beor, Canaanites, Egyptians, Eleazar, Esau, Girgashite, Girgashites, Hamor, Hittites, Hivite, Hivites, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jebusites, Joseph, Joshua, Nachor, Nahor, Nun, Perizzites, Phinehas, Seir, Serah, Terah, Zippor

Places

Canaan, Egypt, Euphrates River, Gaash, Gibeah, Jericho, Jordan River, Moab, Red Sea, Seir, Shechem, Timnath-serah

Topics

Across, Amorite, Amorites, Beyond, Choose, Decision, Disagreeable, Dwell, Dwelling, Evil, Fathers, Flood, Forefathers, Gods, Household, Region, River, Seem, Seemeth, Seems, Servants, Serve, Served, Serving, Sight, To-day, Undesirable, Unwilling, Whether, Wrong, Yourselves

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Joshua 24:15

     5020   human nature
     5218   authority, in home
     6622   choice
     6663   freedom, of will
     8410   decision-making, examples
     8462   priority, of God
     8723   doubt, results of
     8799   polytheism

Joshua 24:14-15

     1349   covenant, at Sinai
     6628   conversion, God's demand
     8223   dedication
     8251   faithfulness, to God
     8401   challenges
     8702   agnosticism
     8831   syncretism

Joshua 24:14-23

5541 society, negative

Joshua 24:14-24

7160 servants of the Lord
8466 reformation

Joshua 24:14-27

8145 renewal, people of God

Library

February the Tenth Registering a Verdict
"The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey." --JOSHUA xxiv. 22-28. Here was a definite decision. Our peril is that we spend our life in wavering and we never decide. We are like a jury which is always hearing evidence and never gives a verdict. We do much thinking, but we never make up our minds. We let our eyes wander over many things, but we make no choice. Life has no crisis, no culmination. Now people who never decide spend their days in hoping to do so. But this kind of life …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

A Summary of Israel's Faithlessness and God's Patience
'And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. 2. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? 3. Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Jesus Sets Out from Judæa for Galilee.
Subdivision B. At Jacob's Well, and at Sychar. ^D John IV. 5-42. ^d 5 So he cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 and Jacob's well was there. [Commentators long made the mistake of supposing that Shechem, now called Nablous, was the town here called Sychar. Sheckem lies a mile and a half west of Jacob's well, while the real Sychar, now called 'Askar, lies scarcely half a mile north of the well. It was a small town, loosely called …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Meditations for Household Piety.
1. If thou be called to the government of a family, thou must not hold it sufficient to serve God and live uprightly in thy own person, unless thou cause all under thy charge to do the same with thee. For the performance of this duty God was so well pleased with Abraham, that he would not hide from him his counsel: "For," saith God, "I know him that he will command his sons and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

The Promise to the Patriarchs.
A great epoch is, in Genesis, ushered in with the history of the time of the Patriarchs. Luther says: "This is the third period in which Holy Scripture begins the history of the Church with a new family." In a befitting manner, the representation is opened in Gen. xii. 1-3 by an account of the first revelation of God, given to Abraham at Haran, in which the way is opened up for all that follows, and in which the dispensations of God are brought before us in a rapid survey. Abraham is to forsake …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
"So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:12). In our last chapter we considered at some length the much debated and difficult question of the human will. We have shown that the will of the natural man is neither Sovereign nor free but, instead, a servant and slave. We have argued that a right conception of the sinner's will-its servitude-is essential to a just estimate of his depravity and ruin. The utter corruption and degradation of human nature is something which …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

And for Your Fearlessness against them Hold this Sure Sign -- Whenever There Is...
43. And for your fearlessness against them hold this sure sign--whenever there is any apparition, be not prostrate with fear, but whatsoever it be, first boldly ask, Who art thou? And from whence comest thou? And if it should be a vision of holy ones they will assure you, and change your fear into joy. But if the vision should be from the devil, immediately it becomes feeble, beholding your firm purpose of mind. For merely to ask, Who art thou [1083] ? and whence comest thou? is a proof of coolness. …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

Covenanting Performed in Former Ages with Approbation from Above.
That the Lord gave special token of his approbation of the exercise of Covenanting, it belongs to this place to show. His approval of the duty was seen when he unfolded the promises of the Everlasting Covenant to his people, while they endeavoured to perform it; and his approval thereof is continually seen in his fulfilment to them of these promises. The special manifestations of his regard, made to them while attending to the service before him, belonged to one or other, or both, of those exhibitions …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The First Commandment
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' Exod 20: 3. Why is the commandment in the second person singular, Thou? Why does not God say, You shall have no other gods? Because the commandment concerns every one, and God would have each one take it as spoken to him by name. Though we are forward to take privileges to ourselves, yet we are apt to shift off duties from ourselves to others; therefore the commandment is in the second person, Thou and Thou, that every one may know that it is spoken to him, …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Moses and his Writings
[Illustration: (drop cap W) Clay letter tablet of Moses' time.] We now begin to understand a little of the very beginning of God's Book--of the times in which it was written, the materials used by its first author, and the different kinds of writing from which he had to choose; but we must go a step farther. How much did Moses know about the history of his forefathers, Abraham and Jacob, and of all the old nations and kings mentioned in Genesis, before God called him to the great work of writing …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

"The Carnal Mind is Enmity against God for it is not Subject to the Law of God, Neither Indeed Can Be. So Then they that Are
Rom. viii. s 7, 8.--"The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." It is not the least of man's evils, that he knows not how evil he is, therefore the Searcher of the heart of man gives the most perfect account of it, Jer. xvii. 12. "The heart is deceitful above all things," as well as "desperately wicked," two things superlative and excessive in it, bordering upon an infiniteness, such …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Gen. xxxi. 11
Of no less importance and significance is the passage Gen. xxxi. 11 seq. According to ver. 11, the Angel of God, [Hebrew: mlaK halhiM] appears toJacob in a dream. In ver. 13, the same person calls himself the God of Bethel, with reference to the event recorded in chap. xxviii. 11-22. It cannot be supposed that in chap xxviii. the mediation of a common angel took place, who, however, had not been expressly mentioned; for Jehovah is there contrasted with the angels. In ver. 12, we read: "And behold …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Manner of Covenanting.
Previous to an examination of the manner of engaging in the exercise of Covenanting, the consideration of God's procedure towards his people while performing the service seems to claim regard. Of the manner in which the great Supreme as God acts, as well as of Himself, our knowledge is limited. Yet though even of the effects on creatures of His doings we know little, we have reason to rejoice that, in His word He has informed us, and in His providence illustrated by that word, he has given us to …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Joshua
The book of Joshua is the natural complement of the Pentateuch. Moses is dead, but the people are on the verge of the promised land, and the story of early Israel would be incomplete, did it not record the conquest of that land and her establishment upon it. The divine purpose moves restlessly on, until it is accomplished; so "after the death of Moses, Jehovah spake to Joshua," i. 1. The book falls naturally into three divisions: (a) the conquest of Canaan (i.-xii.), (b) the settlement of the …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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