“Joshua Renews the Covenant” Joshua 24: 1-26

 As a pastor, I am honored to be invited into people’s homes. I am also someone who admires beautiful art in folks homes, especially things that are homemade. There is always a story behind them. Is believe me when I tell you that there was an era when folks made beautiful wall hangings often by counted cross stitch that were one of two things: either the ten commandments or a verse from today’s scripture lesson that says “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The problem is that as powerful as that verse is, we sometimes don’t know why Joshua is saying that or how we got to this profound moment. See today’s scripture lesson - its a fulfillment of a promise. And not just any promise - but the promise of God that has stretched over generations of people. 

Way back in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we find God calling Abram to leave his family and homeland to go to a place that God would show him. And if he trusted God in doing so, then God would make a covenantal promise with him - to give him a land to call his own and more descendants than the stars in the sky or sand on the seashore. 

That promise wasn’t fulfilled in Abram’s time. He was blessed with Isaac, but not countless children. He also didn’t have land to call his own beyond the burial cave for himself and Sarah. 

But God is faithful to his promises. 

And Isaac had children - two of whom we know well - twins, Jacob and Esau. Only they became estranged from one another over a birthright and a blessing. Jacob ran away to another land for safety, where he ended up with thirteen children, including twelve sons. But even though through Jacob the number of descendants started to expand, he, too, did not have a land to call his own. In fact, he spent his later years in Egypt escaping famine. It wasn’t until his death that his body was carried back to the land he once knew. 

But God is faithful to his promises. 

It was one of Jacob’s son’s, Joseph, who helped spare the land of Egypt from the immensity of the famine sweeping over so many peoples and lands. But after he died, the people of Egypt forgot about Joseph and his God. It got to the point, where the God of Jospeh was no longer revered and the Israelites were taken into slavery. But God would not leave them in that position. He raised up Moses to take his people out of Egypt and into the land promised once to Abraham. A land flowing with milk and honey. 

But the people had some severe doubts along the way. They started to quarrel with Moses that they should go back to Egypt - not remembering their captivity or how they cried out to God to save them. As a result, a whole generation perished in the wilderness as they wandered for forty years. 

But God is faithful to his promises. 

When Moses time as the leader of the Israelites was drawing to a close, God raised up Joshua, son of Nun, to lead them into the promise land. And now, today is that day. And lest they are apt to forget how faithful God has been to them, Joshua tells them their story. The story tracing back to when this promise of God was first made with Abraham. The whole way down to them, standing on this threshold. 

But Joshua doesn’t just let them boldly enter, claiming the promise of God. He asks them what their response will be. Will they serve their God who has been so faithful to them, throughout the ages? This is the moment when Joshua declares that he and his household will serve God alone. 

As I was sitting with this text this week, the following stanza from the hymn “O God Our Help in Ages Past” came to mind: O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home. Joshua is trying to get the people to truly see and respond to the fact that it was God that brought them this far. If not for God, where would they be? Still in the wilderness? Still in Egypt? 

Joshua wants the people to truly understand that this moment - this is the culminating work of God. Not their work. Not their victory. God’s alone. God who took the family of Abram and transformed them into his people alone. And from that moment, it has been God who has been the main actor in their story. And any pretense where they would try to claim that they made this journey by their own strength - well, that would be false. 

And once they recognize that what could they do but serve God alone? Because no one deserves to be served more than the Lord. Because no one has been faithful like their God. So no one should be glorified more than God alone. 

Friends, we do not often hear many texts preached from the book of Joshua, and as a result, we can miss out. We can miss out on the story of our God who keeps his promises in awesome ways. 

You can tell a lot about what promises people hold to as true by the story they tell. And the story we tell, well, it can also reveal how quickly we are are prone to forget the promises of God. Are we telling the story of our God who has saved us? Do we proclaim the story who has been working for our salvation throughout ages and generations? Or do we get caught up in the story of the world that is a whole lot more about us than it is about God?

And do we proclaim that our God keeps his promise that we understand when sometimes those promises do not get fulfilled in our lifetime? Do we trust God enough to keep moving, keep praying, for the generations to come? Do we live in such a way where we step into the belief that the prayers we are praying here and now today will be born to completeness in God’s timing? Not ours - but God’s.

When Joshua stood on the cusp of the promise land and told the people their story - he was declaring that our God is able. When he reaffirmed for them the decrees and laws - he was lifting high the name of God. And when he declared that he and his house would serve the Lord - well that was him glorifying God’s name, not just with his lips but how he was living his life - as an act of trust and obedience. 

What about us, church? Are we the people going forth to stand firm in the promises of God? Are we the people who are living our lives for the glory of God? Are we the people trusting God in all times and places? Let it be so. Amen.