Four years ago this Easter we first made this journey to a family wedding in Ingham. From Rockhampton on, it was all new ground. Two cars were in convoy, one of them with a small child. We weren't tourists, but family on the way to a destination. Our journey was governed by map and clock. There were many things we saw, yet didn't see. I recall that first-ever view of the Burdekin River - the mighty Burdekin with its expanse of sand! Towns like Home Hill and Ayr were points on the map - and an awareness that we still had a fair distance to go.
The road is becoming more familiar to us now. Various recognisable land-marks help to chart our way. Q-Mag's magnesium mine is visible in the distance. St Lawrence, a name familiar over many years from weather reports, is now a road sign - is it worth going down that road some time? Is there more to Carmila than the petrol station? We sometimes reflect that the strip of bitumen we drive on from Pine River north of Brisbane - the Bruce Highway - stretches out to mark the route all the way to Cairns, a distance of over 1800 kilometres!
A well-marked - and well-maintained - highway is great. You can go off on the interesting side roads. But stick to the highway and in time you will get to your destination.
Life is a bit like that. The Creator has set before us a grand highway of life. It isn't like a railway line. Along the way there are many good genuine choices we can make. We are people of choice.
Sadly it is also possible for us to make choices that lead us off the highway altogether - and end us up at the wrong destination. Whenever that happens, we are inclined to blame our forebears - some hereditary quirk or particular circumstances of family or society, or world events. Every generation and every person has their own set of "givens" - for good or ill. In many ways these shape us. Yet we are people of choice - we don't have to be determined by heredity or circumstance. All too often our "bent" is really quite warped.
When Moses died, Joshua became the new leader (Dt. 34.9). It was his task to lead the people into the Promised Land (Josh. 1.1-9). The Lord gave him strong and clear assurances, "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them" (vv. 5b,6).
But now Joshua is nearing the end. He gathers "all the tribes of Israel at Shechem" - especially "the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel" (24.1). He recalls how the hand of the Lord has been on their forebears from Abraham on. Now they have come into the settled life of the Promised Land (vv. 2-13).
With that kind of heritage - and with all the events of recent personal experience - faith in the Lord can surely be taken for granted! Have you ever thought that way? If only I had heard Jesus, seen his miracles, witnessed his resurrection... I could believe! But... have you never heard of the cross? never read about the persecutions?
For the Israelites, it was a time for taking stock, a time to consider their most basic choices. God may have chosen them, but had they chosen God? The chosen people have to become the choosing people. They believed in the Lord, yet still carried in the baggage (perhaps even literally!) the gods their forefathers had worshipped "beyond the River" - a reference to the Euphrates as the NIV footnote tells us and therefore pointing to the life in Ur which Abraham had left - "and in Egypt." They couldn't drift along on the basis of Abraham's faith. They would have to make a choice, a commitment of their own. Serving the Lord would involve renouncing the false so they could "serve the Lord with all faithfulness" (v. 14).
We do well to reflect on the gods of our age that we allow space in our thinking and living - alongside our belief in God. What are our false ideologies and value-systems? Do we allow the Lord - the God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - to be the central focus of our lives - the true interpretive and motivational point of all that we think and say and do?
Joshua is clear where he stands, "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" (v. 15c). How we need parents of strong and purposeful faith! It is true that each generation have to make their own choices and faith-commitments. Yet, again and again we see the positive choices flow through into succeeding generations. As Paul thought of young Timothy, it was so natural for him to recall the sincere faith of Timothy's grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice (2 Tim. 1.5).
Joshua presses the people. This isn't a light matter, calling for a spur-of-the-moment decision. Consider it carefully. God is a holy God. To be committed to him is to live under his expectations - or experience his judgment.
Joshua's words seem hard here. In Christ we see the Lord's grace to forgive our rebellion and our sins. Jesus prayed forgiveness for the leaders and people who had plotted his death (Lk. 23.34). He promised the dying criminal a place with him in paradise (23.43). Yet the New Testament has warnings too - warnings of the difficulty of restoring those who turn back from faith in Christ (Heb. 6.4-6).
But for all Joshua's warnings - "We will serve the Lord our God and obey him" (v. 24, also vv. 18,21).
The Bruce Highway is real. You can look at all day, study it, count the number of cars on it. You can get out your atlas and trace out its route. You can keep newspaper clippings of accidents on it and write letters of commendation to the Minister of Transport whenever action is taken to eliminate a "black spot". That is all true and proper "belief" - and you don't even have to take your car out of the garage.
Jesus calls us to belief in action - "where the rubber hits the road" as the saying has it. He calls us to a choice which will affect all the other choices we ever make, to a faith-commitment that will interpret life's experiences to us and motivate us into action.
The name "Jesus" is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name "Joshua". Faith is voluntary. Jesus knocks at the door (Rev. 3.20) - he doesn't batter it down! He invites, but doesn't coerce.
"Choose for yourselves whom you will serve... As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
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