God Wants All of Us

Joshua 23:14-16

[14] “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. [15] But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you, [16] if you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”

God is with us. We are his elect, his children. Let’s live life knowing that this is true. Wherever you are, whatever you will go through, he is there and will complete the good work he started in you. In the deepest valley, he is there. On the mountaintop, he is there. Our God reigns and he loves us so much that he wants all of us.

“When God calls, He will never call you to something that He will not enable you to do. God used Joshua also, and He assured him by saying, “You will lead the people to their inheritance. I assure you, you will be fruitful. You will be successful. You will lead the people into their inheritance because I am with you, because I will give you the victory, and because I am keeping my covenant promise that I made to Abram and to Moses. This sovereign God—as He elects, as He calls, as He equips, He also blesses. That is one of the great lessons from the book of Joshua.

In verse 16, we read, “Then all the people answered, ‘Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! It was the LORD our God himself who brought us up… We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.’” Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to. God is holy.” Evidently, their words sounded glib in Joshua’s ears, so Joshua challenged them and he reminded them in verse 19 that God is jealous. “He loves you. He loves you so much that He doesn’t want a half-hearted response. He doesn’t want token actions. He wants you totally and completely, and of yourself, you are not able to do this.” The people insisted, however, that they would, so Joshua said,“I guess what you are going to have to do is if you go to other gods, choose amongst the other gods.” Many people understand Joshua to be saying the choice is between between Yahweh, God, and idols. No, he says, “You have the command now to serve, love and obey God. If you refuse to do that, there are a whole lot of idol gods you can choose from.” The choice is not between God and idols. A disobedient people can make a lot of choices.” From a lecture by Dr. Gerard Van Groningen