Many Peoples, Many Gods

 Read Genesis 10

There are a lot of people named in this chapter.  We don’t know how many daughters were born during this time, but surely about the same as there were sons.

But in this culture, at this time, people focused on the sons.  Even when Jesus came, a man’s name often included the name of his father.  Do you remember Simon Bar-Jonah?  That’s how Jesus addressed Simon who would be called Peter after he professed Jesus as the Christ.

The link from father to son was an integral part of Hebrew society.

What is not included in this chapter is that most of these named people fathered lines of people who made up their own god or gods as they filled the world. They did not carry the name of the one true God with them.  They made up their own.

God’s own people would live in the lands where false gods were worshiped. The world did not know the one true God.

Let’s turn the clock ahead a few centuries to that pagan world and remember the story of God’s people.

Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.

Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.

‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.

“‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you.  But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.

 “‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’

 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

We say those last words almost every Sunday, but do we realize that we have false gods all around us?

Hold on.  I haven’t seen a temple for a false god anywhere.  I don’t see signs on the highway calling me to worship Baal.  What false gods?

Here’s a big one:  Money and its first cousin—stuff.  We want the abundance of things in this world.  The good news for us is that God tells us if we truly seek him, he will also give us many of the things that the godless people have made into their gods.

Here’s another one:  Fame.  I don’t know too many famous people, but I do like attention.  I like it when my post gets 1000 likes or my tik tok video goes viral.  We like people to like us and make us feel good.  Sometimes it’s ok.  Sometimes, we like it more than we want God.  That’s when it’s become a false god.

How about idols and icons?  Only in America could we have a television show called American Idol and not think twice about it.  How about idolizing a football player or an actress or a rock star?

We can enjoy sports, have a favorite team, and even like a particular artist more than others, but once they take center stage in our lives, they are coming dangerously close to being a false god.

America is so materially blessed that even when we complain about inflation and the economy, we have more than most people will ever know.  We are spoiled when it comes to blessings.  Sadly, we often forget the One who has blessed us and make the things with which we have been blessed into our gods.

How do we not do this?

Again, we look to Joshua.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

If we will seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness, God will be with us wherever we go.  We don’t have to look for divine guidance in the world that we go into—we bring God with us.  His Spirit lives within us.  We are never alone.

That’s not the way the story unfolds as we go through Genesis.  For most of the people of the earth—you just read about the first few generations—they would seek or make or worship other gods.

Remember, that we gather here each Sunday and do our best to live each day to the glory of God because of one line of people who brought the one true God with them wherever they went.

Sure, they messed up a bunch, but God was always present.

Be familiar with the generations, but know the one true God who is faithful through all generations.

Amen.

Day One or One Day?

Joshua 24:1-15

Joshua has led God’s Chosen People into the Promised Land.  It was victory after victory and God was making it easier than it should have been.  We are told God sent the hornet before them.  I don’t know if these were literally hornets preceding the infantry attack or just an overwhelming spirit of fear, but these were good days to be God’s people.

Some of you know what it’s like when you win a football game and you just own the other team.  Multiply that by a thousand and know what it’s like to overwhelm an enemy and stand victorious.

Joshua felt it important to remind God’s people of their history.  He takes them all the way back to Abraham and his father, Terah, who was an Armenian and worshiped other gods.  But God called them out of that land.

Then we see the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Esau.  Esau’s people lived in the hill country.  Jacob’s line went to Egypt as his son, Joseph, rose to power and saved much of the world from famine.

Then there came a king in Egypt who did not remember Joseph and what he had done for the Egyptian people and God’s Chosen People were turned into slaves for over 400 years.

God heard their cries and sent Moses and Aaron to bring them out of captivity.  It wasn’t an easy job because the Egyptians insisted on doing everything the hard way.  Read Exodus for more on the plagues.  

But they came out with great possessions but hardly ready to receive what God had in store for them so they wandered 40 years in the wilderness.

But then the day came, when they would enter the Promised Land.  Joshua would lead them.  Tribes and nations would fold before them.  The wall of Jericho came tumbling down but the fear of God’s people had already infected anyone who thought they might fight to hold on to this land.

And so we come to this point in the story and Joshua has gathered all of the leaders of the people at Shechem.  He reviewed this history lesson with them.  It is still fresh on the minds of these people everything that God has done for them.  They have seen first hand the land promised to them long ago delivered.  It was theirs.

So Joshua issued a challenge.  He challenges us today as well.

Choose this day whom you will serve.

If you don’t think it should be the one true God, then choose a fake god.  You have seen the power of almighty God, but if that doesn’t suit your fancy, go with one of the fake ones.   It’s sort of like you have seen all of the evidence of what the Lord God Almighty can do but if you want to go make a god out of stone or wood, then nobody can say it better than Forrest Gump—Mamma always said, stupid is as stupid does.

But Joshua unequivocally states, as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.  As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

Say that a few times.  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

That should take care of us all, right?

Here is the deal.  We are creatures of habit.  If we do something 3 or 4 times, we start forming habits.  Do it 25 times and it’s a habit.  Let’s say 100 times, well, that’s a hard habit to break.

Some of you are being brought up with good habits.  The Proverb (22:6) says bring up a child in the way he or she should go and later on they will not depart from it.  It doesn’t mean that there won’t be some struggles sticking with the good habits but eventually, they will return and stay the course.

So, some of you are being brought up in the way you should go and some of you think all of this is a foreign language.  Man, I just don’t get all of this.

God’s Spirit is working on you and you know you need him, but you were not brought up this way.

For others, they have been learning worship and giving and love for each other for years.  Some of it seems new to you.  Much of it is not practiced in your household.

What do you do?

Choose this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house we serve the Lord.

Start saying, as for me and my house we serve the Lord.

You might be thinking, I don’ get to decide what the rest of my family does.  How can I say this?

Understand that as for me is a decision for you to live out today.

And my house is a commitment for your future.  One day it will be your responsibility to bring up your children in the way they should go.

Have you seen the little slogan that shows up on a lot of memes?  I love it.  

It says Day One or One Day?

Day one?

One day?

Commitment or procrastination?

I challenge you to make this Day One and commit yourselves to the Lord, but to remember that one day you will know the fullness of this commitment that you have made for yourself today.

Let’s use these words to help.

As for me and my house, we serve the Lord.

Amen!