Joshua 24:15

“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region 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."

I was working on memorising some verses, and this verse stood out to me. Now, this verse is usually not quoted in full, the last part of it seeming to suffice – “as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” And indeed, us serving the LORD is the most important, and teaching those in our care to serve Him too runs close behind.

But this verse says more than that. It speaks of the unbeliever, and the “modern” unbeliever at that.

“Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.”

Choose what type of false gods you will serve, if you will not serve the true and living God. Choose between those of past and those of the new land. Choose between them. And though there is not much difference in actuality, you can choose your false deities.

Which brings me to the modern unbeliever. And just how much this verse applies to them.

Spirituality is on a high. Many young people today – and even older people – acknowledge the reality of there being more than just the material world. But because they do not want to serve Jesus, they turn away from Him, and choose to serve someone else. Either the false gods of their fathers, or the false gods of those who inhabit the land.

One of the major types of false spirituality is that of the past errors of the European world. Modern day witches (“white witches” or “green witches” mostly) abound. Druidism is a revived religion after having died out over 1500 years ago. Tales of the faerie are popular, believed in, and their guidance and protection is sought with rituals and offerings. And who can go past the popular interest in those cleaned up images of vampires and werewolves as epitomised in Twilight and a whole host of books, TV shows and movies designed to make the most of this craze.

But there is another choice. That of the new land. And a lot of people choose those gods. Westerners, those whose culture knew the true and living God, have turned to chase after not only their own failed “spirituality”, but the “spirituality” of the far East (of Buddhism and Hinduism), of the warm and fuzzy connections between the land and animals and people of native religions (such as following the Dreamtime stories of the Australian Aborigines or the shamanism of the Native Americans).

I know people who have gone both ways. I have friends and a family member who have become “white witches”. I have friends who have become Buddhists. I have other friends who have become devotees of a particular sect of Hinduism.

There will always be those to whom serving the LORD seems undesirable, even evil. Many of those people will still want a source of “spirituality” in their life. But that is not our primary concern. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. We will serve Him even though those around us walk away from Him. We will serve Him even when those around us think we are crazy, and throwing our lives away. We will serve Him, and we will bring up those after us to serve Him.

As for me and my house, we WILL serve the LORD.