Joshua 24:15 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Having freshly seen their Almighty God delivering them into the Land of Promise and defeating all their adversaries; at that moment, the Children of Israel were resolved to “serve the LORD”! But, as they settled into security and abundant provision, their resolve began to fade. Their carnal minds began to notice the sensual and exciting things that other people were doing as they worshiped their gods. The truth about other gods is that they are not gods at all; but, they are the fabrications of men designed the satisfy their carnal lusts. The devil knows about our carnal nature to lust after such things, and he deftly places them before us to entice us to turn from God to idols. Our adversary, the devil, knows how such things as music and sensuality and material joys can be used to draw us away to fill our lusts. As time went on, “the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god” (Judges 8:33) as well as other gods; all to satisfy their carnal lusts. “And the children of Israel remembered not the LORD their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side:” (Judges 8:34); what followed was misery and mayhem. Now, the cycle continues; once again, the gods of carnal lust and human comfort are rising up to draw people away from obedient service to God. A god is anything that we allow to get between us and our worshipful service to the true God. The gods are on the rise; so, let us immediately get rid of the worthless moment of silence and replace it with hours of worshipful PRAYER. Let us pray for wisdom and strength to “be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58); for, “it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few” (I Samuel 14:6)!