“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
The Tree
Joshua speaks these words as a public, deliberate declaration, made near the end of his life, naming not only his own personal choice but his household’s direction as well. This closes the second movement of this book with the same kind of clear, spoken commitment every household eventually needs to make, deliberately, out loud, not merely by unspoken default.
Notice choose you this day comes first, an acknowledgment that other options genuinely exist, that serving the LORD is a real choice among real alternatives, not the only conceivable path anyone in Joshua’s audience could have taken. His own household’s direction is stated as deliberate choice, not automatic inheritance.
This second movement has walked through the hard, ongoing branch-work of actual daily parenting, correction, modeling, formation, all of it requiring exactly this kind of deliberate, sustained direction Joshua names here. Households do not accidentally end up serving the LORD. Someone, deliberately, chooses this day, and then keeps choosing it.
As this movement closes, make Joshua’s declaration your own, specifically, today. As for me and my house, whatever your house currently looks like, whoever is currently in it, choose deliberately, out loud if possible, to serve the LORD, not by unspoken default, but by genuine, repeated choice.
Tend the Tree
- Say some version of Joshua’s declaration to your household today, out loud.
- Notice one area where household direction has drifted by default rather than deliberate choice.
- Choose, deliberately, today, the direction Joshua chose for his own house.
Prayer
Lord, as for me and my house, we will serve you. Let this be deliberate choice, made again today, not merely unspoken inheritance or default. Amen.
Carry this today
Households do not drift into serving the LORD. Someone chooses it, deliberately.