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Bible Study �?Joshua

12 of 12 Studies

"The Power of God’s Promises"

Study 12: Who Will Serve the Lord?

1. God gives us the ability to make choices. What are some of the inherent benefits and dangers of making choices?

Throughout the book of Joshua, the Lord has demonstrated his faithfulness and his power. Every promise he made is fulfilled; every battle he fought was won. Now at the conclusion of the book he asks Israel and us to reaffirm the most important decision of our lives: "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve."

2. Read Joshua 24:1-13. Why do you think the Lord recounts Israel’s history from beginning to end?

3. How would you briefly summarize your own spiritual history?

4. Read Joshua 24: 14-33. Joshua and the Israelites repeat the word serve thirteen times in verses 14-27. Why is this a good word to describe our duty to God?

5. Why might serving the Lord seem undesirable to the Israelites (v.15)?

6. Joshua asks Israel to choose whom they will serve (v.15). What choices do you have about whom to serve?

7. Why doesn’t Joshua accept the Israelites�?first pledge to serve the Lord (v. 19)?

8. In what ways is serving the Lord difficult for you?

9. What makes Him (the Lord) worthwhile?

10. What is the purpose of the witnesses mentioned in verse 22 and 27?

11. If you have made the decision to serve the Lord, who or what acts as the witness to that decision?

12. What have you appreciated most about the book of Joshua?

13. In what ways has it challenged you to trust and obey God more fully?

When God created us, he created a mind and soul that we were able to think, love, cry, feel joy, feel pain, and choose. God is not a forceful God. He does force himself on us. God has already beat Satan at his game and he will never win our soul unless we allow him to or chose to serve our adversary.

God allows tribulation in our lives and tells us that we must endure must tribulation before we can enter the kingdom of heaven. In other words, Satan is not going to let it be an easy trip for us because that is exactly what his plans are, to trip us so that we will fall. And you know, we are all going to fall at one time or another, but we have to choose to get back up, dust ourselves off and keep going. In Acts 27:10 Paul says: "I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives." In verse 31 he says, "Paul , Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." But read what happened in V. 40-44,

40 And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore.
⁴¹   And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
⁴²   And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
⁴³   But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land:
⁴⁴   And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.

I like this story. It speaks to me that when I get to heaven I may get there by just a broken piece, but I got there because I kept fighting. I kept praying, I kept my faith, I stayed in church, I paid my tithes when I didn't know how I was going to pay my electric bill, I witnessed to someone who didn't want to hear it. Anyone, everyone, if we just grab a piece of what God has for us there is no telling what we can accomplish. Like the scriptures says, much, oh much tribulation will come our way, but we must keep our feet planted in God and his word if we are to make it to heaven--But, It's our Choice...

Amen!! Sister Mary. God doesn't want to force Himself on us, and He will not force Himself on us!! God gave us "choice" from day one,,from our birth. What we do with this choice is up to us.

He will forever stand by us and love us, like He promised. He want try and make us stand by Him or love Him either..Everything we do or don't do in our lives is our choice. We can choose to or not to serve Him, BUT, if we "choose" not to serve Him, then we will never lay eyes on Him!

There is so much wisdom to be learned from this study of the book of Joshua. The key thing to learn is LOVE ever lasting. It took me over half of my life to realize that LOVE is a "Choice."

Wheater that love is for God or man. I knew to love God, because my mother taught me that. But I didn't learn until a few years back that love in a relationship is a choice on both persons. You can love a person with all your being, rank them right up top next to God. And that person can choice to love you, but they can also choose to stop loving you, and therein, lies the difference! You can not make that person love you! They've made their choice and the relationship over.

But with God, His love is true, it is forever!! He made that choice when He created you. He wants us to love Him the same way or as much. Like Joshua did. Joshua choose to love God and obey Him, even when he felt that he was loosing the battle, But Joshua chose to continue to love God and keep his faith in God---Therein, lies the Victory!! Hallelujah!!!

@Verses 15-28 Joshua puts them to their choice; Choose you whom ye will serve, now the matter is laid plainly before you. He resolves to do this, whatever others did. Those that are bound for heaven, must be willing to swim against the stream. They must not do as the most do, but as the best do. And no one can behave himself as he ought in any station, who does not deeply consider his religious duties in family relations. . They must come off from all confidence in their own sufficiency, else their purposes would be in vain. The service of God being made their deliberate choice, Joshua binds them to it by a solemn covenant. He set up a monument of it. In this affecting manner Joshua took his last leave of them; if they perished, their blood would be upon their own heads.

Verses 29-33 Joseph died in Egypt, but gave commandment concerning his bones, that they should not rest in their grave till Israel had rest in the land of promise. Notice also the death and burial of Joshua, and of Eleazar the chief priest. The most useful men, having served their generation, according to the will of God, one after another, fall asleep and see corruption. But Jesus, having spent and ended his life on earth more effectually than either Joshua or Joseph, rose from the dead, and saw no corruption. And the redeemed of the Lord shall inherit the kingdom he prepared for them from the foundation of the world. They will say in admiration of the grace of Jesus, Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Forgive me for being so slow in posting the summery, I had it all ready to post this past weekend, when a "Pop-up" storm knocked the lights out and I lost it. I’m just now getting time to re-do it. I have truly enjoyed both of your replies to Joshua Chapter 24…There is a lot of wisdom in what you have said, I have learned so much from the two of you.

Summary: The purpose of chapter 24 is to reaffirm our commitment to serve the Lord. Background: This is the second time Joshua has assembled Israel at Shechem to renew the covenant (see 8:30-35. Like Moses, it is his last official act as Israel’s leader (see the book of Deuteronomy).

Question 2. The Lord is reminding Israel that he has been faithful to his part of the covenant. Israel owes him their existence as a nation. It is not uncommon for the authors of Scripture to tell us all God has done for us before asking us to do anything for him (see Romans 1-5 and Eph. 1-3).

Question 3. This is an important question; after all, Joshua summarized centuries of history in only four paragraphs!

Question 4. The word serve or servant is used "as the humble person’s description of himself in the presence of his God. It acknowledges the lowly status of the speaker, the total claim of God upon a member of the people he has elected, and a corresponding confidence in commitment of God, who will vindicate His servant."

Question 7. The Israelites are confident of their ability to serve the Lord, and say so four times in this chapter (vv. 16, 18, 21, 24). Joshua, however, knows the sinfulness of human nature. The book of Judges and Israel’s subsequent history, show that Joshua was right.

Question 10-11. These questions bring up the subject of accountability. We are accountable to God for our decisions and commitments we have made.

Since this is the final study of the book of Joshua, it is important to review what we’ve studied. The main focus in this study is on God’s faithfulness to keep His promises and what we can learn from Israel’s example as they entered and conquered the Promised Land. We have learned that we can count on God to keep His promises. God is dependable and we can trust Him completely!

I want to thank you both for all your responses and I appreciate you seeing this study through to the end. I hope that you will be encouraged and challenged by the events in the book of Joshua. If you have a suggestion for our next study, Please let me know. Pray that the Lord will lead us to what he would have us choose. It has been a blessing to me to bring you the word of God, I pray you were blessed also. If you have other comments on this study, please feel free to reply. Thanks again, God Bless..Love in Christ, Sister Betty

Important Announcement The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More
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