Decor or Devotion to God?
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. Joshua 24:15 (NIV)
One of the programs I love to watch is
‘Veedu’ which comes on Manorama News channel. Good homes and new designs
fascinate me a lot. These days you can tune in and watch a multitude of
television shows that focus on home improvement. Entire channels are dedicated
to helping you cultivate a better home. You can watch shows that motivate you to
do the home improvement yourself or programs that showcase the work of interior
designers. Given our obvious obsession with home improvement, the question
remains: do any of these “improvements” really improve our home?
The time had come for Joshua to give his
farewell speech to the people, but before he gave them a personal challenge to
improve their homes, he recounted the blessings of God. Joshua began by
reminding the people of God’s great promise to Abraham to give his descendants
a land of their own. Joshua described how God had provided for His people,
protected His people, and fought on behalf of His people as He brought them
into the Promised Land. As if to add an exclamation point to his speech, Joshua
delivered his message to the people at Shechem, the very place God spoke to
Abraham about the Promised Land (Gen. 12:6–7).
Joshua knew that God had been good to His
people, and he was afraid they might begin to take God for granted, turn away
from Him, and begin to worship other gods. Joshua sought to communicate in such
a way that the people would consider the greatness of God and willingly choose
to serve Him.
Joshua spoke to the people about a choice
that was not to be a one-time event. Instead, he spoke of a lifelong
commitment, lived out in the day-to-day choices that are made while following
and serving God, just as Joshua exemplified to the people.
Today every home is faced with the same
choice of whether or not to follow God and serve Him throughout day-to-day
life. Joshua understood that the only way to have a godly nation would be to
begin by having godly homes. Although nothing is wrong with spending time and money on home renovation, in the end,
none of this kind of home improvement can compare to having a godly home.
The type of home improvement Joshua would
challenge us to make would not take the do-it-yourself approach to renovation;
Joshua would urge us closer to the extreme makeover style in which we allow God
to completely and radically change our house from the inside out, into a godly home. After all, a godly
home is not determined by decor but by devotion to God.
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