But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua 24:19-21
The book of Joshua ends with overzealous enthusiasm. After being warned about turning from God in the land they have only recently come to possess, “the people answered, ‘Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.'” How much does this sound like us? In the heat of passionate worship, our hearts catch fire and we promise to God that we will live in obedience to him. We commit in our hearts to live differently, to conquer old sins, surrender completely and invite the Lord fully into our lives.
What comes next pulls us back from the clouds to the reality of this fallen world. Rather than celebrate their passion and enthusiasm for the inscrutable ways of God, “Joshua said to the people, ‘You are not able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God.'” How true is this for each and every one of us. For not one second after getting back into our cars to go home and get ready for the coming week does our crooked and imperfect faith come back into focus. Anxiety rises into our hearts, doubts plague our thoughts like thieves lying in wait to ambush us in our weakest moments.
Then comes Joshua’s starkest warning yet. “He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.” Wow. I have wrestled with this verse over and over. How do we reconcile this verse against others that speak of God’s willingness to forgive? In Moses’ first sermon to the Israelites, he follows his warning with a note of optimism about God’s forgiving heart. For if they receive the curse, but “return to the Lord . . . and obey all that I command you today . . . then the LORD will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you.”
Critics of the Bible are quick to point out these parallels as contradictions and inconsistencies, but to the men and women of Faith there is something deeper here. For it is in the tension in these contradictions that we are meant to wrestle with God. God’s justice is perfect and unyielding. Our disobedience to him provokes a righteous and consistent response from God each and every time. To overlook our sins is to breach and compromise his own character.
So how is this possible? How can God, whose justice is perfect in every way, also forgive and restore, bring judgment and restoration, hold accountable but also redeem? This is the great mystery of the Gospel, “hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints” (Colossians 1:26). Jesus redeemed creation from death to himself by living a perfect, sinless and spotless existence. He walked in consistency with the Law of Moses, committed no sins and remained obedient to the point of death where he was brutally murdered on the cross by the very people he came to save.
This is a hope that surpasses all understanding. For we stand before the wrath of God, condemned to eternal punishment for the iniquities committed against an eternal being, but through faithfulness, receive the free gift of forgiveness that is only possible through our savior’s sacrificial work on the cross. Jesus upholds the power and truth of this Old Testament promise. He remains concealed by the pages and pages of stories of disobedience and subsequent forgiveness. There are no inconsistencies here. This is a masterpiece of story telling that spans thousands of years of faithfulness and disobedience, valor and cowardice, hope and despair.
What could be better than finding your place within this story? What could be more reassuring then looking to Christ when we stumble across passages such as this one? The fire of worship burns hot in our hearts, as it should, but do not despair when we find ourselves falling back into the flesh. There is hope in Jesus. There is forgiveness in the cross. Amen!
Cubs of Judah 