As famous people pass away, whether they would be political leaders, celebrities, sports figures, or whomever, it seems that the TV and online media frequently have memorials ready to be run. It seems that they are just waiting for the moment at which the person dies and then they will be able to play their memorial to commemorate the person’s life for their audience.

Typically, those memorials are focused on that which that person did, their accomplishments, possibly their character, famous sayings, etc. In other words, it is completely focused on that person’s legacy. The memorial speaks about that person.

I thought of this today as I read the talk that Joshua gave to the people of Israel right at the end of his life. I noticed that he spoke about his life and what had happened in his life, but the entire discussion of who he was and who the people of Israel were was found within the greater story of who God is, his character, and what he had done for the people of Israel.

There was a significant difference in the focus. Joshua was ultimately giving instructions to the people of Israel, that they would continue to serve the Lord, that they wouldn’t turn away from him to the gods of their ancestors, nor the gods of the Canaanites living around them.

But this was Joshua’s moment. This was the time for him to speak of his legacy, to help the people remember him for who he was. As the leader of the Israelite people, he had been chosen to bring the people out of the wilderness, across the Jordan river and into the land that God had promised to his people. He had led the efforts against the Canaanite people and now the Israelites had received their reward. They received the inheritance allotment of the promised land. Joshua had led all of these efforts.

And he said all of these things, but he said it in a very different way. The focus was not on Joshua. The focus, instead, was on God. He explained that it was God that brought them out of Egypt. It was God that had allowed them to come into the promised land. It was God that had given them the victory before their Canaanite enemies. Not the Israelites. Not Joshua, but it was God that did all of these things.

Joshua called the people to serve the Lord and him only. He said this was the way that he and his family would go:

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

Joshua told every part of his story based on what God had done. Not what he had done and his legacy, but instead what God had done. God and God’s story were the center of Joshua’s life and so both he and his family, while they had time here left on the earth, they would serve the Lord.

As is often the case, the word of God holds a mirror up to me and asks me a question: Is God the center of your life? Do you live with God at the center of the story? Will you tell your story with yourself as the protangonist? Or will you tell your story with God as the main character and your story is found within his?

I think this was also the fundamental question that Joshua was asking the Israelites. Whom will you choose? To serve the Lord, or to go your own way? To obey him and do what he has told us to do, or to choose something else, another god, another vice that you prefer to serve?

This is the same decision that men and women have made ever since the beginning, since the Garden of Eden. Will we listen to God and obey him? Or will we listen to the serpent and prefer to become like God, “knowing” good and evil for ourselves?

These are important questions that determine the course and direction for our lives. Joshua had clearly chosen to serve the Lord and like the challenge that he gave to the Israelites, the decision is now up to us, both in this moment and in every moment through the rest of our lives.