Joshua 24:15�And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
***** here it was a clear CHOICE for Israelites to make...serve God or serve the gods...
Numbers 21:8�And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.�
9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
***** an example of Christ in the OT which Jesus referred to in the NT. �the Israelites disobeyed God, God sent poisonous serpents to punish them. �The only way for them to live was to CHOOSE to look at the fiery serpent lifted up on the pole. �The serpent was there for ALL of them, but if they did not have the faith that God would save them when they looked upon it and CHOSE not to look, they DIED.
John 3:14�And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
14 Now therefore fear the LORD , and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD 15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD , to serve other gods"
Read the verse - He commands them to put away their other gods and serve the LORD with fear. Then he says, if you find that evil, go choose some other god maybe your old god or the Ammorite god or Allah, or Zeus, choose whichever false god you want. He is not saying, here is your choice Yahweh or _____. You decide. He then leads by example and says that he and his house will serve the Lord. To which the people answered essentially, we will serve the Lord, too. (i.e. they didn't find serving the Lord evil)
Now, those that would find serving the LORD (YHWH) to be evil would only be evidencing the fact that they are reprobate (one who is predestined to damnation). They would already be serving another god by default. There is not a single soul who exists who doesn't serve a god. The question then is which god do they serve?.... YHWH or a false one?
They had a CHOICE, just like we do. We can choose to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or we can choose not to.
We can choose to look to Christ's sacrificial death on the cross for the source of our salvation just as the Israelites had to look to the fiery serpent on the pole to be saved from death from the poisonous snake bites.
" ***** here it was a clear CHOICE for Israelites to make...serve God or serve the gods..."
Interesting that you would say here that the Israelites chose, when all throughout scripture we see that they were God's chosen people. Who chose who?
We must remember in scripture that just because we are commanded to do something doesn't mean we have the power to do it. For instance, it was ordered that the 10 commandments be followed. However God knew that know man was capable of following them. Speak to anyone who does grammar...The wording does not necessity man's ability. Just because there is something we ought to do, doesn't mean it's something we can do. I hope this is clear enough for you. I don't really know another way of putting it. We need to promote deeper stuff of the word. Just reading on the surface and seeing the word "choose" and thinking that settles it...is not enough. You have to go deeper. Sure, if no other verses ever contradicted the idea of man choosing then we could safely say man chooses. There are numerous examples in scripture however that show that God does the choosing. One of which I've already pointed out to you in John 1:13
Going deeper, as Bob pointed out to you....The verses do not say to choose God.
" We can choose to look to Christ's sacrificial death on the cross for the source of our salvation just as the Israelites had to look to the fiery serpent on the pole to be saved from death from the poisonous snake bites."
Sure we can choose. We would just always choose to be god of our own lives....There in lies the need for a Savior who changes the heart for us. We are not capable of changing our hearts for God. Your posts are not in line with what the scriptures are teaching. Bob had a well thought out response and you ignored it just so you can continue saying "We can choose". If it's not in scripture, it's not there...no matter how much you want it to be.
14 Now therefore fear the LORD , and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD 15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD , to serve other gods"
Read the verse - He commands them to put away their other gods and serve the LORD with fear. Then he says, if you find that evil, go choose some other god maybe your old god or the Ammorite god or Allah, or Zeus, choose whichever false god you want. He is not saying, here is your choice Yahweh or _____. You decide. He then leads by example and says that he and his house will serve the Lord. To which the people answered essentially, we will serve the Lord, too. (i.e. they didn't find serving the Lord evil)
Now, those that would find serving the LORD (YHWH) to be evil would only be evidencing the fact that they are reprobate (one who is predestined to damnation). They would already be serving another god by default. There is not a single soul who exists who doesn't serve a god. The question then is which god do they serve?.... YHWH or a false one?
This response is nothing but a statement from an renewed mind exalting itself above the knowledge of God.
There is never any faith on the part of man that is acceptable to the father without the man first making the choice to believe or as some do, choose not to believe, that is called unbelief some call it interpretation.
The choice will always equal one or the other,
Choice one Faith.
Choice Two Sin.
My bible honors God in teaching Joshua choose to serve God as well as Caleb did.
The rest of the chosen sinned and reaped what they sowed and died in the desert.
