So where do we begin? If grace is as important as I have been suggesting, it will not surprise you if I begin at the beginning, that is, with the early chapters of the book of Genesis.
Here is a trivia question you can ask your friends at your next dinner party: Of all the songs that have ever been written, which song has been recorded most—by the largest number of different vocal artists? The answer is Amazing Grace, the classic Christian hymn written in 1779 by the former slave trader turned preacher, John Newton.
Those were Israel’s three choices if they did not want to worship the Lord. Joshua says, "Make your choice. You’ve got the gods of Egypt, the gods of Babylon, the gods of Canaan, or the God of Israel. What will it be? You have to choose. You have to go on choosing. But as for me and my house, we are going to choose God." Now the people made their choice, which seemed easy. After all, God had given them the land. Why shouldn't they worship God? That's the way they reply in verses 16-18: “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods!
Joshua’s challenge to them is to choose God. I mentioned when we were talking about Joshua 22 and 23 that this has been his challenge all along. "You must make a decision," he’s saying. "You must choose to serve God." For the first time here in chapter 24, the word “choose” occurs: "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether it’s the gods your forefathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" (v. 15).
Paul wrote that no one does good and no one seeks after God. That's the way God sees the human heart. And if, when God looks down from heaven upon the heart of man, all He sees is that the heart of man is only deceitful and practicing wicked all the time from His perspective, how could God possibly find a little bit of human faith upon which to build unless He Himself had first put it there? This, of course, is what He did in the case of Abraham. Abraham was an idol-worshipper like all the others who lived in Ur. But God appeared to him, and revealed Himself to him. God then placed faith in Abraham’s heart and brought Abraham out of that idolatry and set him upon a path, which in God’s own providence and by God’s own power eventually produced the Jewish nation.
