Contemplative Bible Reading

Joshua 24:14-15 (New International Version 2011)

14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 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.”

This is at least the second time I am using these verses. This time I noticed yet again something different. Note the phrase

Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt

and especially the words beyond the Euphrates River. How many generations and hundreds of years had it been since God’s chosen family had lived beyond the Euphrates River? That is where God first found Abraham (then called Abram). Four hundred years in Egypt, Jacob, Isaac, and then Abraham. That is going back a long way in history, and yet God’s family still remembered those gods.

What gods do we cling to from our distant past?