Joshua’s Theology (5)

“to love the LORD your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”  Joshua 22:5

Serve – Finally!  Serve.  Serve comes last on the list.  Did you notice that?  Serve is not the priority in Joshua’s theology.   It comes after love, walk, keep and cling.  Of course, that makes perfect sense.  I can’t serve if I haven’t embraced a unique relationship, can’t set the right pace, don’t know why and am constantly wandering off.  When these things are in order, then I am ready for avadh.  Oh, yes, and by the way, avadh is a word for serve and for work and for worship. 

Perhaps we need to reconsider our orientation toward serve, work and worship.  We tend to think of these as separate and unrelated aspects of life.  I serve in the church, I work on the job and I worship on Sunday.  Three different functions not necessarily connected.  But that’s not how Joshua sees it.  For him, serving is working is worshiping.  That’s the Hebrew way – everything tied into one bundle under God.  Every aspect of life, whether at home, in the marketplace or in the synagogue, is all just an extension of the marriage contract with the Holy One of Israel.  I am just as much at worship on Monday as I am on Sunday.  My work is my serving (or it’s supposed to be), and all of it is an act of worship.

So, how’s your avadh?  Do you find that your work is worship?  Do you recognize service to the Lord in the job that you do?  Are you honoring Him in the shop, the office, the school or the hospital?  Is He your real boss?  Can people tell that He is?  Do you feel just as much in His presence when you are driving nails, driving trucks or driving golf balls?  Do you think that all that paperwork and all those phone calls and all those meetings are serving Him?

Or are you one of the millions who hates the job and can’t wait to leave?  Research tells us that nearly 70% of American workers fall into this group.  Do you suppose that they think of work as service and worship?  I doubt it.  Since most of us haven’t taken a serious look at the four parts of Joshua’s theology before we get to the “serve” clause, we don’t live integrated lives of well-being.  We are fragmented, frustrated and foolhardy.  Before we realize it, most of life has passed us by and we are still thinking about a retirement plan.  Here’s a clue:  If serve is work is worship, there is no retirement plan.  God’s retirement plan begins at six feet under.

Perhaps this is a day to reflect on the bigger picture – the whole of Joshua’s theology.  If you have all the pieces in order, life should be significantly different.  If some are missing, you probably won’t know what in the world Joshua means when he says, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”