Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve | Joshua 24:15

Dr. Thomas White

“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve … But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:14-15 (ESV)[1]

The word “serve” appears at least sixteen times in this chapter.[2] The driving question comes in verse 15 and demands a personal response:

“Whom will you serve?”

Notice what’s not in question: whether we will serve or worship. God created mankind to worship — and we will worship something. The only question is, what or whom will we serve?

Remember God’s grace in the past.

Before issuing this challenge, Joshua recounts God’s incredible grace toward Israel. He reminds them of the covenant at Shechem. He recalls how even Abraham once served other gods, yet God graciously called him out and made a promise to him. Joshua also references Jacob, Moses, the plagues in Egypt, the Red Sea, Balaam, the Jordan River, Jericho, and the many victories in the Promised Land.

In every case, God was the one who acted. God did the work, not Israel. The question, then, is clear. Remembering all God has done, whom will you serve?

God has been gracious to us, too. This question isn’t just for ancient Israel. It’s for us as well. Ephesians 2 reminds us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But God, rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ. He raised us up and gave us a seat in the heavenly places. He saved us by grace through faith — not by our own efforts. Just as with Israel, God has done the work of salvation.

So again, the question comes:

“Whom will you serve?”

The necessity of God’s grace in the future.

Israel responded to Joshua’s challenge by declaring, “We will serve the Lord.” But instead of celebrating, Joshua replies with startling honesty: “You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God.” No applause. No congratulations. Instead, a sober warning that foreshadows the struggles ahead.

Joshua doesn’t let them off the hook. He presses further: You are witnesses against yourselves. The people make a covenant, and for a time, those who knew the Lord’s work remained faithful (Joshua 24:31). But the generations that followed would not continue in that pattern.

We need God’s grace too. If you’ve ever struggled with sin — and failed — you’re not alone. The Christian life is about progress, not perfection. We need forgiveness and strength daily.

But we have something Israel didn’t: the indwelling Holy Spirit.

• The Spirit empowers us to overcome sin.
• He frees us from bondage.
• He enables us to live new lives in Christ.

The struggle is real, but so is the victory. Read and meditate on Scripture. Pray daily for the Spirit’s help. Join a local church and commit to authentic Christian community. Begin a long walk in the same direction — faithfully getting back up when you fall.

“Choose this day whom you will serve.”

Not someday. Today.

It’s the most important decision you’ll ever make. And it’s one you’ll need to keep making every single day.

May we, like Joshua, boldly declare, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

COURAGEOUS STEP

In this book or on a sticky note or on the mirror where you get ready every morning, write down who you will serve. Do you choose God or something else? Now in your thoughts, words, and deeds seek to live like it by the power of the Spirit. Keep looking to Christ until you look like Christ.

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FAQ’s

1. What was Joshua asking Israel to decide in Joshua 24:14-15?

At the end of his life, Joshua gathered Israel at Shechem and pressed them to make a decisive choice about whom they would serve. After recounting all that God had done for them, he called them to fear the LORD, put away their old gods, and serve Him in sincerity and faithfulness. He framed it not as whether they would worship, but whom they would worship, and he modeled the answer himself: as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

2. Does everyone serve or worship something?

According to this passage, yes. Joshua does not ask whether Israel will worship but whom they will worship, assuming that human beings are made to give themselves to something. The real question is never whether we will serve, but what or whom will hold that place. Scripture presents the choice as unavoidable: every person serves either the living God or some substitute.

3. What does “Choose this day whom you will serve” mean in Joshua 24:15?

It means that allegiance to God is a deliberate, present-tense decision rather than a vague intention. Joshua pressed Israel to settle the matter this day, not someday, because the human heart drifts toward whatever it is not actively devoted to. The phrase calls every hearer to a conscious choice, and it implies that the choice must be renewed daily as long as other loyalties keep competing for the throne.

4. What did Joshua remind Israel of before asking them to choose?

Before issuing the challenge, Joshua recounted God’s grace across Israel’s history. He recalled the covenant at Shechem, how God called Abraham out of idolatry, and the accounts of Jacob, Moses, the plagues in Egypt, the Red Sea, Balaam, the Jordan crossing, Jericho, and the victories in the land. In each event God was the one who acted, which is why the call to serve Him flows out of gratitude for what He had already done.

5. How does “choose whom you will serve” connect to the rest of Joshua 24?

The choice in verse 15 sets up the exchange that follows. When the people pledged to serve the LORD, Joshua warned them that in their own strength they were not able, because the LORD is a holy God. The chapter holds together the call to choose, the sobering reminder of human inability, and the covenant the people made, pointing ahead to the need for grace that the New Testament supplies through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

6. How can leaders apply “as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” today?

Leaders apply it by making their own allegiance clear and then leading those under their care in the same direction. Joshua did not wait to see which way the people would lean; he declared his household’s commitment first. A leader who has settled whom he serves provides a fixed point for a family, a team, or an organization, and the decision is not made once but reaffirmed daily in thoughts, words, and deeds.

7. Why does Joshua 24:15 still matter for believers today?

Joshua 24:15 matters because the choice it names is still the most important one any person makes, and it is never finally behind us. We will worship something, so the question is whether we will consciously serve the God who saved us or drift into serving lesser things. The verse calls believers to choose the LORD today and to keep choosing Him, depending on the Holy Spirit for the strength to follow through.

Footnotes

[1]Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version (ESV).

[2]The verb “serve” appears roughly nineteen times in Joshua 24 in the ESV, which bears out the count noted here.