The preacher this morning made reference to this verse as a Joshua moment.
“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.” Joshua 24 v15 KJ
It got me thinking about a modern interpretation of it. It has always been read as a way of saying me and my family (and in ancient times the rest of the extended household or servants etc) but I wondered how a literal interpretation could help us today. There is something implied in the text about going Gods way with everything you have. Obviously for most people our house is our biggest asset but I was thinking how it is also a place of privacy and a sense of my space and the tendency to see it as mine which could take us away from following God. If we were to commit to the literal version it would get us to question how we use our house, and reflection on how we opened up our life and house would help us encounter God in a deeper way.
I think you may be on to something here Richard. Look at the other modern mythologies concerning homes and wellbeing…’a tidy home …a tidy mind’. Our houses often speak volumes about what things are important to us. If I have something in my home that I really ‘need’ what benefit does having it give me as a follower of Christ. I don’t think it is bad to have things but are we using what we have effectively?