Joshua 24:15 KJV
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.
John 15:16 KJV
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
Though these passages seem to oppose the other, they are both true.
At least one explanation arises from the fact that the one is in the Old Testament and the other in the New Testament. Though salvation is always by grace through faith in both the Old Testament and in the New, God's dealings with people were different in the Old Testament than they are in the New Testament.
Another difference is in God's dealings with the nation of Israel and with individuals. Though Jesus is speaking directly to His disciples, who were Jewish, in John fifteen, He was addressing them as individuals and not as a part of the corporate Jewish nation.
There is also the fact that, once Joshua had admonished them to choose, and they responded apparently positively in choosing to serve the Lord, his next words indicate that their reaction was not the correct one and that they (and we) probably mistinterpret Joshua's intent. We cannot make this choice on our own. Joshua urged them to choose the Lord, but they chose to serve the Lord in their own power and not in the wooing of the Lord.
The reconciliation of the two passages is this; God chooses us. He makes that choosing apparent to us through some form of witness.
• It might be a gospel tract
• It might be an invitation to a church service
• It might be through the witness of a friend or neighbor
• It might be through a chance hearing of a TV or Radio message
• It might be through a Scripture billboard along the road
and when that choosing happens in our hearts, we have a choice to make: will we be obedient to the voice of the Lord, or will we ignore and disobey it?
Have you obeyed God's choosing of you?
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields
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.
John 15:16 KJV
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
Though these passages seem to oppose the other, they are both true.
At least one explanation arises from the fact that the one is in the Old Testament and the other in the New Testament. Though salvation is always by grace through faith in both the Old Testament and in the New, God's dealings with people were different in the Old Testament than they are in the New Testament.
Another difference is in God's dealings with the nation of Israel and with individuals. Though Jesus is speaking directly to His disciples, who were Jewish, in John fifteen, He was addressing them as individuals and not as a part of the corporate Jewish nation.
There is also the fact that, once Joshua had admonished them to choose, and they responded apparently positively in choosing to serve the Lord, his next words indicate that their reaction was not the correct one and that they (and we) probably mistinterpret Joshua's intent. We cannot make this choice on our own. Joshua urged them to choose the Lord, but they chose to serve the Lord in their own power and not in the wooing of the Lord.
The reconciliation of the two passages is this; God chooses us. He makes that choosing apparent to us through some form of witness.
• It might be a gospel tract
• It might be an invitation to a church service
• It might be through the witness of a friend or neighbor
• It might be through a chance hearing of a TV or Radio message
• It might be through a Scripture billboard along the road
and when that choosing happens in our hearts, we have a choice to make: will we be obedient to the voice of the Lord, or will we ignore and disobey it?
Have you obeyed God's choosing of you?
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields
