In Exodus 14, we learn about God’s impatience with the Israelites who still refused to serve Him in spite of all He’d done for them. God chastised the Israelites as follows:

You saw the great work of the Lord; you feared the Lord. Believe the Lord and the Man of God.

You dwelt in the wilderness for 40 years because you did not trust God. All that God did for you! However, you did not remember!

The Lord brought you into the land of the Amorites, and gave you their land as they fought with you. God destroyed them before you.

Balak the son of Zippor, King of Moab, arose and warred against you, and sent and called Ba-la-am the son of Be-or to curse you, but your God would not hear him and He blessed you. Do you not remember?

You went over Jordan, and came to Jericho and the men of Jericho fought against you. The Amorites, the Canaanite, the Hittites, and others came against you. God delivered them into your hand. Do you remember?

He sent the hornets before you, which drove them out, the two kings of the Amorites. Not with your sword or your bow, but God gave you a land for which you did not labour.

God took you (verse 3); God gave you (verse 4); God sent you (verse 5); God brought you (verses 6-8); God would not listen to you (verse 10); He delivered you (verse 11); He gave you more (verse 12); He gave you a land for which you did not labour and cities which you did not build, and vineyards and olive-yards you did not plant (verse 13).

Now hear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt. Serve the Lord.

If it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve: the gods which your fathers served or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

But then in Joshua 24:16-18, we read how the Israelites turned back to God. The nation promises to worship and obey the Lord.

Look at Joshua’s decision as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

Joshua’s decision made no hesitation; Joshua’s decision meant that he lived above the evil influence of others; Joshua’s decision was deep, clear, fixed, well-grounded; Joshua’s decision was openly made; Joshua’s decision was carried out; Joshua’s decision was kept through his whole life.

We will serve the Lord and serve the Lord only.

And the Israelites answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; for the Lord our God, he is the one that brought us up and out of our fathers’ land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way we went, and all people through whose lands we traveled through. The Lord drove out before us all the people including the Amorites whose land we now live in.

We too will worship the Lord, because He is our God and we are His people. It is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt. We will serve the Lord, for He is our God.

“We remember!”