Finishing Well Started Yesterday

I sat down to write this essay after a well-known Reformed preacher's moral failure. That was well over a year ago. I couldn’t bring myself to finish it as I found myself getting legitimately bitter and despondent. I have been in ministry a relatively short time (coming up on 15 years this June), but throughout that time, I have seen many men I studied with, and two I served with, removed and disqualified from ministry. Not to mention all the well-known preachers and ministers whom I’ve looked up to from a distance. And that is only on the pastoral side. I have witnessed many people fail morally and destroy their lives and families. And I know you have too.

I believe these stories are painful because we also know the beauty and joy that radiate from finishing well. We all love to “Remember the Titans” to look up to teams that faced the Giants,  or cheer on Rudy (Really, any early 2000’s sports movie fits the bill here.) Or to remember grandparents who modeled love for us, and Sunday school teachers who taught us the truth of the Gospel. We know the pain of moral failures because they fall short of the far-reaching, deeply impactful blessings that flow out of a life well finished to the glory of God.

But those stories don’t rake in blog traffic. We all hear and read about those who make a shipwreck of their faith and publicly shame the name of Christ. And don’t get me wrong, we need to hear them as a warning to our own hearts (1 Timothy 5:20). But how do we finish well? What examples should be written about to encourage us in the faith (Hebrews 12:1)? 

In an age of “failure porn,” we need to look to God’s Word. And one of the most relevant biblical accounts regarding this is the testimony of Joshua’s life. Joshua 24 shows us the impact of his finishing well in the context of his last written charge to Israel as he neared death. This chapter doesn’t state that Joshua finished by his own strength, but because of God’s faithfulness. And that is the encouragement for us. How do we live well? How do we finish the race well? We can finish faithfully because God is faithful to us. 

Joshua 24 gives us 3 aspects of God’s faithfulness that enable us to finish the race to His glory.

1. God’s Faithfulness is Covenantal 

“Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God.”

Joshua 24 recounts the final recorded message from Joshua to the Israelites. And from verses 2 - 13, Joshua reminded the nation of all the work God had done in and for the nation. From the call of Abraham to their conquest of the Promised Land, Joshua focused everything in his final speech on God’s faithfulness. And verse 1 states that these words were spoken at a site of deep importance for the nation, Shechem. 

Shechem was first mentioned in Scripture as the spot where Abraham entered the Promised Land in Genesis 12:6. Here, Abraham built the first altar for the Lord in the Promised Land. It was at Schechem that Jacob built an altar to the Lord after being restored to and protected from Esau. It was at Schechem that Joshua had the nation recommit themselves to the covenant and declare the covenant curses of disobedience and the covenant blessings that came from faithfulness after Achan’s destruction and the defeat of Ai in Chapter 7.

And so it was that at Schechem, Joshua stationed the people to be reminded of all the Lord had done for them according to His covenant promises. From verse 1 through 13, the people were told of the promise he made to Abraham and Jacob, the Exodus, of their deliverance from the most powerful standing army in the world at the time, at the Red Sea, the Red Sea which God parted. He jogged their memory about His preserving and protecting them in the wilderness. He pointed out all of the enemies defeated by the hand of the Lord, and the land of promise they now finally possessed. And all of it was recounted on the very spot that the Lord promised Abraham that the Covenant would be his and his family's forever.

Joshua taking the nation to Schechem to remind them of God’s covenant faithfulness is like taking your spouse to the spot where you proposed and declaring your deep love for them anew.  And God’s covenant faithfulness did not end here, Joshua 24:13 says, “I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.” And the reality of that statement is the secured work of Jesus Christ.

When it comes to finishing well, we must remember that we are saved by works, but not our own. Believers dwell in a land that was given to us through Christ. We are given a righteousness that we could never merit. We inherit a spiritual city built without hands that we did not construct. We eat the spiritual fruit of orchards and vineyards that we did not plant. Christ’s righteousness is given to us freely. It is because of His righteousness, covenantally promised and delivered to you, by which you can finish well. God’s faithfulness is covenantal and freely given to all of His people.

2. God’s Faithfulness is Generational 

“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

After reminding the nation where God has taken them, Joshua charges them to choose their path going forward. This challenge was given to the individual houses and families that made up the nation. It was a holistic charge that excluded split devotions, and folks had to take it seriously. Notice, though, this call wasn’t simply a call to choose Yahweh; it is a call to choose to serve Yahweh or the pagan gods. He’s saying either today you choose to serve the Lord, or you choose to serve, in the words of Matthew Henry, these other dunghill deities. 

And he gives the nation two specific pagan options: either the gods that the generation that died in the wilderness chose to serve, the ones they made golden calves out of. Or the pagan gods of the land they just conquered and defeated.  It covers the spectrum of Israelites who would want to serve the false gods of their fathers for traditional reasons and those who would choose to serve the false god of Canaan as an accommodation or olive branch to the nations in the land.

Now, the better choice is pretty clear to me. Go with the Lord who just conquered everyone and literally stopped the sun from moving in chapter 10. It’s like asking if you would rather go into a sword fight with a lightsaber or a cool-looking stick. For this reason, Joshua’s answer is firm, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

And he’s asking that because the previous generation, the one Joshua spied out the land for, did not choose to serve the Lord. They worshipped false gods, denied God’s goodness, and fled from the land out of fear. They even failed to give their children the covenant sign of circumcision, the very sign God gave them to mark themselves as His people. Joshua had to order the nation to do so on the eve of battle in Joshua 5. But God was faithful to His covenant and blessed the next generation.

Joshua’s saying that it is all or nothing. Either you serve the Lord, or you serve something or someone else. And the children are watching who or what you serve. How many ministers have failed morally because they serve their brand more than their maker? How many husbands or wives have destroyed their marriage because they serve their sexual appetites more than their spouse? How many people have destroyed themselves through food, excessive drinking, drugs, or other idols that overload their nervous system?  

The fact is, we will not finish well if our main focus is ourselves. In his final days, Joshua didn’t brag about his military victories. He did not gloat over his political achievements. He prepared to die by preparing Israel’s next generation to continue to follow Yahweh. There is no greater testimony than a simple life of pursuing Christ and passing that on to the next generation. No conference speaking engagement, no brand,  no book deal, no accomplishments, no excitements can compare to the impact of following the Lord and passing down what he has done for you to the children. Because in the Kingdom of God, little kids are a big deal.

3. God’s Faithfulness is Eternal 

“After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. And they buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah… Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel. 

This verse shows the importance of finishing the race well. It is not only important for people in public ministry (which it very much is), but the impact on our own families cannot be exaggerated. Joshua died and was buried in his personally inherited land that the Lord gave him and his descendants. And the last thing said about Joshua is that when he died, the nation he led followed the Lord faithfully for a generation.

What an absolutely beautiful testimony. Joshua wasn’t just a man of the sword, a military leader, a politician, or a judge. He was a man of God who called others to faithfulness to the Lord. And people listened. There’s a powerful testimony found in a life of trusting the Lord. And that is a great aim for the believer. 

A simple question that this passage calls us to ponder is “How can I finish well?” How can you, regardless of your age, prepare to finish well to the glory of God? Joshua finishing well didn’t just happen. It was after a lifetime of trusting in and following the Lord that resulted in a graceful passing and a legacy of faithfulness to those around him. We must remember that finishing well started yesterday. 

Joshua’s finishing well started when he believed the Lord. It continued when he scouted out the Promised Land and declared against the lies of the other spies, “...do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them” (Num 14:9). Joshua’s finishing well was built on his trusting in the Commander of thee Lord’s army to take down Jericho (Josh 5:13-15). And it continued through all of the accounts of his leadership and life in the book of Joshua.

Finishing well is not an endpoint in time. It is the culmination of the work of the Lord in those who trust in Him. “He who began a good work in you will complete it on the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). And that completed work is eternal. How can we finish well? We finish well by walking by faith. We finish well by trusting in the work of the Lord and pursuing holiness. We finish well even as we fail, because we are not the author or perfector of our faith; we are the recipients of the work of the Holy Spirit. We are his workmanship, and the works of the Lord outlast the sins of the flesh. 

Take heart as you hear and read accounts of moral failings. They are reminders that if not for the grace of Christ, so would we go. And when we stumble, remember the words of Richard Sibbes, “There is more mercy in Christ than there is sin in us.” Finish well by the power of the Lord and to the glory of Christ. If you trust in Him, He has already started that work in you.