A Word about Selfless Service

 

Today I want to share a word about selfless service, as I comment on Joshua 10:5-15. This passage reads:

So the five Amorite kings—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon—joined forces, advanced with all their armies, besieged Gibeon, and fought against it. Then the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Don’t abandon your servants. Come quickly and save us! Help us, for all the Amorite kings living in the hill country have joined forces against us.” So Joshua and his whole military force, including all the fighting men, came from Gilgal. The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for I have handed them over to you. Not one of them will be able to stand against you. So Joshua caught them by surprise, after marching all night from Gilgal. The LORD threw them into confusion before Israel. He defeated them in a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them through the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah.

Army Values:

I'm an old Soldier and a retired chaplain, and one of the themes which Army leaders constantly emphasized during my years in uniform were the Army Values. These are the Army's core values and they include:

Loyalty

Duty

Respect

Selfless Service 

Honor 

Integrity

Personal Courage

I think it is no coincidence that the value of Selfless Service is in the center of the list for I believe that Selfless Service is central to being a Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Airman, or Coast Guardsman. 

I believe that Selfless Service is also the focus of Memorial Day, a day in which we remember all those to have paid the ultimate price in the service of our country. I want to look at this concept today using our focal passage from Joshua 10 to give us some context. 

A Sacred Covenant:

The Children of Israel, upon entering into Canaan had been fooled by a tribe called the Gibeonites. The story is too long to relate here, but the Gibeonites had deceived Joshua into making a covenant with them. The Gibeonites would become a workforce for the Israelites, and the Israelites would provide them protection.

The day came in which the Gibeonites came under attack by the Five Kings of the Amorites. The Gibeonites called 911 and cried for help, and Joshua responded. He told his men to saddle up, and they did so. He told them that they were going to march all night, and they did so. He told them that they were going straight into an attack, and they did so. 

We can see many remarkable aspects to this story but in the interest of time I want to mention just one. 

It is absolutely remarkable that the Israelites conducted a night approach march into battle. In today’s world it would be odd if you didn’t take advantage of the dark, , but in those days, people did not venture out at night. They had no night vision googles, they had no GPS, and they didn’t even have flashlights. Yet they followed Joshua, made that night approach march, launched into an attack, and they routed their foe. 

Why did they do that? Because of Selfless Service.

A Sacred Vow:

The Army defines Selfless Service as putting the welfare of the Nation, the Army, and your comrades before your own. In this case the Israelites took extraordinary measures to put the welfare of the Gibeonites before their own welfare, or the welfare of their families.

In a deeper sense, they also did it because of the sacred vow that their nation had made to the Gibeonites. It was not just a covenant that Joshua had made, but one that all the people had made.

What does this history lesson have to do with our Memorial Day holiday?  Just this: Our nation has also made a sacred vow.  As Abraham Lincoln put it in the Gettysburg address, “Our forefathers brought forth a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” 

The documents that established our nation asserted the inalienable rights that all people have to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The United States is not just the most powerful nation on earth; it is also the first nation on earth that committed itself to protecting the freedom and liberty given by God to all people, but enjoyed by far too few in the fallen world in which we live.

We have not always gotten this task right. We have made many grievous errors in our history, but we have always moved forward in our sacred task of preserving liberty. We must continue to do so, but the imperfect world in which we live makes that a difficult, and sometimes a seemingly impossible task. We are a shining city set upon a hill, but unfortunately, that also makes us a target.

In this world live bad men who align themselves with the forces of evil to take away the liberty and freedom of people. These bad men will stop at nothing to achieve their heinous goals. They would have all peoples living in bondage to the same twisted and evil philosophies in which they have ensnared themselves. They will stop at nothing, and so they must be stopped.

Selfless Service:

This then is where we come to today. We have set today aside to honor the Selfless Service of those who put their nation, their families, and their friends above themselves. Today we honor those who cashed the check that our nation wrote in our founding documents, the ones who paid the price for the cause of freedom and justice.

We honor those who followed the example of the Israelites, who, when they were called upon to fulfill their sacred duty, did so and who went above and beyond to accomplish their mission. Today we honor those who, when their nation asked “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us,” answered in the manner of the prophet Isaiah, who said “Here am I, send me.”

All who have worn their county’s uniform know of Selfless Service. They had to leave their homes, their families, and their friends to go to places they had never heard of before. They endured the hardships of training and preparation, and they learned to live in the most difficult locations and climates. 

Yes, all who wore the uniform know the meaning of Selfless Service, but only a few know what it means to give that last full measure of service, and we honor those today who laid their lives down on the altar of freedom. They have paid the price to stop those bad men who would not in the past, and still will not today, stop at anything so that the cause of freedom might die and the cause of oppression would rise triumphant. God forbid that this ever happens!

Dedication to the Fallen and to the Future:

Our honored dead took seriously their oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic.” For them it was not just a ritual or a formality of enlistment, but also a sacred duty that cost them and their families everything. So today, as we remember those fallen for the cause of freedom, let us not do so with empty words. 

Today, let us renew our own devotion to protecting liberty and freedom so that these we remember will not have died in vain. Let us vow to never waste the Selfless Service of those gave their all on the altar of freedom.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt