“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” —Joshua 24:15
Joshua was a spy, a farmer, and a military commander—the George Washington or Stonewall Jackson of the Bible. He watched the walls of Jericho fall and drove the Canaanite gods out of the land. Yet at the end of his life, old and advanced in years, his final charge was not about battles. It was about his house.
Standing before all Israel at Shechem, Joshua drew a line in the sand: whatever others chose, he and his household would serve the Lord. His natural strength was fading, but his zeal for God was rising.
In Man Your Post, Puritan pastor Philip Goodwin takes up Joshua’s resolution and presses it home on every husband and father. Your family is your flock, your vineyard, and your fort—and one day God will ask, “Where are the souls that were under your care?”
Goodwin shows why a godly man devotes himself and all who belong to him to the daily service of God: he knows it is his duty, he longs for his household’s safety, and he burns with zeal for God’s glory. He weighs the danger of neglecting godliness in the home against the blessings it brings to a family and to the generations that follow. And he names what hinders a household from serving God and what helps it, from the state of a father’s own heart to the company he welcomes through his door.
Then he sounds the alarm. The enemies of church and nation “attack the home first.” Too many men march out with banners flying while their own stronghold sits unguarded. Drawing on Solomon’s command to “know the state of your flocks” and the bride’s lament, “my own vineyard I have not kept,” Goodwin calls fathers back to their post.
“Become a faithful keeper of your own vineyard, a watchful overseer of your household, a diligent shepherd of your flock, and a courageous defender of your fort.” —Philip Goodwin
Excerpted from Goodwin’s 1655 work Family Religion Revived and edited for modern readers by Scott T. Brown, this short, bracing booklet is ideal for personal reading, men’s groups, and any father who wants to lead his family with courage.