The Lord repeats for the third time to Joshua, “be strong and courageous” in the verse 9 of this chapter. My simple reasoning tells me this message is important!
The scene is: Moses is dead. The time for waiting is over. Now Joshua must move God’s chosen people into the land God has planned for them.
The message is: Be strong, because a weak person is not able to accomplish God’s work, and be courageous, because what lies ahead will be frightening. It’s all very exciting to read about, but what about living this truth out in our own lives?
Running into battle, not even the idea of it, is something that I welcome. Not knowing what lies ahead, what giant, what enemy, what rock or tree is around the next bend that will eat me, or knock me out cold and then eat me makes me a little uneasy.
I like the idea of going fast. Racing down the highway with a fast car, oh what fun! But what keeps me (besides the law) is that I’m scared of what is lurking around the corner, are there animals, other cars, or people running, biking there could be any number of things just over the hill or around the curve out of sight that I don’t want to approach too quickly. I would like to be able to jump off a cliff and fly too (I used to dream about it all of the time as a kid.) but it’s the same fear, what if I approach something too quickly that I haven’t seen and am not prepared for? Disaster!
That is the picture that I get when I think of any battle we face because what lies ahead is unknown. We don’t know how that friend will respond when we confess our sin to them, and ask for forgiveness. We don’t know what our boss will say when we ask to have Sunday’s off so we can worship with our church family. We don’t know how the family will react when we tell them about our love for Jesus. So we shy away.
Like God told Joshua to go, and not be afraid, that He will step near him in battle, so too God will step with you and I as we represent Him, as we are honest and humble, as we attempt to do the right thing, as we share our faith story with others.
Do not be afraid or discouraged, whatever God has told you to do, He will go with you as you do it. Whatever is around the bend or over the hill pales in comparison when our God is with us!
