Joshua

How do you follow a leader like Moses? After all he was the one who grew up in extraordinary circumstances, looked after and set apart by God from birth, the man who saw the burning bush, performed miraculous signs in front of Pharaoh, eventually led the people out of slavery and through the wilderness; climbed the mountain, brought back the 10 commandments (twice!), built the tabernacle, had the “glow of God” on his face. How do you follow that?
Following Moses must have been a daunting task, even for someone like Joshua.

Be strong and Courageous

This phase gets a lot of use in the opening of the book of Joshua. It is repeated four times, but it’s not the only time this little phrase is aired in the Old Testament. Moses knows what faces Joshua, so he tells him to be strong and courageous in Deuteronomy 31. David tells Solomon to be strong and courageous when it comes to building the temple, and Hezekiah tells the people of Jerusalem to be strong and courageous as the face the siege of the king of Assyria.
For Joshua and Solomon strength and courage are needed to see the job through. Conquering the land and building the Temple wee not short jobs, they took years. Along the way there must have been plenty of opportunities for disappointment and discouragement. Plenty of times when either one of them would have given up and looked for something a little less demanding to do.
But then the reality is that if it were easy, none of them would have needed a healthy dose of strength or courage to see it through, to finish the job, to face the enemy. Apart from just before Christmas, strength and courage are not prerequisites for the weekly shopping at Tescos or Sainsbury's.
The point is this: strength and courage don’t remove doubt or fear or anxiety. But without strength and courage we will never be able to face those self-same fears, and doubts and anxieties, we will never be able to push on and move ahead.
As one writer puts it: Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s moving ahead in spite of your fear.

The strength and courage that Joshua needed was born out of three things:

Faith in God

If we could adjust what we believe according to how we feel, then we would not need strength and courage, we’d just need flexibility. We could adjust our behaviour according to the pressures to conform at work or at school or at college. We could adjust our principles according to the needs of a situation. We could adjust our level of commitment according to how to convenient it os to be identified with Jesus.
But faith is not about what we feel, it is about what we know. And sometimes knowing the truth and living in that truth takes great strength and great courage.
Fortunately God’s promise is the be there with us, making up what we like so that we can say:
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Ps 28:7

Faithfulness to God

This is all about the choices we make. Do you choose to honour God or do you choose not to honour him? It is a choice, a choice you must make. We’ve already thought about how faith is not a matter of feelings and about how we need strength and courage to go one believing. Faithfulness is is that determination of mind that chooses to walk with God whatever the cost.
As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord

The route to faithfulness comes through God’s word. God tells Joshua: Do not let this book of the law... Meditate on it day and night...

Faithfulness of God

The enduring presence of God

As I was with Moses, I will be with you

The enduring promise of God

The land I will give you

The enduring power of God

For what do you need strength and courage?

Joshua had to follow Moses but that wasn’t the reason he needed strength and courage. He needed strength and courage to lead the people through the conquest of the land. But there was a shadow so-to-speak cast over the land, a shadow called Jericho. This great fortified city would be the first significant test in the new land.
He would need strength and courage to face Jericho.

What’s your Jericho?

Do you need strength and courage to face the truth?
Do you need strength and courage to make a change?
To make the right decision rather than a wrong one?
To choose to honour God and walk in obedience?

Whatever your Jericho might be, big or small, God is willing and able to offer you the strength and courage you need to face it and conquer it. If Jesus can go to the cross for you, you can carry a cross for him. If Jesus is willing to die for you, you can offer your life too him. Whatever the cost you may feel you are paying, Jesus has already paid a greater cost for you.

Take courage from him, and find strength in him.