Strong and Courageous: God's Promise To Be With Us - Joshua 1:1-10
In Paul Blart - Mall Cop, Kevin James place
Paul Blart who fails the physical for the police academy, and through a series
of events lands the job as a mall security officer. Kevin is not a brave man. He has trouble working up the courage to tell
the girl of his dreams how he truly feels about her. However, when it truly becomes time for him
to garner up his courage, he does.
We too often see
images of courage that are marked by men (or women) who appear to have no
fear. In fact, there is that common
concept that a goal to aspire to is to operate with “no fear” if all the “no
fear” bumper and window stickers we see are any indication. And my brothers and sisters, once we attain
the ability to put our whole trust in God, the absence of any fear is something
that will mark our lives. However, Paul
Blart gives us the image of how to act in the meantime. Paul was plenty afraid, you could see it in
his face, and in his initial indecision, however, we see this “lowly” mall cop
put into action the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Courage is not the absence
of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than
fear.”[i]
Joshua was not
faced with the task of taking a mall back from would be thieves. He was facing a much greater threat. Joshua is standing there in Moab, looking
down on the Jordan River. The man who had been his mentor and probably closest
friend has just died. He knows what God expects him to do now. However, he
can’t help but think back to 40 years ago, and wonder if it will really be any
different now.
Flashback 40
years, he and the other eleven men had been sent on a difficult journey, they
were to be the CIA of the Hebrew people. God was preparing to send His people
into the Promised Land, but Moses wanted to know what they would be facing, so
twelve spies entered the land to scope it out. What they found was just amazing.
They discovered that the land was rich with produce and other food. In fact,
they said it was a land rich and flowing with milk and honey. They brought back
a single cluster of grapes that was so huge that it took two of them, using two
carrying poles, to transport it back.
Imagine the excitement of the people!
No more manna! No more quail! The rich Promised Land was at hand. With
the hopes of the people all raised, ten of the twelve broke the news, “There
are giants in the land. They are too much for us. We can’t do this.” Only Joshua and his friend, Caleb, stood
against the others, ready to go in. The majority won out as the started their
“back to Egypt” campaign, neglecting all the ways God had delivered them from
the pursuit of the Egyptian army to ravages of hunger and thirst. God had
proved that not only was He with them, but that He went before them, leading
them, and that He had their back, protecting them. God decided that none of
them would ever set foot in the land that He had promised them, none other than
Caleb and Joshua.[ii]
Now it is forty
years later, all the nay-sayers were gone.
Moses had died. Joshua, selected
to replace Moses as leader of the Hebrew people, was poised to lead the people
in. As he prepares, God comes to him, as He had to Moses, and offers him words
of encouragement, three times saying to Joshua, “Be strong and courageous.”
God tells Joshua
to be strong and courageous because He will never fail nor forsake Joshua, and
that wherever he goes and whatever he does, he will be successful. God tells Joshua that as long as the people
stay true to the words of the Law that God had given to Moses, that they would
always be victorious. God repeatedly
tells them to be strong and courageous because He will be with them, that He
will be with them, no matter what they face—they will never be alone.
My brothers and
sisters, what those words of comfort must have meant to the people under
Joshua’s leadership: “No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of
your life. As I was with Moses, so I
will be with you; I will not fail your or forsake you. Be strong and courageous…Be strong and
courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you
wherever you go.”
Facing the
daunting task of heading into a land filled with “giants”: the Amalekites, the
Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites—Joshua and the people
are encouraged to be strong and courageous, because God is with them…in fact,
God goes before them, preparing the way.
These words are
not unlike the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples on a mountaintop
thousands of years later: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the
end of the age.”[iii] Joshua and those who followed me were faced with
conquering the Promised Land on behalf of God. Jesus’ disciples were faced with
conquering the entire world for the sake of the Gospel. The promise, though, was the same. The Promise of God’s presence with them
through all that they would face. We witness
over and over again through the Acts of the Apostles, their ability to stand
strong and courageous in the face of threats and adversity, imprisonments,
tortures, stonings, and crucifixions…knowing that Christ had gone before them
and would be with them.
My brothers and
sisters, we are not facing the Amalekites, Hittites, or Caannanites. We are not facing the Sanhedrin or
Romans. Yet we face the threat of
enemies trying to cause us to cower in fear every day.
We face cancer,
dementia, Alzheimer’s, chronic pain, or other diseases that threaten to end our
lives.
We face
addictions, from drugs and other substances to food to sex to work to many
other things that threaten to control each and every aspect of our lives.
We face the
tragedies of financial, social, or natural disasters and the devastation they
leave behind.
We face bullies
and organizations who seek make it their life’s ambition to make us unsure of
our faith or silence us from ever speaking about what Jesus has done in our
lives.
We face a future,
that looking at it from the outside, is as uncertain and frightening as what
Joshua and the Hebrew people faced as they crossed the Jordan River, and as
scary as what the Disciples faced when they walked off that mountain top. However, we can head into the future with the
same boldness and confidence, the same strength and courage, that they went
forth with, because we face all of those enemies and uncertainties with the
same assurance…that God has our back, is with us in the present, and goes before
us into the future. We forget that so
often, that whatever we encounter and wherever God sends us, He not only has
been with us, but He goes before us and is waiting for us. God is Eternal. God is there in the past, in here in the
present, and there in the future, all NOW.
He not only walks with us and leads us, but whatever we take on, God is
already there.
Are we heading
into surgery or chemotherapy? God not
only goes with us, but God is in that operating room and cancer center waiting
for us at the outcome of the surgery or treatment.
Are we heading
into an AA meeting or anticipating withdrawals?
God is not only going into that meeting with us, not only by our sides
as we shake and hallucinate, but He is there to welcome us as we pull free from
evil’s control.
Are we facing
bankruptcy proceedings or simply looking considering the balance between
financial security and leaving it behind to go on a mission trip? Are we looking at being kicked out of our
“clique” for standing up for minorities or having to move into an impoverished
neighborhood? Are we facing a tornado
bearing down upon our house or going on a mission trip to “gut” a flooded home
filled with mold? Are we facing censure
of our speeches or subpoenas of sermons?
Are we faced with silenced prayers or laws that disregard our
faith? Do we find ourselves in
congregations that are shrinking and encountering a resistance to the Word of
God in the world? God is sending us into
the world to do battle, to proclaim the Gospel.
We enter into those things and those with boldness, knowing that God not
only enters the battles with us, but ahead of us, and waits on us.
My brothers and
sisters, in some aspect of our lives, right now we stand on the edge of the
“Jordan River.” Find courage in the assessment
that not only is there something more important than fear, but Someone greater
than anything we might fear. Hear the words of God, “Be strong and
courageous. Do not be frightened or
dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
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