Orig. 11/4/02
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them-to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates-all the Hittite country-to the Great Sea on the west. 5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Joshua 1:1-6
Have you ever seen the movie, The Water Boy? On some level the movie reminds me of the story of Joshua. If you haven’t seen it, imagine this scene. It is the fourth quarter in the final game of your senior year of high school. Your team is down by six points with two minutes left, and one timeout. Your team has just returned a punt and the ball rests on your 23 yard line. You are the starting quarterback, you have practiced the two minute drill, special plays and clock stoppages all season long, but just as you to run out onto the field your coach grabs your shoulder and says, “Hey, you played a great game but let’s give the little guy a shot and winning it for us.”
He turns and points to a fifth grade ball boy who happens to be the quarterback on the local youth football team. The little guy is tiny and has not gear except his youth football jersey draping to his knees. To make matters worse the little guys accept the coach’s beckoning, gladly runs onto the field, and proceeds to march your team 77 yards in eight plays to win the game!
Sound too ridiculous to be true. Does this sound like hyperbole to you or some insane metaphor?
Maybe you should take a look at verse one. Joshua was Moses’ aid, his personal assistant-his secretary for crying out loud! The moral of it all is simply that you plus God is a majority. Knowing this fact should give every man who reads it courage.
Courage is the simple act of trusting God.
Courage is the public response to a personal faith.
Many seemingly brave men have cowered in the face of adversity by choosing the futility of trusting in self instead of trusting in God (Zechariah 4:6). Courage is not walking in obedience. It is much more than that. It is walking in aggressive obedience. It is living with abandon (John 10:10). Can a man walk in obedience to the King yet allow the subtle, albeit powerful, forces of fear to hinder him from crossing the Jordan Rivers of life to enter the Promised Land? Can a man cross the rivers of faith by slowly wading in?
Or, does courage compel us to jump?
This passage reveals several steps in crossing into the Promised Land of faith. First, we see God coming to Joshua through personal revelation and commissioning him to cross over (2). Every Jew must have known what, “the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun.”
Steps taken without God (Galatians 5:23) are not steps of courageous obedience but prideful arrogance. God’s commission to “Go!” precedes God’s call to conquer (Verse 3 and Matthew 28:19). God will not call us to cross over without giving us a heart to conquer for Him. Furthermore, He will give us the confidence to call His promises out because, “No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life (5).” The grace of God will empower us to enter the promised land of faith. Lastly, verse 6 commands a man to be “strong and courageous”. This command to courage comes after the commission to cross, the call to conquer and confidence to call out God’s will through a strong courageous heart.
