The Help to Overcome

So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ The Lord your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken. And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Please pray with me.

This is the final conclusion in the Mosaic sermon. Here we have what seems to be a commissioning of sorts. Moses passes over the charge given to him by the Lord to the Israelites and then to Joshua, laying the responsibility in their hands.

And Moses knows that his time has come. Look at verse 2-

Deuteronomy 31:2 ESV

And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’

Moses says this to Israel as a reminder that he’s not going to be with them any more. He’s going to be removed from the picture by the Lord and he’s expecting his death. He trusted the Lord when God said in Genesis 6:3 that he numbered the days of man to 120.

Genesis 6:3 ESV

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

And here is Moses, at the peak of what God has said the days of man shall be, and he trusts that God is faithful to what he has said in the past. Moses is OLD … He is no longer able to go out and come in. I picture his skin is saggy and that his bones are brittle. This man’s not fit for battle. If the man were living in our culture, he would have been in an assisted living ages ago. Sure, the Lord has strengthened him, but he knows his body is failing and he knows that he needs to pass on this charge, this commission to Joshua and to all of Israel.

Furthermore, he remembers what the Lord has said to him, “You shall not go over this Jordan”. If you remember, this word from the Lord was the condemnation against Moses when struck the rock in anger against the Israelites. And Moses, having walked with the Lord, knows that God is faithful to his word. He knows he is not crossing over the Jordan river, as much as his heart’s desire would want him to because the Lord has said it shall not be so.

But here old Moses knows that God’s work is not done. The Lord continues beyond one person, beyond one generation. He knows from his time walking with the Lord that he will be faithful to the Israelites. His love extends to his people and his promises were yet to be fulfilled.

So he reminds the people of their charge. Verse 3,

Deuteronomy 31:3 ESV

The Lord your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken.

He once again reminds Israel that it is the Lord who is with them, who walks before them. The accomplishment of the judgment of the nations in the land will be by the Lord’s hands with the Israelites as the tool, and Joshua as the leader.

And we notice the dynamic between the Lord and his people. God is pouring out his judgment on those whose time has come, but he’s also creating room for blessing for those who walk according to his ways.

If you think about this world, the hills, the trees, the plants which we harvest for food, the animals which we farm, the sun which warms our backs and the perfectly balanced ozone layer … all of these things are good things which the Lord has prepared for us as humans that we can live in this world. The Lord has gone before you. You, as a created being who has no ability to create matter from nothing, are placed here in this world and given life, the opportunity to love others and live according to the way that the Lord has made you, exercising your gifts of creativity and music and service and parenthood. The Lord has prepared all of these things for you. And you, as the recipient, follow in his lead. He leads you into green pastures and beside still waters. If there were no sin, our lives would be a perfect paradise walking with the Lord and learning from him, just as Adam and Eve did in the garden of Eden.

One day, the world as we know it, and the sinfulness therein, will, like the nations that were in the promised land, be destroyed, and God’s people will be led into the land as an inheritance.

The relationship between the Lord and his people is one of guidance and trust … Guidance from the Lord into the path ahead, even if that means battle, and Trust that the Lord provides and will lead to green pastures and future blessing. Let me say that again: The Relationship between the Lord and his people is one of guidance and trust … Guidance that the Lord will lead you through the path ahead, even if that means hardship and conflict and pain, and Trust that the Lord will lead you through to greener pastures and to the future blessing.

We sometimes go astray when we fail to follow the Lord’s guidance and we build up a lack of trust, don’t we? When we let sin creep in, we start questioning the Lord, the church, our faith. Not following the Lord will lead you to lose trust in him, and turn back to your old ways of pointing the finger at God and blaming him for all your problems when in reality he was the one who was trying to lead you through the hardship and into green pastures and still waters. Psalm 23 is a perfect analogy of what our relationship with the Lord should be like. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, ...” Yet when we like sheep go astray, we turn off the path away from the Lord into our passions and desires, which leads to fear, despair, and a sense of loss of direction and fulfillment. But the Lord is always one step away. His corrective rod will help bring you back onto the good path, and his staff will help protect you against your enemies, which will try to drag you off the path and devour you. Have faith that the Lord will be the one to rescue you and to defeat your enemies, just as he has done to his people of old.

When the Israelites went across the Jordan river into the land, they defeated those “mighty” nations, just like they defeated Sihon and Og on the east side of the Jordan.

Deuteronomy 31:4 ESV

And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them.

Just as God has displayed his victory in the past, he guarantees victory in the future. Here he gives Israel a very tangible display of God’s power at work in the lives of those present so that they can be reassured of the Lord’s presence.

Sometimes we question whether or not God is there and we begin to lose hope, simply because we cannot see him. In those moments, think back to what the Lord has done for you in the past, the struggles he has helped you to overcome, the power of sin which he has vanquished for you on the cross … and realize that the Lord’s power is still at work, even when you cannot see the outcome. If you are stuck in that moment of despair or are feeling defeated, look outside of your current circumstances and to the promises of God to help guide you through your difficulty.

Israel needed that reassurance of victory before entering the promised land … a land swarming with enemies in fortified cities and nations that would band together in order to destroy them. But the Lord reassures them of victory.

Deuteronomy 31:5 ESV

And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you.

They are commanded to kill every inhabitant in the land and to set up cities that walk according to the Lord’s ways.

But the important part of these verses, which I think is our key verse, is verse 6-

Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Let me read that verse again (read again). This verse summarizes the relationship between the Lord and his people. We as humans are going to face difficult times and fearsome enemies, but walking with the Lord will teach us traits to help us overcome.

Strength, Courage, Fear of the Lord, God’s Presence and Promises

Strength

What does Strength look like today?

2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Strength comes in understanding our own weakness. Think back to Moses, looking at his failing body. He still had strength to climb the mountain, invigorated by the passion to see the Lord and guided by the Lord’s Spirit. The power of Christ, his perfection and the Lord’s strength, is put on display when we show others how we are unable to live perfectly. Without showing our weaknesses, we will not be able to tell others of the work that the Lord has done in our lives.

There is a perception by those who are outside of the faith that Christians think themselves to be perfect. They think that we are continually trying to force a moral code onto everyone and to suppress their passions. Strength, when walking with the Lord, is the ability to admit your own sinfulness and weakness but to show how you walk with the Lord in spite of your struggles. If you don’t relate with others and their struggles on at least some level, you will not be able to share the gospel with them. Yes, it means being vulnerable and opening yourself up to some unwelcome comments, but the security of your identity is in the Lord, not in what man can say.

Our salvation in Christ is our strength. I think of this verse in Exodus 15, sung when the people were led out of the land of Egypt:

Exodus 15:2 ESV

The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Security in the Lord’s salvation gives us strength to face tomorrow and to overcome sin. His grace is sufficient power to know that we have received his love freely.

Courage

Courage is

Psalm 27:14 ESV

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

Matthew 14:27 ESV

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

Facing enemies and problems, but the Lord gives you a promise to hold onto.

Fear of the Lord

Do not fear enemies, but fear the Lord. I think of Jesus’ words when he said,

Matthew 10:28 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Who you fear is who you will obey.

Sometimes we are pushed into silence and complacency by the enemy just because they have a bigger and louder voice. Out of a drive to want to protect ourselves and our families, we slide into the background, hiding because of the fear that we could be harmed or even lose our lives. But that’s not what the Lord’s call is. Jesus reminds us of the important part: The Lord is the one who is in control, who sees when his own servants are willing to give themselves up so they can follow him. The Lord is the one who preserves the body and soul or casts it out. The other things that we face are just temporary. Our goal, our drive, is eternal and permanent, not temporary. Jesus reminds us of the stakes and causes us to take seriously our walk with the Lord here and now in steadfastness.

Philippians 2:12 ESV

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

Our fear is to not be of our enemies, but of learning to fear the Lord and to walk in his ways. The Israelites were to walk with the Lord entering into the land. We, too, as believers are to walk with the Lord in our salvation. That means clinging to him as our rock and our defence when we are affronted with fear. It means praying and casting your burdens upon the Lord because he cares for you.

His Presence

I think this is the thing that we miss the most. If we’re not careful, we can forget that the Lord is with us. When that happens we give into our fears and worries, we lose courage, we lose our strength. I’ve been reading through a book, called “The practice of the presence of God” by brother Lawrence. In this book, we as Christians are reminded of the importance of spending time with the Lord and delighting in who he is and what he brings. It’s amazing what difficulties you can face when you’ve been rooted in walking with the Lord.

Matthew 28:20 ESV

teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The Lord’s presence guarantees comfort as well as victory.

Deuteronomy 31:7–8 ESV

Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

It is the Lord who goes with you.

Charles Albert Tindley- (Song attributed with leading to the famous ‘We Shall Overcome’)

This world is one great battlefield, With forces all arrayed; If in my heart I do not yield I’ll overcome some day.

Both seen and unseen powers join To drive my soul astray, But with God's Word a sword of mine, I’ll overcome some day.

A thousand snares are set for me, And mountains in my way; If Jesus will my leader be, I’ll overcome some day.

I fail so often when I try My Savior to obey; It pains my heart and then I cry, Lord, make me strong some day.

My mind is not to do the wrong, But walk the narrow way; I’m praying as I journey on, To overcome some day.

Tho' many a time no signs appear, Of answer when I pray; My Jesus says I need not fear, He’ll make it plain some day.

Life as a follower of Christ is all about the Lord and his relationship with you. It’s what salvation is all about - Trusting the Lord, that he has offered victory over sin through Jesus Christ, and following his stead, calling him Lord of your life, forfeiting your own path that you might follow after him, accepting his strength and guidance, so that you can entrust your soul to green pastures. It’s a path of faith. Faith is the certainty of the things unseen and the only way to come to know God.

So what is the help to overcome? The help is a reminder that the Lord has promised his presence and power to you, to guide you through the difficulty and to lead your soul to the refreshment it so desperately needs. Victory has already been fulfilled in Christ.

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