Overmatched and Outnumbered - Joshua 1:1-9

Introduction

Have you ever gotten a new job or a promotion at work, and then felt instantly overwhelmed? Maybe you were the backup quarterback running drills at practice and now suddenly you’re the guy, or you were an associate and now you’re the manager, and you find yourself especially aware of your ability to fail and of the massive ramifications for a lot of people if you do. It’s that realization you have as a new parent when you’re hungry and tired, but the baby is still crying, the house is still dirty, and you Wal-mart pickup is about to expire. You wake up to a shot of adrenaline, and you go to sleep with adrenaline still pumping through your veins. It’s the material that panic attacks are made of.

What do you need from God when you find yourself there? My guess is that a lively debate on various views of the end times isn’t really of much interest to you then. No, when you’re overwhelmed and afraid, is not a god who is made up of a set of principles. What you need is a God who is a person, a God who is relatable, a God who assures his presence and his promises and your prosperity.

God’s Word

This is exactly where we find Joshua as we turn the page to the book that bears his name. You never want to be the man that follows the man, right? You want to be the man who follows the man whom followed the man. But, here’s Joshua as Moses’ successor. Not only that, he is being called forward to seize the Promised Land that had long been promised by God, but he is being called to seize it from cities that were fortified and whom far outnumbered and overmatched his untrained military. So, there he is, a freshly minted leader of a moody group desert dwellers, staring at the Jordan River which stood between Israel and the fulfillment of God’s promise. And, everyone is waiting on him to give the order to go. What a realization is must’ve been! But, as Joshua would learn, as many of you are still learning, it’s the far bank of the Jordan that teaches you the trustworthiness of God. We’re getting front row seat to Joshua’s commissioning service, and what we see is that God comforts and challenges (simultaneously) those whom He calls. The charge (& comfort) God gives to those He’s calling forward (headline) but feel overmatched and outnumbered.

“Be” courageous.

v. 6 “Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”

v. 7a “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.”

v. 9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

“God does not have a speech impediment. When He repeats himself, He intends to.” Crawford Loritts

One central charge (be courageous) with two significant implications (live courageously/lead courageously). Both the central charge and its implications are tethered to a series of promises that God makes to Joshua.

In verses 5-6, you see there are three promises surrounding this single charge which is essentially mirrored in verse 9.

Promises 1 and 2, in my mind, are two ways of saying the same thing. The central promise of the whole passage is “I will not leave or forsake you.” So, when he says, “No man shall be able to stand before you all the day or your life”, it’s because “(God) will not leave or forsake him (all the days of his life).”

It makes sense that Joshua leading Israel into Canaan, and you as a new mom or as freshly called pastor or as a promoted manager, would be filled with fear if you are alone. But, how would you feel if the Almighty was in the room standing in front of you? What would happen if you really believed with all of your heart that there was not a step that you could take that would enable you to escape the presence of the God who has promised to defend you?

Courage is not something that you muster from within. Courage, as the Bible understands it, is not an inner resolve or an inner strength that must be tapped. Courage isn’t a feeling of great inspiration or the lack of trembling knees. Courage is a response to the realization that Almighty God is with you and for you. It’s a response to the realization that there is none greater than Him, nothing beyond Him, and He has promised to leverage all of his might and all of his sovereignty so that only your good can result.

In other words, courage is faith, not a feeling and not an innate strength that some have and some don’t.

Two ways of saying the same thing:

Courage is the difference between the life that you have and the life that you can have.

Faith is the difference between the life that you have and the life that you can have.

That’s what brings up the third promise that we see in our text:

v. 6 “Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”

The promise to Joshua was that his faith would result in inheriting the Promised Land.

On one hand: “you shall cause” (it’s the result of your faith)

On the other hand: “to inherit (used 50 x’s in Joshua) the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.” (it’s because of your action or merit; it’s an inheritance that I will give freely)

How can something be both the result of Joshua and God? It’s God’s work and God’s character and God’s promise fulfilled through Joshua’s faith to go where God was sending him.

Why isn’t Israel already in the Promised Land? Israel was always willing to settle for what they had over what they could have. They trusted what they had collected more than what God had promised. They were afraid that they would be killed taking the Promised Land. They were afraid that God’s promise wouldn’t come true. They were afraid that their God was like all of the other gods and would flake out on them. That is, they didn’t believe him. They didn’t have faith in his word.

That brings us back to: Faith is the difference between the life that you have and the life that you can have.

Why do people hear the gospel and say no? They believe the life they have is better than the life they would have. They don’t trust God.

When God calls you to adopt or foster, why are you so hesitant? You believe the life you have is better than the life that you don’t.

When God calls you into the ministry or to give generously or to serve your local church or to go on a mission trip, why do you not? You believe that the life you have is greater than the life God is calling you toward.

That is, your obedience is timid and your experiences are shallow and your joy is cheap all for the same reason — you have no courage, no FAITH to obey God. You disbelieve that He will never leave you and never forsake you.

APP: Which life do you want: the life you have or the life that God intends for you?

Do you want a life that tests the limits of your strength, or a life that tests the limits of God’s strength?

It’s interesting: Once you follow God, once you place your faith in him, once you’ve experienced the Promised Land that He supplies, nobody ever wants to go back. I’ve never met a parent who wanted to un-adopt, hard as that process might be. I’ve never met a couple who wishes they would’ve given less that people might hear the gospel or eat. Nobody ever regrets generosity. Go around the room after service today and ask one of the 200 people that have been on a mission trip and ask if it was a waste of their time and money. They’ll all say: “I plan to go back.”

Do you believe that God is with you and for you?

“Live” courageously.

v. 7 “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.”

So, the central charge of this passage is to be courageous. But, then there’s these two implications of that courage, meaning this what the courage (faith) looks like and what it leads to. So, when we say that verse 7 implies that having courage results in living courageously, we’re seeing what courage looks like. Courage in the life of God’s people takes a particular shape. It draws a particular portrait.

Notice what God says.

courageous = resolute --- be resolute in the law of Moses. Faith in the Bible is not just an emotional whim that you satisfy. It’s not about fits and spurts of obedience followed by abandonment and disobedience. Faith is settled, determined obedience. It’s banking the direction of your life upon your confidence in God, when you feel like it and when you don’t, when it’s convenient and when it’s not, when it’s beneficial and when its costly. This is a call to steady, determined, resolute faith. It’s a call to not just say that you have courage, but to live courageously.

Living, active, resolute faith is evidenced by committed obedience to God’s word.

Joshua is the first book after the Law of Moses. Asks: How will Israel obey?

Obedience shows that you trust God alone for what He’s calling you toward. God and not the other gods who promise wealth. God and not vengeful murder to overcome injustice. God and no stealing to have the things you need or the glory you hope for.

Disobedience is always rooted in disbelief.

The belief that there’s something better than God.

The belief that there’s a better way than God’s way.

The belief that God may be holding back on you.

So, obedience, even when I don’t understand it, even when I want to go another way, even when I feel like it’s the wrong idea, is the lived out demonstration of your faith.

Comes with a promise: that you may have good success wherever you go.”

Not, you’ll not face any opposition. Not, you’ll get a promotion and raise at every job you take. Not, you’ll never have to go to battle.

success = “may act wisely” — “that you ‘may act wisely’ wherever you go.” That is that you may live skillfully within the will of God. The Law gives you the wisdom so that you can thrive within God’s will, regardless of where God’s will takes you.

It’s a promise that you will always succeed at God’s will for you, even if his will is for you to suffer and struggle.

v. 8 = ‘make your way prosperous’ = parallel promise = encompasses the idea of succeeding in suffering/struggle.

Joseph in Potiphar’s house

Daniel in Babylon

the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53

APP: Courageous faith leads to resolute obedience to God’s word. Resolute obedience to God’s law assures you the wisdom to thrive wherever God takes you.

Do you see how this leads to courageous living? No fortified city, no ruthless military, no marriage challenge, no financial hardship, no call to adopt or to go or to give is not encompassed.

“Lead” Courageously.

v. 8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

What is this courageous faith supposed to lead to? It’s the preparation for Joshua to lead his people. To prepare Joshua for the brutal battles that lie ahead, God doesn’t train Joshua’s body; He trains Joshua’s faith.

How different is this than the way we often train our children? We worry to death about the people they will become and the struggles they will face and the decisions they will make. So, we spend all of our energy training the bodies and their minds and hardly any training their faith. My goodness, how backward!

Everyone was waiting on Joshua’s command. So, how was he to speak to them? How was he to lead them? How was he to command them? “This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth.”

God leads his people through his word. (same today with the preached word)

Meditate = quote aloud

couldn’t carry scrolls with them.

Israel was always grumbling and gossiping:

Lower morale/division/doubt/judgement

God tells Joshua to change the conversation from problems to promises!

Assured/encouraged/emboldened/unified

Joshua has a particular responsibility when it comes to God’s promise.

“For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

So, on God has already said that He’s going before them, He’s going with them so that no army, no person can stand before them. He’s already said that He would give them their inheritance.

So, how was it that Joshua would ‘make his way prosperous?’ That is, how would he maintain his courage and the courage of those he was leading? By reciting God’s promises day in and day out. It wasn’t by improving their weaponry, and it wasn’t by doing training exercises. It was by reminding himself and his people that this was God’s battle to fight and God’s gift to give.

APP: Change the conversation in your life from problems to promises.

Problems —> grumbling —>demoralization

Promises —> praise —> passionate