"Only Be Strong and Very Courageous"

Joshua 1:1–18 ESV

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 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. 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. 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.” And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.’ ” And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said, “Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’ Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them, until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it, the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.” And they answered Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses! Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”

Scripture: Joshua 1:1-18

Sermon Title: “Only Be Strong and Very Courageous”

           Last week Sunday morning, we looked back at the Israelites’ encounter with God at Mt. Sinai where they entered into covenant with him. God offered to make them his treasured possession, his kingdom of priests, and his holy nation if they would obey him fully and keep his covenant, if they would declare their dependence on him. We also saw how that offer is for us in the church today 1 Peter 2. This morning we are going to fast forward about 40 years from that encounter to what we see the people of God as they are about to enter into the Promised Land, as those promises for them to be more than wanderers are about to take hold, and they are embarking with a new leader.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Joshua that we encounter in our text this morning was a familiar face for the community of Israel. This man had been Moses’ right-hand man all the way back even before their parents had reached Mt. Sinai. He was a military leader for the people when they battled the Amalekites. Joshua was one of the few allowed to come part of the way up Mt. Sinai to join Moses, as we are told they were together when Moses came down to where the camp was worshipping a golden calf. He was the one who stood at the tent of meeting where Moses met with God, seeking his guidance. Joshua was one of the initial spies to Canaan, and when Moses knew his days were drawing to a close, he commissioned Joshua before the whole camp to take his role.  The refrain of “be strong and courageous” was spoken by Moses to him as he was called to lead God’s people into the Promised Land with the Lord’s wisdom. 

I am guessing he is well-known to many of us as well. Known less for his backstory, better for his role in what would take place several chapters ahead of our passage. People tend to know him for the infamous battle against Jericho. It was Joshua who God called to battle Jericho with the interesting tactic of walking laps around the city over the course of a week and on the seventh day, when they completed 7 laps and shouted at the top of their lungs, the walls fell down. Our Sunday School classes and songs or viewing the Veggie Tales rendition have taught us about Israel’s first victory west of the Jordan River as they entered into the land God was giving them to take possession of, and their leader was Joshua.

Joshua was a servant of God who took the declaration of dependence seriously; he trusted that God would be with and go before his people to wherever he might be calling them. Maybe it is just me, but I think we tend to think of him as a younger man; however, by looking through the opening books of the Bible, at the youngest, Joshua was 55 and it seems much more likely that he was over 60 years old when we meet him here when and where God has called him to lead (not that those of you over 60 are not young people). To jump to the end of his life for a moment, he lived to the age of 110 years old. He saw the first half-century of God’s people in their new home; Joshua got to live through both low and high points in Israel’s history. The major high point is that having been brought out of a land where they were slaves and to use the language of some of the prophets they “were not a people” in Egypt, but God had made them his people and gave them a home. However it certainly was not going to be an easy move-in, thus, why we hear him told four times by God and his men in this opening chapter, “Be strong and courageous.” The question that sticks out to me when we read this passage, why does God repeat himself? Or another way to put it, why did Joshua need to hear this active command repeated? I believe the answer lies for him and for us lies in the context of each command.

First, he needs to hear this, as we see in verse 6, “because [he] will lead these people to inherit the land [God] swore to their forefathers to give them.” Last week, we were up on Mt. Sinai, less than two months after God had freed the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. The rest of the book of Exodus and then Leviticus tell us about what happened after that encounter while they were still camping there. But about 500 years before God had spoken to Abraham, their grandfather many generations back, and he promised him that his descendants would take possession of the land he showed to him. Abraham was the start of a people called out of one place by God and moving toward another. That promise was passed down not just a couple generations but for centuries, and Joshua was called to be strong because the previous generation of the people he was now leading to that new home had proven once that they did not trust God 40 years before.    

           The book of Numbers holds that account, where after a year of freedom, receiving and responding to the instructions of God at Sinai, there were rumblings going through the camp that it was almost time to leave. But something very important had to take place before they went anywhere; Moses has the tribes perform a census, a count of how many of them there were with the purpose of tallying the number of warriors. A war-mentality has been with these people since leaving Egypt; we are told in Exodus 13:18 that the Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle. They had had to fight before reaching Sinai, and now as they left that place, they were preparing for what was ahead. They knew the land God had planned for them was not a vacant lot or open prairie, but it was inhabited. You can imagine as the totals came in, everyone would have seen how God’s faithfulness had brought together such a great number of people. Once they had taken the census, they consecrated their tabernacle and broke camp. 

 God led them to the Desert of Paran. If you have a mental map or a physical map in your Bible, they are approaching the land of Canaan that is promised to them from the south. While they stopped, God calls on Moses to send delegates from each of the tribes as spies to look at the land and at the people. They were supposed to report on how many and how strong, the conditions of the land and the cities, and since it was the right time of year, he tells them to bring back some fruit. 

“It is exactly how God said it would be, “flowing with milk and honey!” Here is your fruit!” The 12 spies report after being gone for 40 days. But then their demeanor drops and the majority report is, “They are too powerful, too fortified, the people are too big for us!” But one of the twelve, Caleb, speaks up on behalf of himself and Joshua, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” He reminds the people, “If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land…and will give it to us. Do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land…the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” 

A couple months ago, they had taken a census; they had figured out how many people could fight, let alone how many people were in the whole camp.  But the other 10 spies had already done their damage; they had spread fear and doubt among the people. When God received their inability to trust him, their unwillingness to go into the new home he had promised them, God decreed that none of them would see the new land, save Caleb and Joshua. All of these people 20 years or older would pass away in the desert, and the land would be reserved for their children.  There was no second chance for that generation to go in, as we can read some unsuccessfully tried to do, and so God’s punishment was a year for each day that those spies had explored the land of Canaan. God’s first “Be strong and courageous” for Joshua comes because the people are again about to inherit the land promised all the way back to Abraham, the same land they were about to receive 40 years ago, and they needed a leader who would persevere.

Second, it comes in the context of the people’s commitment to God, as we see in verses 7 and 8, “Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” In our first point, much of what God entails is what is recorded throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Now God is calling Joshua to be careful to follow the Law of Moses. I really do think God was working through a chronological timeline with Joshua because what is referenced here is very much what is in the book of Deuteronomy, the book of the repeated law. 

Over the course of those 40 years of punishment and waiting, the Israelite camp has traveled to their current position on the east banks of the Jordan River, and their Moses spent his last days teaching this new generation. He taught them their history so that they might learn from their parents’ mistakes, but in even greater detail, he gave them a refresher on the laws and covenant stipulations. Enduring the punishment, God’s people were hearing that what their God wanted and what he offered was still on the table. 

This new generation reaffirmed the covenant, they gave their word to God through Moses that surely the Lord was their God and he was God alone. “To obey all the law” as God calls Joshua to do, is summed up in Deuteronomy 6, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” He is the God that they were not to forget who he was or what he had done for them, and they could not forget that they were his. Our minds tend to focus the commitment of the people on their individual actions, but what God continued to desire was that his people would be dependent and reliant upon him, that his people would love him. To follow instructions for the sake of the instructions is to be moral, but to trust fully in the one who gave those instructions and laws would reflect in their values and lifestyles who they believed to be in control.  

When Moses went over all of these things, he also told the people of both the blessings and the curses that came along with the covenant relationship they were in with the one true God. If they would follow him, they would be blessed beyond measure. As we see in our text, God speaks to Joshua, if you can follow what I have called you to, “You may be successful wherever you go.” If he were to keep this truth, the Book of the Law, which reveals who God is, how he redeemed his people, and what he was calling them to, then God promises, “You will be prosperous and successful.” If they would follow the ways their God had set our and practice the spirit of the law, spending time growing in knowledge and trust, [loving] the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself,” then one can truly experience his greatest goodness. God told Joshua, “Be strong and very courageous. Obey my law only and mediate on it. You will be prosperous and successful.” God does not say that in receiving prosperity and success, there will be no temporary hardships or occasional difficulties; but I think for Joshua true prosperity and success from God would have entailed receiving great joy that far outweighed any struggle he might endure. 

So far we have seen that Israel’s leader needed to “be strong and courageous” so that he would be prepared for the perils of battle and potential cowardice of the people he was leading. He needed to be firmly rooted and steadfast in the one who was truly leading him and all of them.  Finally, if Joshua has not gotten it, God tells him with the third command in verse 9, “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Think about the task given to him, Joshua had to lead hundreds of thousands of men to fight the native inhabitants and take possession of a place they had never been before, not to mention their wives and families. They were not just fighting, but they were also supposed to be obeying their God’s commands and practicing who he had called them to be. That’s a big task, and surely there had been good reason why so many of the spies had feared doing this 40 years before. 

As a man, as a human being, the road ahead of Joshua was not going to be easy, was not going to be without bumps and curves, but the Lord tells him before it all begins, “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged.” “Do not be frightened; do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” God’s call to his servant is simple, “Do not let the troubles you face drag you down, do not let anxiety and worry and things that seem impossible overcome you, for I am going to be with you, I promise I am going to be your help Joshua.” What a comfort and encouragement that is! The chapters ahead tell us that Israel went on to conquer 31 kings and their territories; Joshua guided this nation to possess the land under God’s care and leading, he guided them to a rest they greatly needed and God desired for them to have.

The promises of God to provide the inheritance of this land, to grant success and prosperity, to be with his children are incredible promises and there are things we can take away from each of them still today. The inheritance that we look forward to is the place in the new heavens and new earth that Jesus has gone to prepare. God continues to delight in those who love him and love his law, that does not mean that they will not suffer in any way or encounter any difficulty, because there is still sin in the world, but the joy found in God far outweighs our earthly sorrows. Finally, for each of us and each of his people around the world and throughout history and into the future, the final promise remains true, “Do not be terrified, and do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” We should not take that promised lightly or flippantly, but know that in the darkest and most unknown of days our God does go with us.

Our VBS kids this week on their last day learned a verse, which I think was a great lesson to wrap up their week on a quest for the kingdom as well as a great way to conclude this morning. The verse they learned was Ephesians 6:10, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” What Paul follows that with is teaching the church in Ephesus to put on the full armor of God that allows believers to stand in truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and fitting themselves with these things by the Word of God against anything that comes against us. “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” 

John Calvin wrote about our passage, “Let us learn that we can never be fit for executing difficult…matters unless we exert our utmost endeavors, both because our abilities are weak, and Satan rudely assails us, and there is nothing we are more inclined to than to relax our efforts.” The call for Joshua and to God’s people still today is not just to temporarily appear strong, but that in all of life and as long as we live, that we would actually be and remain strong. The support that we have is not how much physical or mental or emotional strength we ourselves can muster, but that we would do all things “in the Lord and in his mighty power.” That is my challenge for you, young people and their leaders going off on your service trip later this week and next. When you find yourself in a situation that is not easy or comfortable, if you find yourself not knowing what to say to someone you meet, or challenged by what is around you, “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” For the rest of us and in the rest of life, whatever circumstance we may face whether it is conflict like Joshua was preparing for, or the task of leading others in the church or in a workplace or at home, whether it be illness or distress in relationships, temptation or any type of fear; whatever comes up, may we also heed the God who commands us to “Be strong and courageous,” going forth with the promises he has spoken throughout history and continues to speak today. Amen.