Joshua 1: Be Strong and Courageous

"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." Joshua 1:9

Have you ever been afraid? Yeah, me too. Well, what do we do in those times of fear? In Joshua 1, God tells us: be strong and courageous.

As we begin our study of the book of Joshua, let's quickly point out how this book is all about how the Lord fulfills his promises. Hundreds of years before the book of Joshua, God promised that Abraham's sons would be given land (see Gen. 15:17-20). Here in the book of Joshua, we will see that despite overwhelming obstacles, God fulfills his promises to his people. In our lives today, is this not applicable? I don't know about you, but amidst the chaos we are living in today, it sure brings me great comfort knowing that God fulfills his promises. God has promised me in scripture that he will never leave me nor forsake me (Heb. 13:5-6) and that all of his plans are for my good (Rom. 8:28). Yet what use are those promises amidst my chaos if I do not know if God will fulfill them? Well, thanks to the book of Joshua (and the rest of the Bible), I know that God fulfills his promises, and I can have firm confidence that if he was faithful then he will be faithful now.

Anyway, back to Joshua 1. In the first nine verses of this great chapter, God gives Joshua a good ole' Ancient Near Eastern pep talk. That's right. God pulls Joshua out of the huddle and gives him a one-on-one, and this is his main message: be strong and courageous. We've all heard these words before, and we've probably all memorized Joshua 1:9 or at least have read it hundreds of times. But what is the point of what God is saying here?

Let us note that the imperitive command of God for Joshua to be strong and courageous was backed up with indicative promises that Joshua could hold onto amidst his fear. Right in the midst of commanding Joshua to be strong and courageous, he tells Joshua that every place that the soul of his foot touched would be given to him (v. 3), that no man would be able to stand against him all the days of his life (5), and that God would never leave him nor forsake him (5), Thus, Joshua wasn't trudging across the Jordan and into the Promised Land with false hope. Rather, he was charging into the Promised Land with the full promises of God. Would it take faith to believe in those promises? Of course, but as we will see, faith in the promises of God means victory for his people.

Furthermore, let us not one more thing in these great verses concerning the command to be strong and courageous. Coupled with this command, we find another imperative: "being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. . . .You shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it. . . .For then you will make your way prosperous" (7-8). Notice here the imperitive command of God to both meditate on and obey God's Word in order to gain success. If Joshua was to be strong and courageous, he had to know God's Word. You see, it's difficult (and by difficult, I mean impossible) to be confidence in Christ if you don't know Christ, and you will never know Christ apart from studying the scriptures. Thus we clearly find here that we must be strong and courageous, but that strength and courage comes only from meditation (that is, deep thinking on spiritual truths) on scripture which leads to obedience to scripture.

So, realize this morning that just like Joshua, you are called to be strong and courageous in relation to the places to which the Lord has called you. Has the Lord placed you quarantined in your house this morning? Then be strong and courageous. Has the Lord called you to endure hardship this morning? Then be strong and courageous. Yet amidst that imperative command, realize these two things, lest you miss the point: (1) We can only be strong and courageous as much as we have faith in the promises of God, and (2) We can only be strong and courageous as much as we meditate on the truths of scripture. True strength and courage comes from faith in a God who has promised to never leave you nor forsake you (Heb. 13:5-6).