December 1, 2024
Joshua 1:9
“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.”
Be strong and courageous. At times we take God’s commandment to be courageous as something to muster up rather than something revealed to us. We bring out our Christmas trees, deck the halls, and try to muster a spirit of cheer and good tidings, just as we attempt to display our own courage.
But God isn’t commanding Joshua to pull courage from "thin air." Instead, the courage God commands, and the end of fear, is based on the certainty of the promises that precede it:
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 (Joshua. 1:3-6).
Now remember, this isn’t the first time God has made this promise: “Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.” In fact from the very beginning, despite their rebellion and their fear, God has been with his people.
But God isn’t commanding Joshua to pull courage from "thin air." Instead, the courage God commands, and the end of fear, is based on the certainty of the promises that precede it:
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 (Joshua. 1:3-6).
Now remember, this isn’t the first time God has made this promise: “Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.” In fact from the very beginning, despite their rebellion and their fear, God has been with his people.
He has sought them out (Gen. 3:9),
he has remembered them (Gen. 8:1),
he has blessed them (Gen. 12:1-3),
he has delivered them from slavery,
and he has gone before them (Deut. 31:3).
Here is GOOD NEWS, in the midst of our uncertainty, worries and fear, God does the same for you and me as he did for Joshua: he does not leave us, nor does he forsake us. He doesn’t ask us to be courageous on our own. In this season of Advent, we are reminded that through a baby born in a manger, fear has been emptied of its power; you are his, and his strength is yours.
Here is GOOD NEWS, in the midst of our uncertainty, worries and fear, God does the same for you and me as he did for Joshua: he does not leave us, nor does he forsake us. He doesn’t ask us to be courageous on our own. In this season of Advent, we are reminded that through a baby born in a manger, fear has been emptied of its power; you are his, and his strength is yours.
No comments:
Post a Comment