Be strong; of good courage
Joshua 1:5-9, 18 I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage.
Psalm 27:14 Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.
Psalm 31:24 Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
The first chapter of Joshua from verses 5-9, God gives reassurance, encouragement, and firm direction to Joshua. He promises to be there, and He will comfort and support the same as He did with Moses. (And of course, Joshua would have seen this first hand since he was one of the closest advisors to Moses). But God also repeatedly stresses ‘Be strong and of good courage.’
Suddenly, Joshua is in charge of this head-strong, unruly bunch of people when they can almost smell their success and the end of the journey after many years. They are anxious to settle, not finish going further in the journey, but to plant roots and start building something firm.
Yet, God still had more for them to conquer, to push back and overcome the remaining peoples. So He encouraged them to be strong and to go out and finish with courage the tasks He had commanded. He wanted them to continue to go forth and finish the task He had set before Moses, so they could settle in the land of milk and honey, wonderful figs and olives, and so on. It was not yet time to be finished with the task, close, but not finished.
God recognized they were unsure now that their leader had died. Would God still be with them? Did they have to continue on? After all, it had been years of travelling, fighting and overcoming the peoples God commanded them to overtake. The people were anxious to be settled, start their establishments, build permanent homes, and start the life as residents versus nomads.
God gave firm reassurance that He would continue with them, and He encouraged them to continue on with strength and courage although they were almost done with this nomadic life style.
They should remain strong and of courage because He travelled with them. He would continue to be with Joshua the same way He had travelled with Moses leading the people. And they continued until the job was done, and each tribe received their reward.
It is the same for us. We need to continue to have strength and courage when we have been directed by God even when the path is rocky, strewn with holes and dangers, and it has been a long time (to us) that we have been travelling. The reward of spending eternity with Him, ad hearing “well done, my faithful servant” is worth it.
The book of Joshua is a wonderful book to read whenever you need reminding of His strength, as well as many other verses throughout. But knowing Joshua is filled with God’s direction toward courage has been a huge benefit to ‘mybellaviews.’
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