COURAGE

We live in difficult times, where violent upheaval bears its bloody claws. The common beliefs that had once held us together have been dissolved and our institutions are coming apart. How then can we stand?

This had been Joshua’s concern. He had just taken over the leadership of the hordes of Israel from Moses. Would they follow him into the Promised Land as they had followed Moses for 40 years? Therefore, the Lord repeatedly instructed him:

·       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.” (Joshua 1:7-9 (ESV)

Where would Joshua find his courage? From trusting in the Lord! How? If Joshua would only trust in the Lord by doing what His Word instructed, the Lord would be with Him so that Joshua would have “good success wherever [he’d] go.”

There is only one way to be strong, and that is to be strong in the Lord and to depend upon Him. Our own strength will fail us, as Paul had repeatedly learned:

·       For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:8-10)

Paul had testified that we are not sufficient to do anything of any spiritual value on our own:

·       Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God (2 Corinthians 3:4-5; John 15:4-5)

Going a step further, to trust in our own strength, our flesh, to endure the coming trials is even forbidden:

·       Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD…Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5-8)

Trust in self is contrasted with trust in the Lord. They are even mutually exclusive. It is God alone who can enable us to stand against oppression and the threat of violence. This kind of confidence will even serve as a necessary testimony to our oppressors:

·       Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake. (Philippians 1:27-29)