As Joshua listened to The Lord about how to enter the Promised Land; this is what he heard: “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.“
Of all the things that God could have reminded Joshua to do; why do you think He was saying “be strong and courageous?” Today we will look deeper into what it means for a Christian to be “strong and courageous.”
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to lesson three of The Book of Joshua Study from the COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY presented here at The IN SEASON Lifestyle blog every Thursday.
We are so happy that you have joined in with us today.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE STRONG?
Now the scriptures indicate many times that Joshua was a strong warrior. It could be though, that God was referring to a different kind of strength which is other than a physical strength. He could have been talking about spiritual strength, or strength of will, or perseverance.
What words can we find in the bible that indicate the true meaning of “being strong?”
DICTIONARY MEANINGS
There is one dictionary that says being strong is: “Having physical passive power, having ability to bear or endure; firm; solid; as a constitution strong enough to bear the fatigues of a campaign.”
That definition certainly seems to fit Joshua’s situation.
To get the Israelites to the promised land, Joshua needed endurance. He needed to stand firm and solid. The way would be very tiring; so he would also need to be strong enough to endure the fatigue of a campaign for bringing all of the people into this new land.
ABLE TO SUSTAIN ATTACKS
Here is another definition of “strong:” “Well fortified; able to sustain attacks; not easily subdued or taken; as a strong fortress or town.”
Joshua was about to lead a people much larger than a town. They numbered in the thousands. If it takes a “well fortified” person able to sustain attacks, who is not easily subdued or taken, to sustain the strength of a town; it would surely take that to manage all of these Israelites.
Yes; I would say Joshua needs to be “well fortified.” That would mean military training for all of the most able-bodied men of Israel. It is a good thing that Joshua had always been a warrior; because it now appeared that he was going to have to give warrior-training lessons to many of the men of Israel.
WELL FORTIFIED WITH MILITARY TRAINING
The next definition we find from the dictionary confirms all of the above. It reads; ” Having great military or naval force; powerful; as a strong army or fleet; a strong nation; a nation strong at sea.”
This certainly sounds reasonable to expect of a leader like Joshua.
His task isn’t going to be easy. This kind of well-fortified strength, which would be a national type of strength, would certainly help to reinforce the taking of the land.
But again; what does our bible say about strength?
BIBLICAL DEFINITIONS OF STRENGTH
Do you think it was possible that the Psalmist David had the strength of Joshua in mind as he penned Psalm 121: 1-2? It says:
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? my help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
Perhaps “help” and “strength” could be interchangable here.
In Joshua’s world, just like David’s later, real men realized that all true strength came from God. Night and day they sought it in their prayers.
ISAIAH’S DEFINITION OF STRENGTH
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
The prophet Isaiah understood and spoke of such strength:
Isaiah 41:10 says: So, do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Ah – ha!
It seems that all true strength comes from God.
God promised to be with Joshua in all that he undertook; so he should have received all of the strength he needed directly from God.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE COURAGEOUS?
God’s definition of courage and the world’s definition of courage may not be the same either.
Let’s check them out.
The dictionary has a pretty good definition of courage:
The ability to do something that frightens you; strength in the face of pain or greif.
Sounds right; doesn’t it?
BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF COURAGE
What does the bible say about courage?
Let’s start with a time when Jesus had so show the most courage that any one has ever had to endure:
He was with the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. Here is the passage:
There appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
When he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples he found them sleeping for sorrow, and said unto them, Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. (Luke 22; 43-46.)
In the above passage we see that Jesus received strength and courage from an Angel who assisted him in prayer.
ASSISTING ANGELS
Many think this angel was Michael The Archangel, and that Michael was praying along with Jesus for God to strengthen Him and give Him courage in the time that He faced the cross.
That sounds logical to me.
There was a time in my own life when I was severely lacking of courage. Without going into many details here, I will tell you that an angel came to minister to me. He helped me to have more courage and he prayed with me about things that would unfold in the future of my life.
I thought at the time that he was only a young man working with the ministry where we were staying for the week. Later, when I inquired I learned that no such person had ever been involved with that work.
It occurred to me that God had sent an angel to help me in my distress. The angel truly did his job. He prayed with me and God gave me more strength.
THE POWER COMES FROM GOD NO MATTER THE CONNECTING SOURCE
I’ve heard numerous people say the same thing. It is my own personal belief that God sends angels to minister to His people when they are in need of strength and courage.
Of course, we must realize that any power of an angel comes to them directly from God, just as with any people who pray.
It is always God doing the work; the angel or the person is simply the messenger of the power of God’s healing.
DANIEL’S COURAGE
I can never think of praying for courage without remembering Daniel and all of the times he trusted in God for complete deliverance from danger. We read the scripture of Daniel 10:19 which confirms this:
And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.’ And as he spoke to me I was strengthened and said, “Let my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”
This was an Angel speaking to Daniel about a vision that he had just seen of the future of His people. I think this vision frightened Daniel much more than the earlier time when he had been thrown into the Lion’s Den.
Daniel was so troubled by what he had seen that he could not function properly. The angel came to strengthen him. Daniel was then able to receive the rest of the revelation from God. It was something that he had prayed to understand.
JOSHUA IS STRENGTHENED
So it was that Joshua was given the strength and courage that he needed in order to take God’s people to The Promised Land.
The Church today must also be praying for the same strength and courage that God gave to Joshua.
There are new places for us to go and God is going to help our leaders to get us there. Many new tasks are before us and they will take courage and strength to carry out.
FOLLOWING GOD’S PLAN
As Joshua led the people to a land that fulfilled the desires of God for them; we too must led the Church to higher ground and a better future.
We can do this the same way that Joshua accomplished it; by following God’s plan.
Nothing we do will matter; it is only what God will do with us that will count for the future of the world.
When the times comes for us all to step up we simply have to be strong and courageous; like Joshua.