Can you imagine hearing the promises God made to
Joshua? I will give you everywhere your
foot treads. 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. Why then does God have to
tell him so many times to be strong and courageous? It is because He always leaves work for us to
do. He isn't going to destroy the
peoples of the land in advance, He is going to use the nation to do that work
but He will empower them for the work.
They will have reason to fear but they are to always fall back on His
promises, the words He spoke to Joshua, to overcome their fears. The greatest promise is that He will not
leave or forsake them. When he tells the
people these things they assent to God's choice of Joshua as leader and I love
their statement, "Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey
you." That is a cringe-worthy
statement if I have ever heard one. They
also admonish him to be strong and courageous and their prayer is that God will
be with him as He was with Moses. That
should be the prayer of all God's people for all God's leaders.
I love Mark partly because of the word immediately. He had a huge sense of urgency in all he
wrote, "immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue", "immediately
there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit." If I wrote that way you would all get our
your imaginary editing pencils and strike through it in both places. The people have been amazed at Jesus'
teaching and now, with the authority with which He commands the demonic
presence in the man and its obedience, they are more amazed and in awe of Him. Jesus knew the fullness of the promise the
Lord made to Joshua and He walked in faith and power all the days of His
life. Do we walk in the power of God in
this way? We should proclaim the truth
in confidence and we need fear no weapon formed against us.
Once at Tyre and then a couple of days later, at Caesarea,
Paul is warned not to go to Jerusalem because of what will happen to him there
at the hands of the Jews. Paul, however,
will not be dissuaded from continuing His journey there. Jesus, likewise, knew what was going to
happen in Jerusalem at the Passover, and yet, in obedience He went. He knew his own destiny better than any man
who ever lived and accepted His fate not only willingly but for the glory of
God. Paul, remember, was told way back
in the beginning of his walk "how much he must suffer for the sake of my
name.” He, too, walked fearlessly even though he knew it wouldn't end
well. What have we to fear? Be strong and courageous, Jesus promised He
would be with us, even to the end of the age, as we go about keeping the Great
Commission.
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