It is lovely visiting with you again and I’m so grateful to Rev’d Ruth for the opportunity.
Today, I have the great privilege of beginning the book of Joshua with you all. And what an amazingly strong start it is. I heard that last year you studied the story of Moses, a long, complicated story with lots of ups and downs. One of the major downs in Moses’ story was that he was not allowed to enter the land that God was giving the people of Israel. God had his reasons, Moses had messed up, so when it was time for Moses to die, God took him up the mountain and showed him the promised land, but he told him ‘I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.’
So, after all that long journey through the wilderness, God needed someone else to take the people into the promised land. And he had someone special in mind.
The place where Moses messed up was Meribah. It’s not totally clear what went wrong there, and the descriptions are different in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20. My understanding from Numbers is that God had asked Moses to speak to the rock so that it would pour forth water for the people, but Moses was angry, and he hit the rock instead.
The next thing we see in the narrative is the first mention of Joshua (in Exodus 17:9). Moses says to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites.’ Joshua did the fighting and Moses stood on top of the hill and held up his hands. When Moses held his hands up, the Israelites were winning, but when he got tired and lowered his hands the Amalekites started to gain ground. In the end, they put rocks under Moses’ hands, and the Word says, ‘So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.’ Exodus 17:13. We are not told here that Joshua will be the next leader of the people, but I find it interesting that the first mention of him is directly after Moses messed up.
The next time we hear about Joshua, in Exodus 24, he is referred to as Moses’ aide. He goes with Moses up to the mountain of Sinai and when they go up, the cloud covers the mountain and the Glory of the Lord settles on Mount Sinai, and Joshua is there in that cloud with Moses.
It must have been an amazing experience, because later when the Glory of the Lord would descend on the tent of meeting and Moses would meet with God face-to-face there, Joshua would stay on in the tent of meeting, even after Moses left. He delighted in the Lord. He just wanted more and more of God.
And, of course, we know that Joshua and Caleb were the only two spies who trusted God to deliver Canaan into the hands of the Israelites.
Joshua’s name was originally Hoshea (meaning salvation, safety) but Moses changed it to Joshua (meaning God is deliverance, God saves) (Numbers 13:6) and Joshua lived that message, trusting in God to save the Israelites in every situation.
So now we come to Moses’ death. God told Moses he would die (Deut 31) and Moses laid his hands on Joshua and transferred the leadership of the people to him. He said, ‘Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them … The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.’
Then they went into the tent of meeting and the Lord himself gave the same message to Joshua, ‘Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you.’
Then Moses went up the mountain without Joshua, and he died there.
And that’s where we start our reading for today. Joshua chapter one.
God speaks to Joshua and says, ‘Moses is dead.’
Joshua had been waiting for this message. He knew that God had called him to lead the people. He had been in training. He was ready. But he didn’t move to take on the leadership until the right time. He had been waiting to hear, ‘Moses is dead.’ and now it was his time to lead.
God reiterates his message to Joshua and says even more encouraging things (feel free to follow along in your own Bible):
2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
It was the end of one era and the beginning of the next for the people of Israel. And God told them that this era was going to be successful.
‘I will give you every place where you set your foot.’
‘No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life’
‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’
‘You will be prosperous and successful’
‘Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’
We also have seasons in our lives:
- leaving school or beginning university
- marriage or leaving home
- having children, or becoming empty nesters
- starting new jobs or retiring
- moving to a new country
I don’t know about you, but when I left university to start my own small business, I would have loved to have been told by God, ‘Don’t worry. You will succeed. No one will be able to stand against you. You will be prosperous and successful.’
It’s a pretty good promise.
If you knew that God had promised you success through your life in all the different stages, would it have changed the decisions you made? Would your life journey be different?
Does God promise us prosperity and success when we follow him?
Are prosperity and success signs of God’s favour?
There are plenty of preachers who will tell you that it is. They will tell you that health and wellbeing, wealth, and strength, all these things are signs of God’s favour. All of them have been promised to you. And you just have to reach out and take them (and give a hefty donation to their preaching fund as well).
But we don’t live in Joshua’s time. We are followers of Jesus. And when we look at Jesus, we can see that he gave up EVERYTHING when he did what God wanted him to do.
He was ‘… obedient to death, even death on a cross.’ Philippians 2:8
Jesus didn’t show us a picture of a wealthy and successful king, sitting on a throne and having everything go his way. He showed us a picture of someone willing to give up all the riches of heaven and willing to die the death of a criminal in order to bring about God’s perfect will.
His followers took the same path. In today’s Gospel reading, we see that the disciples, right from the beginning, left everything and followed him (Luke 5:11).
And it didn’t stop there.
Almost all of Jesus disciples were martyred for their faith. They weren’t worried about their earthly goods. They weren’t even worried about their lives.
So, no. Outward signs of wealth and health, prosperity, and success are no longer signs of God’s favour, and are not promised to us.
But we are promised this:
God will never leave us nor forsake us.
In fact, in Hebrews 13:5–6 it is put like this:
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”
Knowing that God will never leave us, we can be strong and very courageous, whatever happens.
When I left my job at the university, it was scary. We spent literally years trying to discern whether it was God’s will for me to leave, or whether I should stay. We longed for a message written in the stars, or for a really specific prophetic word. But instead, we had to make the decision ourselves.
In the end, after much prayer, Moz and I felt that leaving was the thing to do. So, I was strong and courageous, while simultaneously shaking in my boots, and I let my bosses know I was leaving.
They couldn’t understand why I was turning my back on a promising career in chemistry, right when it looked like things could take off for me. But I knew that life was about more than money. So, I chose not to make the applications for more funding, and instead to start working from home.
This is the point in the story where I would like to be able to say that God rewarded my sacrifice, that the novels I’ve written have been best sellers and that I now have an international speaking career. But that simply isn’t the case.
I haven’t become an overnight success and you won’t see me emulating JK Rowling any time soon. I have been able to start Creative Space, I have been able to write some novels, and I have learned how to preach sermons, among other things.
However, I do feel like I am living a life that is more glorifying to God, more restful, and much more peaceful as I am able to take the time to really know that God is with me each day. To spend quality time in his presence. To know that he will never leave me or forsake me.
When God told Joshua to be strong and courageous, there were even caveats for him. God didn’t say, ‘do whatever you like, you’re in the good books now, go for it.’
No, he said:
1) this is what I want you to do: take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own
2)Be careful to obey the law: do not turn from it to the right or to the left … meditate on it day and night … be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Life isn’t simple, and it wasn’t simple for Joshua either. He had to deal with the two and a half tribes that wanted land on the east of the Jordan. He had to deal with people who didn’t follow God’s law and did silly things. He had to deal with people from other nations who did follow God and were accepted into the people of Israel. Life isn’t simple.
But I still think we can take four things from this reading for our own encouragement today.
1) Follow Joshua’s example of spending time in God’s presence.
Ps37:4 says Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
As we delight in the Lord, we desire more of him, we begin to want what he wants. And he delights to give us more of him. Delight in the Lord, spend time with him, pray, praise, follow Joshua’s example. Meditate on the Word. Follow God’s law of love. And God will give us the desires of our hearts as they line up with his desires.
2) Wait for the right timing.
Joshua knew that he was to take on the leadership of the people of Israel. But he didn’t jump in and take over. Not when he had the miraculous victory over the Amalekites, not when he saw Moses getting older and older, not even when Moses laid hands on him and transferred the anointing. He took over only when he heard the words ‘Moses is dead.’ That was his time.
Don’t be afraid to wait for God’s timing. We are told that a ship can only be steered when it is moving and that we should always be pushing ahead, but the heroes of the Bible didn’t live that way. They waited. They waited until they knew God was saying yes. ‘Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.’ Psalm 27:14
3) Remember he will never leave us nor forsake us.
2 Tim 2:13 says ‘… if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.’
He will never leave us. Even if at times we don’t feel strong and courageous, if we feel scared, he will never leave us. And even if we sin, we just need to turn back to him in repentance and he will be waiting there with open arms. We can count on God. He will never leave us.
4) Be strong and very courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.
We do not have to be afraid, whatever the season, whatever we are embarking on. We can be strong and very courageous because God is with us, and he will give us the desires of our hearts as we delight in him.
You may feel scared at times. But you can move forward bravely knowing that God is with you. You may feel discouraged, but as you spend time with the Lord you will begin to see your heart change, and you will start to see him give you the desires of your heart.
And whatever happens, whether we are well or ill, poor, or rich, successful or a failure in the world’s eyes, we can know that God will never leave us or forsake us and that he is waiting for us with open arms in the end. And we look forward to him saying, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.’
Let’s pray.