However, when it comes to hitting the restart button; when it comes to attempting to restart our lives through new year’s resolutions, there are often times where we can find ourselves experiencing frustration, tension and even trouble, isn’t there? We discussed that for many of us, we can find ourselves feeling that the whole idea of being able to hit restart in your life seems to be an impossibility after years wandering in a desert of hurt, pain, disappointment, and failure.
The tension and trouble that we can experience when it comes to restarting our life is not a new problem; it is a human nature problem. As a matter of fact, there is a letter in our Bible that records the efforts of an entire nation to restart their lives after forty years of wandering in a literal desert of hurt, pain, and failure. Let's look at the beginning of this letter, which is called the Book of Joshua, starting in Joshua 1:1:
Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant,This letter begins with some straightforward facts that are incredibly significant. To understand why this opening statement was so significant, however, we first need to understand who Moses was and what his significance was to the Jewish people. We also need to understand the background of the Jewish people up to this point in God’s story. Moses was the leader of the Jewish people that God used to deliver them from slavery at the hands of the Egyptian nation. The Bible describes Moses as the most humble man who ever lived; a man who God spoke with face to face.
And it was Moses who God gave the responsibility to lead the Jewish people from Egypt to the land that God had promised them, which was located across the Jordan River and was called the Promised Land. As the Jewish people moved from Egypt and towards the Promised Land, however, problems began to arise. Instead of looking forward to the new start that God was delivering them to, the Jewish people instead chose to spend their time looking back. The Jewish people became a group that was marked by grumbling, complaining, and a lack of faithfulness toward God. And the closer and closer the Jewish people moved toward the Promised Land, the greater and greater their selfish complaining and rebellion grew.
Finally, at the doorstep to the Promised Land, twelve spies were sent to provide a report about the land that God had promised to give Jewish people. And as these spies returned from their journey, they described the beauty and blessings that the land would provide the people. But instead of trusting God to overcome the obstacles that were on the way to the Promised Land, these spies led the Jewish people to reject and rebel against God. All of the spies, except for Joshua and Caleb. Only Joshua and Caleb faithfully trusted God to bring them into the Promised Land.
God responded to the Jewish people’s selfish rebellion and rejection of Him by causing the entire adult population to wander in the desert until they died. Even Moses ended up not being permitted to enter into the Promised Land as a result of his disobedient failure to treat the Lord as sacred during a fit of frustration and anger with the Jewish people. So for forty years, between 1.5 and 2 million people wandered in the desert in frustration, failure and rebellion.
And at the end of forty years, Moses died, leaving Joshua and Caleb and over 1.5 million Jewish people under the age of forty left. Joshua was Moses right hand man, his trusted assistant who had a front row seat to see the relationship that God had with Moses. And now Joshua’s mentor Moses was dead and Joshua was left to lead the Jewish people. So with this background in mind we see God speak to Joshua and say the following:
Saying "Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. "From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. "No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.Here we see God command Joshua to take the reins of leadership from Moses and lead the Jewish nation of over 600,000 people into the land that God had promised them. In essence, God has commanded the Jewish people to hit the restart button. The Jewish people were to restart the journey that their parents had put on pause due to their selfishness and rebellion.
And to begin to restart their lives, the Jewish people were to cross the Jordan River. Now to fully understand the task that Joshua has been given, we need to keep several things in mind. First, consider the enormity of the group of people that were to cross the Jordan. The Bible tells us that there were 601,730 Jewish men over the age of twenty that were to cross the Jordan. That number does not include women or children, which is why most scholars believe that were between 1.5 and 2 million people that composed the Jewish nation.
Second, consider the Jordan River and the terrain around the region. The Jordan River served to separate the Promised Land from the land to which the Jewish nation had been wandering. The Jordan River runs through a deep gorge which may be called the earth’s deepest valley. The slopes are steep and sudden, and there were wide fluctuations in the water level and speed of the current.
Third, consider the size of the land that the Jewish people were to go in and possess. Here is a picture of the land that God had promised to the Jewish people. Promised Land picture. Most scholars believe that the Promised Land encompasses approximately 1,100 square miles, which would be the equivalent to the size of the state of Maryland. As you can see, the responsibility to lead the Jewish people as they restarted their lives was a task that was enormous in both size and in scope.
And with this enormous task, God provides Joshua an important promise. When God tells Joshua that no man will be able to stand before you; He is explaining to Joshua that no one will be able to resist or oppose him as he leads God’s people. But not only does God provide an important promise to Joshua; just as importantly, God tells Joshua that He will be present with him as he leads the Jewish people. If this letter was being written today as a text message or email, God would be saying “I will not let you down or bail on you”. You see, the question before the Jewish people, was not whether or not God had promised them the land, the only question was whether or not they were going to live their lives in a way that would enable them to receive those promise. And to receive those promises, the Jewish people needed to restart their lives when it came to following God.
Now imagine being Joshua; how would you respond to the enormous responsibility that has been laid upon you to lead this nation as they restarted their lives? Or maybe you are looking at restarting some area of your life. Maybe it is the task of restarting a relationship. Maybe it is the task of restarting a life that would be free from a destructive addiction or habit. Maybe it is the task of restarting a relationship with God that seems to be far and distant. Maybe it is the task of restarting a life that you feel has been a disappointing failure. Maybe you are here and as you look at the prospect of restarting your life, you feel overwhelmed with the enormity of the task.
And it is when we find ourselves in a place of feeling overwhelmed with the idea of restarting our lives that we feel the tension, frustration and trouble that can come with restarting. So the question then becomes, how do I overcome the enormity that I feel when it comes to restarting my life? And it is in this point of the story that God gives Joshua, and us today, a timeless principle that is necessary when it comes to restarting our life. We will look at that principle tomorrow.
So, what overwhelming task are you facing when it comes to restarting your life?
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