"Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have 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 success. "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."Three times in these four verses we see God command Joshua to be strong and courageous. Verse 6; “Be strong and courageous”; verse 7 “only be strong and courageous”; and verse 9; “have I not commanded you be strong and courageous”. And in the same way today, the timeless truth is that to restart requires courage.
Whether it is restarting a nation or restarting a relationship; or whether it is restarting a life that has wandered in the desert of disappointment and failure, to restart requires courage. Here we see God not only command Joshua to be strong and courageous; we see God provide Joshua direction as to where he must be strong and courageous. And in these verses we see two specific areas that require courage when it comes to restarting our lives.
First, we see that we are to be courageous when it comes to following God’s word. When God talks about being careful to do according to all the Law, He is referring to the first five books of our Bibles, which were called the Law or Torah. The Jewish people had God’s word and God expected His people to have the courage to follow His word.
And for Joshua to remain faithful to following God’s word in a way that would result in receiving God’s promises and a life of wisdom, he was to not allow the book of the Law to depart from their mouth, but instead to meditate on to day and night so that he would be careful to do all that is written in it. In other words, Joshua was to do three things when it came to God’s word- he was to talk about it, he was to think about it, and he was to act on it by obeying it. And to live such a life required courage. It requires courage to follow God’s word and do the right thing even when it is not the easy thing or the popular thing to do.
Second, we see that we are to be courageous when it comes to facing our fears. There was a reason why God commanded Joshua not to be trembled or be dismayed. God commanded Joshua to be strong and courageous because Joshua was shaking in his scandals. The phrase “do not tremble or be dismayed” literally means “do not fear or be filled with terror so as to fall to pieces”. Joshua was afraid in the same way you and I can be afraid when we are confronted with the fears that come with restarting our lives.
Whether it is the fear of failure, the fear of rejection, or the fear of change, the timeless reality is that restarting our lives requires the courage to face our fears. Now you might be thinking “well that is easy to say face your fears- but that is easier said than done”. But notice what God says as to the reason why he is not to be afraid; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. When God refers to Himself as the Lord your God, He is using His personal, relational name and invoking His personal presence. And is the same way today, God is fully aware and fully present in the midst of the fears we face that can cause us to fall to pieces when it comes to restarting our lives.
God is fully aware because Jesus experienced and faced those fears and lived a life by the power of the Holy Spirit that exercised the courage to overcome those fears and face the cross. So when God asks Joshua, and us here today, to be courageous when it comes to following His word and facing our fears, He is not asking us to do something that He has not already done. Jesus provides us the example of what it means to face our fears with faithfulness.
So where do you need to exercise courage when it comes to restarting your life? Where do you need to exercise courage to follow God's word and do the right thing even when it is not the easy thing when it comes to restarting your life?
What fears do you need to face with courage in order to restart your life? What fears are keeping you from doing what needs to be done in order to become the person that God desires you to become?
Being strong and courageous in doing the will of the Lord is what life is all about, and as long as we are steeped in the truths revealed in Holy words, we shall be strong and courageous while bringing peace to our own lives and the lives of others---even if our first step bring the touch of a sword with the necessity of severing that which clings to us which is not of the Lord. However, we must also remember that the Bible was written mostly by Jewish men and then the books were chosen by men in various Roman Catholic church Counsels, therefore, to apply this passage to justify the present Israeli slaughtering of innocent Palestinians, is a grave error; for murdering anyone is against the Universal Laws created by the Divine Justice who breathed the breath of life into all incarnate souls on Earth.
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