When I began to seek God for a word for 2020, He gave me the word “courage.” It was during this season that God brought me to the story of Joshua. The children of Israel had been rescued by God in an over-the-top, miraculous way. Four hundred years of slavery were now behind them and a Promised Land stood before them.
It was on their journey that Moses sent out twelve spies to survey the land God had told them He would give them. Joshua was one of those spies. When they came back to give a full report to the people of Israel, Joshua and Caleb encouraged them to go out and take the land, while the other ten spies gave Israel a bad report.
As the story unravels, the children of Israel decided not to believe in God. They let their fears hinder them from receiving God’s promise for their lives. It’s important to note that God was not asking them to believe in their own abilities, He was asking them to take Him at His Word.
God had called them victorious, yet they saw themselves as defeated.
God had called them sons, yet they still saw themselves as slaves. God had spoken miraculous provision, yet they saw tremendous lack.
God had spoken life, yet they only saw death.
So, because of their disobedience and pessimistic perspective, they were forced to wander the desert for forty years. The only ones to enter the promised land of that generation were Joshua and Caleb, forty years later—the ones who fully believed God.
Can we put ourselves in Joshua’s shoes for a moment? Forty years in the wilderness is a long time.
14,600 days wishing they could turn back time and just say yes to the voice of God. 14,600 days spent dreaming of how and when they would fight when the opportunity presented itself. 14,600 days of eating manna. 2,080 weeks clinging to the hope that their future promise would one day be within their grasp. 2,080 Sabbaths.
A lifetime spent being taught by God to trust and rest in the goodness and provision only He
could give. They had started their forty years as sons, husbands, and fathers. Now they were fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers.
Imagine seeing the ones you used to dream with die because of unbelief. Forty years. Forty birthdays. 480 months counting down the days until God’s promise was fulfilled. No more wandering. No more desert. A home. A place they could call their own, with roots that would go deep.
Imagine the preparation that went into this moment of promise. When the forty years subsided, it was finally time to enter into the Promised Land. I can see Joshua preaching to himself over and over again that against all odds he would always choose God.18 He wouldn’t let what happened forty years earlier deter him or his people from God’s best. He must have waited with bated breath for the moment that God would allow him to cross over. Not only that, but now Joshua was going to lead a million people along with him.
Many scholars believe that Joshua was a trained warrior and a “capable military commander.” As a trained warrior, I’m fairly certain the anticipation for battle was bursting inside him. He had previously led the children of Israel to battle in Exodus 17 against the Amalekites and God gave an amazing victory.
Now this battle-ready warrior took the past forty years preparing to conquer the land God had promised Israel. The moment had arrived. The anticipation in the air was tangible, like a thick fog hovering in the atmosphere.
The city of Jericho was in their sights. The walls towering forty-six feet into the sky from where the Israelites stood, as if touching the heavens. Seemingly insurmountable. Sealed tightly. No one in and no one out. With the fact that harvest season had just passed and the blessing of a fresh spring well was found within the city's walls, in estimation the people of Jericho could have lived safely inside for years to come.
The Israelites would not miss their moment this time around. They would believe God and do what they were trained to do. Their plan was in place. Their warriors were ready. And then he came along ...
"To be continued ..."
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