Whenever God calls and commissions us to attempt a great
work for Him in this world, He will also equip us, enable us, and encourage us to
be successful! That is the story of Joshua that we read about in Joshua chapter
one. Now that Joshua has been encouraged by God’s commission, His promises, His
written Word, and His commandment (vv. 1-9), and he has encouraged his leaders
(vv. 10-15), we find that the leaders also encourage Joshua.
In verse 16, the pronoun "they" probably refers
to all the officers Joshua had addressed and not to the leaders of the two and
a half tribes alone. What an encouragement they were to their new leader! But I
always wonder when I read these verses, what Joshua might have been thinking
when they said it. If he was remembering how they so often rebelled against
Moses and his leadership during the forty years in the wilderness, he might
have thought, “Oh my, are we in for a rough time!”. But I’m sure that these new
leaders must have been sincere and meant what they said from their hearts, and
they sought to encourage their new leader in several ways.
To begin with, they encouraged him by assuring him of their
complete obedience (vv. 16-17a). "Command us and we will obey! Send us and
we will go!" These officers had no hidden agendas, and they asked for no
concessions. They would obey all his commands and go wherever he would send
them. We could use that kind of commitment in the church today!
Our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, made it very clear that
if we love Him, we will keep His commandments (John 14:21, 23). Our surrender to
the will of God for our lives should be total and complete (Romans 12:1-2).
There is no such thing as a halfway surrender. Today we often ask people to
make “commitments” to serve the Lord. But it is obvious that “commitments” can
easily be broken. Once you totally surrender to the will of God, you become the
will of God, and from love you delight to live for Christ and please Him alone!
The officers also encouraged Joshua by praying for him (v.
17).
The best thing we can do for those who lead us is to pray for them daily and
ask God to be with them. Joshua was a trained man with vast experience, but
that was no guarantee of success. No Christian worker succeeds to the glory of
God apart from prayer. Corrie Ten Boom asked the question, "Is prayer your
steering wheel or your spare tire?" When Joshua did not pause to seek the
mind of God, he failed miserably (Josh. 7 and 9); and so will we.
The leaders encouraged Joshua by assuring him that their
obedience was a matter of life or death (1:18). They took his leadership and
their responsibilities seriously. Later, Achan didn't take Joshua's orders
seriously, and he was killed (Joshua 7:15). "But why do you call Me
'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46) If God's
people today saw obedience to Christ a matter of life or death, it would make a
big difference in our ministry to a lost world. We obey the Lord's orders if we
feel like it, if it's convenient, and if we can get something out of it. With
soldiers like that, Joshua would never have conquered the Promised Land!
Finally, they encouraged him by reminding him of the Word
of God (v. 18b). Moses told Joshua to "be ye of good courage" when he
sent him and the other men into Canaan to spy out the land (Num. 13:20). Moses
repeated the words when he installed Joshua as his successor (Deut. 31:7,23). Four
times in this chapter you find the words "be strong and of good
courage" (vv. 6-7, 9,18). If we are to conquer the enemy and claim our
inheritance in Christ, we must have spiritual strength and spiritual courage. "Be
strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might" (Eph. 6:10).
The first step toward winning the battle and claiming our
inheritance is to let God encourage us and then for us to encourage others. A
discouraged army is never victorious.
Be strong! Be encouraged today!!!! The battle is the
Lord's!
God bless!
