DAILY DEVOTIONAL – February 21, 2020
“AGAINST ALL ODDS”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the air we breathe. You are the light by which we see. You are our strength when we are weak, and when we think we are strong. Thank you for Your perfect faithfulness to us, and may we take great confidence in Your promises and power to deliver us from evil and lead us not into temptation. Amen.
Scripture: Joshua 1:6-9
“Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 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 good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Devotional – “Against All Odds”
Moses died before the Israelites were able to enter into the land that God had promised to give them. While Moses was still alive, God told Moses that Joshua would be his successor in leading the Israelites to the promise land. In our text for today, we read some of the words that God spoke directly to Joshua in preparing him to serve God faithfully and lead the Israelites successfully.
Three times God tells Joshua, “Be strong and courageous.” Joshua was about to lead the Israelites into treacherous territory. Nations much larger and much more powerful than the Israelites refused to heed the warnings given by God and instead wanted to stop Israel from coming into the promise land. Joseph would have to be strong and courageous to say the least. However, God is not talking to Joshua about human strength or human resolve. Each time God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous, God tells him why and how he is to be strong and courageous.
Verse 6: “Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”
From a human perspective Joshua and the Israelites were no match for the surrounding nations that wanted to see Israel wiped out. They had neither the numbers nor the training or the resources. What they did have was the promise of the Almighty God. That was their biggest weapon, their strength and reason for courage. Despite the odds and despite how desperate a situation may appear, God was telling Joshua to find strength and courage in God’s promise and His faithfulness to bring that promise to reality.
Verse 7-8: “Be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. 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 good success.”
Our natural tendency when we face difficult situations is to try and prepare ourselves. We analyze the situation, come up with a strategy that makes sense to us and that all the experts approve of, solidify our will and determination and try as best we can to work past the fear to press ahead. This is not what God means when He tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. Notice in verse 7 that God tells him to be strong in the Word of God. It takes strength and courage to not only keep ourselves in the Word of God everyday, but to die to ourselves and to our sinful nature and obey God’s Word. It takes strength and courage to make God and His Word the priority in all aspects of our life, mediating on it day and night. The promise of God to Joshua is the same to us, stay strong in His Word “for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.”
Verse 9: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
No leader of Israel, no disciple and no Christian is without sin and error. When we give our best effort, when we feel certain we know what God wants us to do, there will still times when we fail. Even when meditating on God’s Word day and night, our sinful nature can cause us to twist God’s Word into saying what we want to hear and guiding us in the direction we want to go. In those times when we fail, as Joshua and Moses did, the Lord still tells us to be strong and courageous because He is with us. He has been the one doing the work the whole time anyway, and He is faithful to His promise of salvation given to you and I in Christ. When the odds are against us, and even when we are against ourselves, we find strength and courage in His presence and His love and power.
As God promised, Joshua did lead the Israelites into the promise land.
Today, you and I know and are being lead by God’s True prophet Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Servant of Man that Moses and Joshua and all the patriarchs of faith were but a foreshadow of. As Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” The promises of God given to Israel have seen their fulfillment in the Lord Jesus, who then promises you and I in John 10:27-28, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
You and I have that same promise of God, and then some. We see Jesus. He is the one that leads us into the inheritance of heaven that He has prepared for us through His death and resurrection that has conquered sin and death.
All of us face our own challenges in life when we feel the odds are stacked against us and when we may feel or it may appear that we are not strong enough or courageous enough to prevail over our circumstances. The truth is, we are not strong enough or courageous enough on our own…but we are not alone. God is with us. Christ is with us. It is in the confidence of His faithfulness to us that we can say with Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:57-58, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
Thanks for spending time with me again today in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already take care of tomorrow. Amen.
