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Strong and Courageous (Part 2)



            As Joshua was getting ready to lead God’s people into the Promised Land, God gave him three instructions that would help him do this job well.  The first one (which we looked at in last week’s article) was simply “Go”.  In other words, God told him that “strength and courage” would be found as he went about doing what God asked him to do.  If he waited until he felt strong or courageous then he would never do anything.  A good lesson for us too.
     
       Here is the second instruction to Joshua:  “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:7-8).
   
         Obviously, for Joshua to be a good and effective leader, he needed to know the mind and heart of God.  To do this, he had to pay attention to the word of God.  In fact, this passage has some very important words and phrases in it such as “obey”, “do not turn”, “meditate” and “do everything written in it”.  Joshua could not be “God’s leader” without focusing on “God’s revelation”.
  
          Professor Scott McKnight underlines the danger of ignoring this instruction.  Each year, McKnight gives a test to his incoming college students.  The test involves 24 questions about what the students think Jesus is like.  Is he the “life of the party” or an introvert?  Is he confident or nervous?  Is he moody or even keeled?  Then McKnight gives a second test, with slightly altered language, in which the students answer questions about their own personalities.  Guess what the results almost always show:  Everyone thinks that Jesus is just like them!  The danger:  If we are not careful and if we are not reading and thinking about the word of God, we will make Jesus in our image instead of us being shaped into his image.  Without knowing the thoughts and heart of God as they are revealed in his word, we will never have any thoughts or any other heart than the one we have right now.  We must know his image to be re-made in his image.
   
         Joshua was not going to be a successful leader if he just did what he thought was best.  His best chance at success was to get know the God that could give him the victory.
     
       Do we know God, or do we just know about God?

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