By Lamont H. Fuchs, Ed.D.
(excerpt from “Preacher Spurs”, Christian Faith Publishing, Meadville, Pa., 2022)
Joshua 1, God tells his people that the land He promised is directly in front of them, but they needed the courage to take it. As New Testament Christians, our Great Commandment is similar. The fields are ripe, but if you expect all of those who need to be saved to just walk into your front door and fill up your pews, well, that just is not going to happen by going out and doing a prayer walk around the neighborhood. We need to make and prepare our soldiers. Lead your people to go out and engage that neighborhood, and everywhere there are lost for Jesus to save.
The following scripture is a comparison-contrast of how the Old Testament is an example of New Testament commandments.
Joshua was one of the bravest and most successful commanders in military history. He had faith, and he had God to command him. As New Testament Christians, we have the Word that contains all we need to give us faith and courage to fulfill our commission. The Bible provides us with the weapons we need to defeat Satan.
This is the commission God gave to Joshua. “Now it came to pass after the death of Moses the servant of Jehovah, that Jehovah spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it, as I spake unto Moses.”
This is our commission in the New Testament Jesus’ last words in Matthew 28:20 before ascending to heaven commanded us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Through the following several verses of Joshua, God tells Joshua the depth, breadth, and width of just what the people of Israel would receive and who they had to fight to get it. The passages in verse 4 through verse 18 were very specific. The words ‘Be strong and of good courage’ were repeated by God to Joshua not once but three times. Please read it.
“From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee; I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of good courage; for thou shalt cause this people to inherit the land which I swore unto their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest have good success whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate thereon day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not affrighted, neither be thou dismayed: for Jehovah thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days, ye are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which Jehovah your God giveth you to possess it. And to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, spake Joshua, saying, Remember the word which Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded you, saying, Jehovah your God giveth you rest, and will give you this land. Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall abide in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; but ye shall pass over before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valor, and shall help them; until Jehovah have given your brethren rest, as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which Jehovah your God giveth them: then ye shall return unto the land of your possession, and possess it, which Moses the servant of Jehovah gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrising. And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou hast commanded us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go. According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee: only Jehovah thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. Whosoever he be that shall rebel against thy commandment and shall not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death: only be strong and of good courage.”
