Confront Unknowns
Joshua 1:1-9
These are days around the world when people are learning to confront unknowns. Two hurricanes have hit Florida and a third is on the way. Hundreds of innocent children died at the hands of terrorists in Russia. Warfare continues in the Middle East.
Three years ago, September 11 three thousand Americans lost their lives at the hand of terrorists in New York, Penn. and Washington, DC. Many of us can still remember watching television and seeing the vivid scenes of planes flying into the Twin Towers. PEW Research Center stated that because of September 11, 2001, 64 percent of Americans admitted they cried. Seventy-nine percent told someone, “I love you.” Seven in ten Americans said they felt depressed after the terrorist attacks, nearly half reported having trouble concentrating, and a third said they had trouble sleeping.”
The promise that God gave Joshua in chapter 1:1-9 gives us courage to confront unknowns in the future. Following the death of Moses God gave his assistant, Joshua, the challenge of leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land of Canaan. “For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you. Be strong and courageous for you will lead my people to possess all the land I swore to give their ancestors. Study the Book of the Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written it. Only then will you succeed. I command you – be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:5b-6, 8-9)
In this passage of scripture we have three basic teaching to help us confront unknowns.
First – God’s promise to Moses and then to Joshua and to all of us: “I will be with you.” Whatever happens we know that God is with us.
Second – God’s Word is the guide to success. Our calling is to study, meditate and obey.
Third – God commands us to not be afraid or discouraged. God is in control.
I. God Promises: “I Will Be With You.”
Joshua remembered how the Lord had given them victory in battle over the anti-God Amalekites – Exodus 17. Under Joshua’s command the Israelites only gained victory in was as long as Moses held his arms high reaching out to God of heaven and creation on top of a hill. When Moses’ arms began to drop the battle would shift so Aaran and Hur helped hold up Moses’ arms until sunset. The battle was the Lords. As long as they trusted the Lord they were victorious.
God promises that he will be with us in all experiences whether in joy or pain. How quickly we forget His promise when we are in the thick of battle or conflict. We trust our own reasoning and skills and power and then wonder why we fail.
In Numbers 13 the 12 spies were sent out to spy out the land of Canaan. They came back with a majority report by ten spies and a minority report by two – Joshua and Caleb. The majority report looked to the power of man and not to God. “the people living there are powerful, and their cities and towns are fortified and very large…We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are! All the people we saw are huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. We felt like grasshoppers next to them, and that’s what we looked like to them.” Numbers 13:12, 31-33 NLT
(Numbers 13:30) “But Caleb tried to encourage the people as they stood before Moses. ‘Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it.” The majority report prevailed and Israel failed to trust and obey God.
Now we find Joshua (Joshua 1:1-9) given the calling by God after 40 years of wandering in the desert to take over that same territory. God is calling Joshua to go into that same Godless giant filled land and establish it as a nation under God. God gives Joshua the promise: “Be strong and courageous – I will be with you.”
Joshua could go forward and confront the unknown because he knew God was in control. Joshua lived up to his name. When “Joshua” is translated into Greek it becomes (Yeshua) “Jesus” meaning Savior.
We look at the world and see terrorism in many countries. Here is our hope. We know that God is not in heaven wringing His hands. God sees beyond the human suffering and allows people to become desperate to they will begin to seek the Creator and Lord of the Universe and believe in His Son for forgiveness and Salvation.
God is searching for those who will trust Him for their future. You can either confront unknowns in your own strength or confront unknowns in the strength and power of the Lord.
God has an answer for those who say there is no God of creation. Psalm 14:1-2 NLT: “Only fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; no one does good! The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if there is even one with real understanding, one who seeks for God.”
Eugene Peterson in The Message translates Psalm 14:1-2 this way: “Bilious and bloated, they gas, ‘God is gone.’ Their words are poison gas, fouling the air; they poison rivers and skies; thistles are their cash crop. God sticks his head out of heaven. He looks around. He’s looking for someone not stupid—one man, even, God-expectant, just one god-ready woman.”
God found that one man in Joshua. Joshua knew and you can know that God will be with you. God gave Joshua this promise: “No one will be able to stand their ground against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.” (Joshua 1:5)
Jesus gave the disciples that same promise – “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b
With God’s promise “I will be with you,” you can confront unknowns
II. God’s Word is Your Guide to Success
Joshua 1:7-8, “Be strong and very courageous. Obey all the laws Moses gave you. Do not turn away from them, and you will be successful in everything you do. Study this Book of Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may b e sure to obey all that is written in it. Only then will you succeed.”
The Apostle Paul is an example of someone who took God at His Word and confronted all kinds of hardships, persecutions and pain and came out victorious. Paul gives his testimony of confronting challenges he faced: “I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jew’s thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.” (2 Cor. 11:23-27 The Message)
In all his experiences Paul could praise God for His love.
“What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?” “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-32, 38-39 NLT)
With God’s Word in you – you are strong. You can become strong in the Lord by doing several things:
1. Admit your weaknesses and need for the Lord
2. Make your first relationship to put Jesus as the priority of your life.
3. Develop your relationship with the Lord through daily Bible study and prayer. In prayer you speak words and listen through the Word of God.
4. Respond in obedience to the Truth of God’s Word. Truth not acted on becomes empty truth.
God’s gives you His promise: “I will be with you.”
God’s Word is your guide to success.
III. God Commands His People to not be afraid or be discouraged.
God gave Joshua the command to arise and go across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Be strong and courageous.
Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
As Christians we are a people of hope. Our ultimate future is not in this world. Our future hope is in a person – Jesus Christ. We have the assurance that whatever happens to us Jesus is with us. Jesus gives us this promise: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Jesus also says in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
On a warm autumn afternoon in 1982, the Spartans of Michigan State were invading Badger Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. Something about the game didn’t make sense. Michigan State was clobbering the home team; yet when the visiting team completed a long pass or scored a touchdown the Wisconsin fans cheered with all their might.
Upon investigation it was discovered that the Milwaukee Brewers were hosting the St. Louis Cardinals in game four of the World Series. Football fans in Badger Stadium were listening on portable radios as the Brewers were soundly defeating the Cardinals. The cheers had nothing to do with the action on the football field.
(I’m reminded of an older couple who attended the St. Petersburg, Fl FMC. When we moved to St. Petersburg the Pastor of the Church was Lucien Behar, a Messianic Jew. He told me the couple would often come to church with what he thought was a hearing aid. But one Sunday when the singing had stopped and in between songs the lady leaned over the her husband and said in a loud voice, “The score is Mimi 7 and Pittsburg 0.”
As Christians we are surrounded by a world in chaos and confusion but we are tuned in on a different wave length. We are linked to the music of eternity.
As Christians we are aliens in this world. This world is not our ultimate home. We are just passing through. God has put eternity in our hearts. We were born to enjoy God’s presence forever.
We have no guarantee that bad things will not happen to us. If you focus on what might happen you can become paranoid. What if I have a car accident and become critically injured, what if I get cancer, what if I get robbed, experience failure, financial collapse, or confronted by a terrorist? What if? What if?
Confront the unknown with God’s Word and Mediate on passages like Romans 8:38-39 NLT “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Not that many years ago most of us never thought we would see a commercial jet used as a deadly missile. We never imagined the threat of receiving a letter laced with anthrax. We heard little about weapons of Mass Destruction. Since 9/11 everything has changed. Extreme Muslims are determined to take away our freedoms.
In February 23, 1998 a signed document by Osama bin Laden and others titled “Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders,” said: “We – with God’s help-call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.”
As Christians we live our lives not based upon feelings or circumstances, we base our lives upon the authority of God’s Word.
Isaiah 12:2 -- “See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”
2 Timothy 1:7-- “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
Psalm 23:4 -- “Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.”
Psalm 91:1, 5 “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” So we shall “Not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.”
Joshua faced a test that seemed humanly impossible. He knew he needed to be strong and courageous. Throughout Joshua 1:1-9 we see the repeated theme: “Be strong and courageous.”
When God gives a command He expects a positive response. God didn’t force obedience on Joshua, but Joshua responded in obedience and went forward in the strength of the Lord and conquered the land.
When God gives you a command it is up to you to trust Him. You can go forward and face the future with strength and courage.
We sometimes sing the song—
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.
One of the marks of discipleship is that Christ-followers obey the Lord. We can face an unknown future because we have confidence in the known – the risen Lord and Savior. He is our commander and Master. He knows what He is doing. “Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus.”
