Picture This

The darkness of the time was unparalleled in the history of the people. Their national leader, who supernaturally delivered the whole nation from four hundred years of torturous oppression and humiliating slavery was now dead. One of the greatest leaders to ever live and a national hero simply walked off into the mountain’s foothills never to return; leaving a whole society in a potential state of anarchy, anxiety, and dread, mostly precipitated by the reality that they were quite infamous for making disgraceful decisions on a national scale. There was this one time all the people convinced their high priest to construct a massive golden idol of a defeated Egyptian god because they were so spiritually adulterous that any ole’ god would do. 

The entire society has been chastised over millenniums for their lack of resistance to enter into arrogant and blatant whining, directly focused on the gracious, merciful, loving, and faithful Yahweh Who was the One who miraculously delivered them from their slavish misery. Additionally, to such a degree as to give them a memorable, visual example through the drowning of every one of their former enemies in the middle of the sea. A sea that they JUST walked through the center of! 

Imagine the sight of seeing a sea part in two halves, AND having a pathway through that divide that was dry ground large enough for millions of people to walk through, AND having direct knowledge that it was God through the request of Moses that caused the whole occurrence, AND to watch the god/king, Pharaoh, and his world-renown army drown in the very patch of dry real estate that you traversed. From a dry road to a watery grave right in front of you. As if that was not radically mind-altering enough to witness, you spend four decades being hand-fed angel’s food, provided for through scientifically defying details like shoes and clothing that will not age, and the whole time having the very presence of God provide a cooling shade in the hot desert sunlight of the daytime and gentle warmth in the frigid night air.

Then God’s friend, your sacred leader, your divine deliverer, the most famous law-giver of all time, wanders off into the sunset of history, leaving the whole nation in a traumatizing vacuum of possible directionless abandonment. When you thought that your national conditions could not get much worse, (no land, no economy, no government, having been rightfully spanked by your Good God for self-centered and ignorant malfeasance) they do. You are being prompted by this, “new guy,” leader, Joshua, that it is time to go into a foreign land and start a war. It is common knowledge that this foreign land is “filled” with giants and you currently do warfare by hand-to-hand combat. You do not even have that many weapons, for crying out loud!          

There is no logistical plan for war provisions… the magic food from the sky has mysteriously stopped raining down every day, and there is little or no water because, well, it is the desert… your enemies have big fortified battlements with huge walls… You and your neighbors are kinda short of stature and numerically challenged… it looks bad, ALL bad.

I cannot help but connect the glaring dots between their yesterday’s dynamic to today’s dynamic.

• We have a national leadership bad sitcom set in a DC studio with terrible actors at best, at worst they are treacherous prostitutes of demonic entities and/or foreign nations. These, “rich men north of Richmond,” are so embarrassingly inept that Appalachian hillbillies can now become uber-famous by just writing songs about their narcissistic flamboyance.
• The world is on fire literally and figuratively… from Canadian smoke clogging up Illinoisans lungs, to French Climate Activists setting their own forests on fire, to exploding electric vehicles stacking up from buyer disinterest, to the mass exodus of the church fueling the flames of hell to greater encroach every home and heart, to socialism becoming the new cool fad among public educated “useful idiots” who have been effectively propagandized into robotic minions armed with communist manifestos and “mostly peaceful” Molotov cocktails, the banana-republic clown shows we call the DOJ, FBI, and CIA in open political prosecution of their foes, and do not get me started on the Ukraine quagmire of mutual destruction sycophants getting rich from the military-industrial complex and the trafficking of “missing” people in a war-torn region.
• An entire town in Hawaii has been reduced to ashes, likely ending the lives of a thousand or more people (mostly children), making it one of the greatest national tragedies EVER… and our president, in concert with the media, has, “no comment,” about the devastatingly incompetent actions of the local leaders and the continued pain and suffering being magnified by the daily uncovering of more failures in the governmental system that abysmally failed at their ONE JOB… protect the people.
• The nation’s children are targets of grooming and abuse in an open hunting season where public schools and drag queens battle each other like a wicked game of, “Duck Hunt,” while sickly slapping each other on the back for every point scored. Shockingly, their parents just watch the game with glazed-over, medicated, disinterested eyes because culture has propagandized them into silent compliance.
• The threat is real to bring back the masks, with COVID 2.0 on the horizon… add more death jabs… shut down the churches, schools, economy… lock down the lemmings again because it was so easy the first time… all because the election season is upon us again and they have to control the vote to keep their system in power… again.
• Fear, mixed with fear, added to a different kind of fear, topped off with the big fear. Like an I.V. injection of morphine to a dying patient, they pump their message into the veins of a whole culture.

We are like Joshua standing between the wilderness where a generation died and the promised land that was over four hundred years in the making…

No one shall stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Joshua 1:5 BSB

The Lord pointed Joshua’s mind toward the testimony of Moses and his stupendous, miraculous victory over the largest force of that day, the nation of Egypt and their god/king Pharaoh. “As I was with Moses,” must have been a promise that filled Joshua with confident grit because his own eyes witnessed the sea flee in submission from Moses and his staff. Joshua had a sword strapped to his side in place of a staff. If the mighty, chaotic sea couldn’t stop Moses, if the mightiest army on earth couldn’t even touch them, if Pharaoh was gloriously washed away without the Hebrews lifting a finger… it rightfully created some gripping imagery for his faith to latch onto.

… because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5b

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:20

We have the exact same promise as Joshua had.

Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.
Joshua 1:7-8

Above ALL… do you know what ALL means in the Hebrew? What would be the command to the people of God today, based on the parallels? Please note that the root, foundation of, “strong,” and, “very courageous,” is the eternal and uncompromising Word of God. If one does not have the Word rooted deeply into their heart, they cannot draw from the power needed to be what God needs them to be. Also note that the, “prosper and succeed in all you do,” comes AFTER the strong and very courageous… and the prosperity and success are connected to the DO not just the mental ascent or agreement. No DO, no prosperity and success.

Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9

This completes the “Strong and Courageous” sandwich. God started with the command and ended with the command. Leaders are repeaters. Notice, we will need courage to start the process and courage to finish with success. In progressive church-i-anity, you may find some onesies and twosies who begin a thing with a dab of courage, but end in frustration, disheartenment, or victimhood. The divine call requires courage and strength all the way through. You have to eat the whole sandwich. AND, we need to do this while staring down any fear. It is almost like our Shepherd has set up a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

Still, I am certain to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Wait patiently for the LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the LORD!
Psalm 27:1, 3, 13-14 BSB

Another sandwich: patience – strong and courageous – patience. This courageous thing must be a big deal to God…

The promises are faithful because God is faithful.

Let us eat the sandwich as we walk together into this Great Awakening!

In Great Love,
Steve