Strength and courage are needed more in a day of decline than when all is going well. There is the enemy to contend with, and instead of having the support of our brethren, we may meet with that which chills the heart and fills it with sorrow. Here the heart is tested, and God only can sustain.
Service and Conflict
There is not only conflict with a common enemy, but there is the state of the saints to be borne as a burden on the heart. Will you bear this burden? Will you cleave to the saints in the power of divine love when they turn away from you as all in Asia did from Paul? Will you seek to serve them when you are misunderstood, misrepresented, or even maligned, as Paul said to the Corinthian saints, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved”? The state of the saints with whom we have to do will often be the means of testing the state of our own hearts. It is easy to love my brethren when they love me and heap their favors upon me. But do I love them just the same when they turn against me or forsake me? Do I still cling to them when they have given me up? Do I intercede for them night and day when perhaps they are only speaking evil of me? The real question is, Have I got the heart of Christ about the saints? And do I see Christ’s glory bound up in them? Then I shall act toward them according to His heart, and seek His glory in connection with their state, regardless of personal rights or present advantage.
Paul could appeal to God as his witness, how he longed after all the Philippian saints in the bowels of Jesus Christ. It was wholehearted devotion to the saints for the sake of Christ, and as having the heart of Christ about them. And this too we need to have, but it requires strength and courage to persevere in it, and the more so if the saints are in a low and carnal state. And we need to be continually cast on God who alone can give strength amid weakness and lead us on to victory. Diligent seeking of God’s face and patient waiting on Him for His will, His help and His guidance are indispensable. Why have we no strength? Why is there decline among us? Why breaking of ranks and scattering of the saints? Is it not because we have not lived close to Christ and gone on in humble dependence on God? And God’s Christ, God’s truth and God’s people have not had their rightful place in our affections. We have seen one growing careless and another going wrong, and we have perhaps talked about them and criticized them when we ought to have been on our faces interceding for them.
The Example of Joshua
There are many instances given us in the Word of God in which we see the display of this power and courage in carrying out the will of God. But the first chapter of Joshua is important as giving us the conditions governing these things. Three times over the Lord exhorts Joshua in that chapter to “be strong and of a good courage.” There was the work to be done, the principle on which it was to be done, and the ground of strength and courage for it.
The Work
1. The work to be done was the dividing of the land among the tribes of Israel. “Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.” The land to be divided was a land in which there were nations mightier than Israel — a land of “giants,” “chariots of iron,” and cities great and “fenced up to heaven.” These nations must be overcome in order to divide the land, and for this great work strength and courage were needed.
The Principle
2. Obedience was the principle on which this work was to be carried on and the condition of success. “Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest 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 prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein 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.”
Here we can see there was no way to succeed but by obedience. Joshua was not to turn from the law to the right hand or the left. The words of the law were not to depart out of his mouth; he was to meditate upon them day and night, and the result would be a prosperous way and good success. The importance of this cannot be overestimated. If we have to do with God, His will must be everything. It is His to command; it is ours to obey.
Now God has made known His will to us in His Word. His will, His purposes and His counsels are all unfolded there. And if we would know His will and be obedient, we must attend to His Word. It is in the reception of the truth that we receive and enjoy blessing. God’s Word is bread to the soul. It is thus that we grow spiritually and learn God’s mind so that we may do His will and have communion with Him. In this way the life, ways, actions, words, motives, desires and affections of God’s people are formed and in a practical way become a testimony to the truth and grace of God. And God will manifest Himself with and for those who are thus practically governed by His Word.
The Ground
3. The ground of strength and courage is the fact that God has commanded and is with the one who obeys. “Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Josh. 1:9).
The difficulties might be like mountains, the enemy might be great and powerful, but Jehovah was greater than all and was with His obedient servant, so that he had nothing to fear. He had delivered Israel out of Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea, the wilderness and the Jordan, and He who had done this could lead them on to victory. He could give strength and courage against which no foe could stand.
This same strength and courage we need. “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might,” it is said, where it is a question of Satan’s power and wiles. And when Christianity began to decline and Timothy was losing heart, the Apostle Paul encouraged him in these words: “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God,” and again, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Timothy needed this encouragement, and we need it, and what is more, God is able to give it and will give it to those who go on in dependent obedience to His will.
Faith in God
But we need to have faith in God. Faith brings God in, and to His power there is no limit. Hebrews 11 gives us many examples of this faith which acted with God, and in which His power was displayed. Moses “endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.” “Through faith” they “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” In the midst of weakness faith made them strong. As Paul also said, “When I am weak, then am I strong.”
“Have faith in God,” Jesus said to His disciples, and then adds, “Verily I say unto you . . . that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” And how could it be otherwise if there is the faith that brings God into the matter? He who created the mountains can surely remove them also if He be pleased to do so. The real question is, Are we walking with Him? Have we the knowledge of His will so that we can act with confidence? Can we bring Him into what we are doing? Are we standing with Him and for Him in the carrying out of His will and His purpose, so that we can connect His name with our service? If this be so, no difficulty can be too great. We can go forward in the name of the Lord with strength and courage of heart and undismayed by all the power that Satan may raise up against us.
Diligence of Heart
And here let us observe that diligence of heart is needful, and I may add, as of equal importance, prayerful dependence. Oh, if we were more diligent as to the Word of God and prayer, how different our state would be! What fervency of heart in all our service and what devotedness to Christ and His people there would be, and how much greater blessing would be enjoyed!
How much we lack this diligence of heart! How many moments every hour, and hours every day, are wasted — time that might be given up to prayer and meditation on God’s blessed Word, in which we should find the Holy Spirit refreshing our souls and filling them with that which flows down from the heart of Christ in glory. Hours spent in foolish talk and idle gossip, grieving the Spirit, blighting spiritual growth, and drying up the springs of divine love in the soul, might be spent in holy, edifying conversation about Christ and His things. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another” (Col. 3:16). In this we need diligence of heart so that the Lord may be honored and our blessing and the blessing of others may be secured.
Our Own State
But will we now lay to heart our own state and that of our brethren? Will we own our slackness of soul —our guilty carelessness — and with diligence of heart seek God’s face and walk with Him? Then we might expect His blessing and the enjoyment of His favor which is better than life (Psa. 63:3). “Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:1416).
The blessed Lord give the writer and the reader strength and courage in this evil world to live for Himself and for His own, serving Him and them in lowly grace until we are taken out of the scene of conflict and service to rest in the eternal brightness of His own presence and in the joy of His unchanging love.
A. H. Rule, adapted