Joshua 1:1-9 "Be Strong and Courageous"
Seven Virtues #2 - Courage.
by James Galbraith
Bethel First Baptist Church - May 27, 2001
COURAGEOUS MISSIONARY DOCTOR
DR. ELIZABETH HOLLAND, A PEDIATRICIAN FROM MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, WHO HAS SERVED AS A VOLUNTEER DOCTOR FOR WORLD VISION, IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE COURAGE WE CAN ALL ENJOY AS ONE WHO FOLLOWS GOD.
ONCE SHE TREATED PATIENTS IN THE MIDDLE OF AN AFRICAN CIVIL WAR, EXPLAINS WRITER ROBERT KERR. IN 1985 SHE PERFORMED ONE APPENDECTOMY IN WHICH THE "OPERATING ROOM" WAS A MUD HUT DEEP IN THE JUNGLE OF ZAIRE. THE ANESTHETIC WAS AN ANIMAL TRANQUILIZER, WHICH RAN OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OPERATION. OUTSIDE, MIG JETS WERE DROPPING BOMBS. EVERY TIME A BOMB HIT, DIRT FROM THE MUD HUT FELL DOWN ON THEM. SHE PERFORMED A VIRTUAL MIRACLE CONSIDERING THE CIRCUMSTANCES, AND HER PATIENT LIVED.
DURING THE ANGOLAN CIVIL WAR, HOLLAND ROUTINELY SAW 400 TO 500 PATIENTS A DAY. "I FREQUENTLY WRAPPED BROKEN BONES IN MAGAZINES AND USED BANANA LEAFS FOR SLINGS," SHE SAID. SINCE FOOD WAS IN SHORT SUPPLY, HOLLAND ATE A PASTE MADE FROM GROUND CASSAVA-PLANT ROOTS. "IT TASTED LIKE GLUE," SAID DR. HOLLAND. "THE FIRST FEW DAYS, I THOUGHT I WOULD DIE. BUT THEN I GOT TO WHERE IT TASTED PRETTY GOOD. SOMETIMES WHEN IT RAINED WE COULD GET A FEW LEAVES FROM THE TREES TO COOK IT IN FOR VARIETY."
ACROSS THE ANGOLAN BORDER WAS A MINEFIELD THAT OFTEN KILLED OR INJURED CIVILIANS; HOLLAND WOULD RETRIEVE THEM. SHE SAID, "I LEARNED IF I GOT MY NOSE DOWN AT GROUND LEVEL AND CRAWLED ALONG ON MY STOMACH, I COULD SEE THE MINES. SO I WOULD MAKE MY WAY ACROSS, THEN THROW THE INJURED PERSON OVER MY SHOULDER AND CARRY THEM OUT THE SAME WAY I HAD COME OVER."
MAYBE WE WILL NEVER BE FORCED TO PERSEVERE AS ELIZABETH HOLLAND HAS, BUT EACH OF US CAN GROW IN CHARACTER.
What is one essential quality that Dr. Holland demonstrates during her service in Angola?
Courage.
Today, as we work through what have been called the seven cardinal virtues, we are going to take a good look at courage.
I would like to answer two questions today, using our text in Joshua.
The first - What exactly is courage? and the second is "How can we grow in courage?
So - What is courage?
To answer that, let me bring back from last week the definition of wisdom.
Wisdom, briefly defined, is the ability to choose the right path. A wise person takes in all the possibilities in a situation and chooses a course of action, or reaction, that best suits not only the short term but also the bigger picture.
With this definition in mind, courage is the willingness to walk that path, no matter how easy or hard it may be.
Courage is doing what you know is right when it needs to be done, regardless of the level of difficulty involved.
Let’s look to our passage to learn more about courage.
In these verses God himself is letting Joshua know that he has been chosen to be the new leader of the people of Israel.
Moses has been laid to rest and the entire nation of Israel, millions strong, has spent thirty days in mourning for the man whom God used to bring them out of Egypt.
Joshua’s appointment is not "out of the blue" - his preparation for leadership dates back more than forty years.
Joshua served as Moses’ personal aide since his youth. He is chosen by Moses to lead the Israelites in their first battles, just weeks after they leave Egypt.
He alone accompanies Moses on Mount Sinai as God gives Moses the law that the people are to live by.
He is chosen to be one of the twelve men who spy out the Promised Land, and when they return only Joshua and Caleb are ready to enter the land. The other ten are full of fear, and the nation follows the fears of the other ten, and refuses to enter the land God promises them.
God takes their lack of faith and declares that of all those who have left Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb will actually enter the Promised land, and forty years later these two lead the next generation across the Jordan River.
We don not know why Joshua was chosen over Caleb to be THE leader, but that isn’t really important. What is important is that Joshua is given a task which is no smaller than, which is no less than, building a new nation out of a wandering mob.
1. He must keep order amongst a people notorious for being fickle and faithless. To do this, he must keep them focused on the God who has brought them this far, and also on the mission God has given them to accomplish.
2. Should he be able to do this, he must then lead the conquest of the new land, which is populated by numerous powerful tribes, cities and nations. This involves everything from crossing a flowing river with millions of people to bringing down walls that tower before them.
3. Should he be able to conquer the new land, he must lead the distribution of land and wealth. Imagine what you would do if you had to divide up an area over 20000 square kilometers amongst several hundred thousand families!
At home we have enough trouble dividing up a pizza amongst four hungry young men and a very patient mom!
To do all this Joshua he will need to be strong and courageous!
But it is not only the Joshua’s who need to be strong and courageous - we all need to be.
We may not be nation leaders, but we are nation builders.
And as God’s children we all live lives where courage is not optional, but essential.
It takes courage to work hard, especially when we live in a society which seems to reward the one who take short cuts or thrives off of the efforts of others.
Think of how many jobs there are where courage is absolutely mandatory - Police. Firefighters. Health workers on all levels. Teachers.
It takes courage to study, especially when cheating is downright epidemic at all levels of education.
It takes courage to raise a child, or two children or three children - and once you’re past three children - well - you have to be downright heroic!
Sometimes it simply takes courage to be a kid - and some kids can exemplify courage in ways that leave us breathless.
Let me share the following story with you, one that I received a month ago form the good folks at - www.HeroicStories.com
It’s called "Over the Fence", by Dad
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
I have two very active sons. Both are very active in soccer and generally all sports. They have always been rambunctious and they get in arguments with each other -- I guess most siblings do.
One Thanksgiving evening they were both at a neighbor’s house playing basketball. My oldest son, "Bill", and his buddy were playing with the younger kids, who ranged in age from three to ten.
The neighbor had a mongrel Great Dane that was really massive. He was kept chained whenever the kids were playing outside, and had never been a problem.
My wife and I were in the den watching TV when we heard loud screaming outside. We are used to noise but this time it was a shrieking sound. I went to the back door and saw Bill in the back yard of a second neighbor, holding his arm and bleeding. All of the other children were gone and the great dane was barking at my son through the fence.
As I ran down the deck toward him, I could see my younger son, "Jake", coming around the front of the house screaming. All of the other children were gone. Bill was crying, but angry at the same time, and I couldn’t tell how badly he was hurt.
We took Bill to the hospital that night and he had to have emergency surgery to repair tendons in his forearm and hand. He was very worried about his hand and arm because of being a soccer goalie, but the doctors assured him that he would be all right after therapy.
The next day our neighbor and his oldest son came to the house and sat down to tell us what had happened. Somehow the dog had gotten loose from his chain and started to attack the little kids, including Jake.
Bill caught the dog from behind, jumped on his back and wrapped his arm around the dog’s neck to hold him off. The neighbor’s son then got the little kids out of the back yard and into the house. After they were safely inside, Bill tried to get away from the dog himself, but the dog came after him.
Bill shielded himself with his forearm. He kept trying to get over the fence but the dog kept pulling him back down. My neighbor then came out of his house and got the dog to let go of my son. Of course by that time his forearm was shredded and he couldn’t get over our fence by himself.
While our neighbor’s son was telling us this story, Jake began to cry. He had always looked up to Bill as an example for soccer, but had never seen him as willing to sacrifice himself to help a pesky little brother. Suddenly his big brother was someone who would risk his life for him.
The older brother - Bill - at just over ten years old, exemplified everything we’ve come to call courage - knew what to do and acting on it, regardless of personal danger.
I think we’re ready to look at the next question -
How do we grow in courage?
I must share one reminder at this point.
Last week I said that we have to be very careful that we do not consider the "virtues" to be commodities that we find or gather or buy or make.
Many people think that if we live out the virtues then we grow closer to God. They see the virtues as a path to God, and as we live out wisdom and courage and love and the others than we become more and more the person God wants us to be.
That is not the message that I am here to share.
We do not earn our way to God through the practice of the virtues - rather we grow in the virtues as we give ourselves to God.
That said, let us look at how God exhorts Joshua to courage - he says it three times, and each time he also gives us a clue as to how courage grows within us
1. Courage grows in us as we do the things which require it.
Listen to the first time God calls Joshua to courage. Joshua 1:6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.
Look at the last words in this verse - What will Joshua lead these people to do? - to inherit the land I - (GOD) swore to their forefather to give them.
In these words we see that Joshua is simply the conduit by which God uses to fulfill his promises. God made a promise long ago, and he is using Joshua to fulfill it.
We can learn courage as we too let God fulfill his promises though us, and believe me, it takes courage to let God work through you.
God says he loves us - and as we let him love though us we grow in courage to love ourselves.
God says we cares for us - and as we strive to let that care work though us we learn courage to do things that are bigger than we can handle on our own.
As we strive to let God work through us, and there are opportunities everyday to do so, we will grow in the courage it takes to do these things.
It sounds a bit tricky at first - having to do things which require courage in order to grow in courage - but courage is an action word, and you can’t know courage until you’ve tried something which requires it.
2. Courage requires knowing what is the right thing to do.
The next time God calls Joshua to courage he adds another dimension. Listen to verses seven and eight
7 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. 8 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.
if courage is the willingness - the readiness, to do the right thing ant the right time, then we need to know what the right thing to do is!
That is why God says "DO not let this Book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night" - to do the right thing we need to know what it is!
That is why firefighters, and the military, and athletes train and train and train - so that they will know what to do when the fire is in front of them.
Their training consist of activity, and we covered that. it also consist of reading and studying their craft, and to do that they all have very precise and specific training manuals to read.
The Bible is our training manual for courage, and as we learn form it we will know the right thing to do at the right time, and that is one step closer to being willing to do it.
3. Courage comes from trusting that God is with us wherever we go.
Listen to the last verse in this passage - 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."
If there is one thing that sparks fear faster than anything else, it is being alone. Of all the time I have been afraid, the most tangible ones have come when I am alone.
These range from being alone in the house as a child, to being alone in the crowd as a bullied teen, to being alone in a dark church late at night. (Vancouver FBC)
God knew that Joshua would feel pretty lonely in his role as leader, and he lets Joshua know that no matter how lonely he may feel, he is never Alone.
Thank God that there is no where we can go that he will not already be there - Psalm 139:7-10
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
To wrap up today -
Courage is something that we all need to grow in, for we all will face situations where doing what we know is right will be difficult, even impossible, on our own.
In those times, our relationship to God can make the difference in how we conduct ourselves. If you don’t think you have a relationship with God let me quickly say that you need one - we all do - and I’d love to talk to you about that anytime.
If as God’s children, we want to know courage, than we must strive to let him work through us, strive to learn his word seriously, and we must trust in his continuing presence.
When we do these things, I believe that courage will grow. Close with Joshua 1:9
