“Be Strong and Courageous”

Sunday, May 24, 2020

The exhortation given in the title is a strange curiosity.  It appears about thirteen times in the Old Testament (depending on the translation), and most of them occur within the space of a few weeks.  Then, it’s brought out in seemingly dire or uncertain situations, using the same Hebrew phrase in an almost formulaic pattern; yet rather than becoming a tired, old standard, we only see it used these few times.

It begins in Deuteronomy 31, as Moses is wraps up his long address to the nation of Israel, which functions as a history, a sermon, a pep-talk, and a farewell speech all in one.  As he tells them his leadership role is about to pass to Joshua when the nation crosses the Jordan to encounter a new set of obstacles, he tells them: “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (v6).  Immediately after this, he shifts his focus away from the nation and onto their future leader, Joshua, telling him also,

Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. (vv7-8)

Then, he repeats it again in verse 23 of the same chapter.

Apparently, God wanted this to leave a lasting impression on Joshua, because he takes those words he’d so recently put in Moses’ mouth, and and speaks them directly to Joshua, just after Moses’ death: “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them” (Jos 1.5-6).  After giving Joshua this reassurance of his blessing and presence, he also tells Joshua what is involved in carrying out this mandate, telling him, “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go” (v7).  Just in case Joshua didn’t get the picture from all of this, he repeats the refrain once more in verse 9, so that Joshua is left with four points to take away from what God has told him: 1) I know it’s scary to have lost your leader and to take over as his untested, unproven replacement; 2) I know it’s scary to risk your life and the lives of your people fighting against an entrenched enemy with no earthly allies; 3) but I will be with you and give you the same success I gave to Moses; 4) if you will trust me and keep my commandments even when it seems to you there’s a better way.

God isn’t the only one strengthening Joshua with this exhortation—the people, who had been told the same thing by Moses just a short time before, and who had witnessed Moses telling Joshua twice to “be strong and courageous,” remind him of that commission once more as they express solidarity with him as their new leader:

“All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses! Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.” (vv16-18)

This time, it serves as a vote of confidence, acknowledging that they’re following the New Guy into some of the most risky and consequential actions of their nation’s history to date, and reassuring him that they feel the stress to, but consider that they’re all in this together, and will not abandon or rebel against him.

The impression all of this was supposed to make on Joshua clearly lasted.  We find him, some time later, in the midst of the war of conquest, repeating the same words back to his people, as the opening stages of the war wrap up with astonishing success, ushering in a series of campaigns that we only see in summary in chapters 10 and 11 of Joshua.  During this transitional period of the narrative, at a point when God has demonstrated his faithfulness, Joshua has demonstrated his leadership, and the people have demonstrated their obedience—all the things that had been somewhat in question before—Joshua propels them on to the next phase of the conquest by saying, “Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. For thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight” (Jos 10.25).  It’s a deliberate reminder of what Moses had said, what God had said, and what the people themselves had said, before all this started, and a confirmation that all parties had been faithful to their promises, and should continue to be.

Later

After this, it disappears for several hundred years.  The next time we see it is in Psalm 27.14, where David considers some of the same themes present in Deuteronomy and Joshua, then closes by saying, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”  He’s added a poetic flair to it, but at its core this is the same Hebrew phrase, and he says the same thing again in verse 24 of Psalm 34, after a similar expression of trust that God will keep his promises to those who keep faith with him.

David is also the source of the next pair of times this phrase shows up, in a strikingly close comparison to the way Moses began the whole thing.  As he prepares to hand the reins over to his son Solomon he says, “you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the rules that the Lord commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Fear not; do not be dismayed.”  He deliberately recalls the words of God in Joshua 1.7, while playing out a similar scenario as in Deuteronomy 31.  The longtime leader of the people is passing the torch to someone untested and unproven, and David clearly sees the similarity to Moses and Joshua, and hopes Solomon will succeed him as worthily as Joshua succeeded Moses.  Lest he (or we) forget, David tells Solomon this same thing a bit later, in the presence of the assembled representatives of Israel: “Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished” (1Ch 28.20).  One can’t help but notice that, this time, he’s deliberately included even more of the words of Moses to the people and to Joshua.

It appears once more, after another few centuries, this time in the mouth of Hezekiah, whose name means “the Lord strengthens,” using the same root as appears in the phrase that has been our focus.  He puns on his own name while referring back to Moses and Joshua again, telling a nation paralyzed by fear of an invading Assyrian army, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him” (2Ch 32.7).  In the face of gigantic army of pagan evildoers, he subtly reminds his people of another time in their history when they fought against overwhelming numbers, and overcame through God’s help.

Today

Of course, these words apply to us at all times, considering the work we do in building a spiritual dwelling for God on earth, and the spiritual war we fight against the devil and his minions, the constant frailties and shortcomings that hamper our efforts and set us back, our lack of confidence in the flesh we all inhabit, and the unseen nature of God’s greatest promises to us.  Today, however, they apply to us all the more, because of the war we’ve been fighting against the pandemic.  This has often left us uncertain and afraid, perhaps even in dread.  But especially now, as our communities begin to open the doors and take small steps back toward the way things were before the virus hijacked our lives and livelihoods, the transitional nature, the untested, unproven leaders and methods, the risks, and the moral imperatives, all come together to create a similar scenario to those in which various Israelites were told, “be strong and courageous.”  We would do well to heed these words, too, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Ro 8.15), “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2Ti 1.7), and Jesus has the power to “deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb 2.15).  We are sons of God, and he loves us and delivers us both from sin and, eventually, from death as well.  And, we have work to do.  This doesn’t mean we should jump willy-nilly into the fray, throw caution to the wind, and welcome the virus into our open arms (and lungs).  But it does mean that we should remember what’s really important, keep our eyes on the joy set before us, continue to take reasonable precautions to preserve our own lives and the lives of others, especially those who are more vulnerable, and otherwise be careful to do according to all that the Lord has commanded us.  We all knew going into this time that it wouldn’t last forever, and although it’s not over yet, we’ve reached the proper time to carefully venture into the world again.  As we do so, let’s be strong and courageous.

Jeremy Nettles

Share