Reflections on Joshua

Christmas break has just ended. The curtain has closed on days filled with movie marathons and long morning talks with family over multiple cups of coffee. I sit here at 5pm in my pajama pants, clinging to these last moments of relaxation and carelessness. I feel anything but careless, though, as I look ahead to the coming months. My soul yearns to be in step with the Lord. My theme verse this past month has been "Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)

I entered Christmas break in a flurry of rushed goodbyes and a head full of cold medicine, attempting to process a semester filled to the brim with people, parties, work, and all the things that fill the crevices of our lives. I arrived in Colorado, the land of mountains and cold, cautiously breathing out my fears and dreams to the Creator of the beauty around me. And His response was clear as day, "Be strong. Be courageous. But you can only do so if you are confident that I am with you wherever you go." I had been sitting in the book of Joshua for a while. Sometimes a piece of Scripture just fits in my life in a way so that I cannot let it go until God propels me forward to a new promise or lesson in His Word.

It was right after my grandfather's passing over Thanksgiving that I began reading Joshua. I was kind of shocked by the first verse - "After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 'Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel."
Having recently experienced a death and feeling the weight of a grief that pins you to the ground, I can imagine how Joshua might have responded to God in his grief over the death of Moses. You see everyone around you moving about, but you feel a loyalty to the one you have lost that life must not go on without them. You must pause there in the place of grief and remembrance for longer than people will let you. And yet, God, the comforter, the compassionate one commands Joshua very matter-of-factly, "Moses is dead. Now therefore arise." He is telling Joshua to move. If Joshua felt anything of what I was feeling after my grandfather's death, I know that the last thing he wanted to do was move, and particularly move into the frightening, unknown territory of conquering a foreign land. While in my heart I grumbled against God for His seeming insensitivity to my sorrow, I knew he was being, not insensitive, but more in tune to my spiritual needs in this time.

A few days later, I read further in Joshua, where God tells him, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you." (Joshua 3:7) And then, after he successfully leads the people across the Jordan, trusting God's promise that he would make a way by parting the waters, Scripture says that, "On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life." (Joshua 4:14). These verses drew my attention away from the losing of someone through death to the losing of someone's leadership. I have already experienced a season in which a close mentor and leader left me, and I was expected to take over leadership in an area in which I did not feel competent. God was faithful to raise me up in the eyes of those I was leading, not by my own strength or charisma (of which I have very little), but by the expressions of His power in my life. What struck me in these verses is the beautiful combination of commands, promises, and the fulfillment of promises. God was asking a lot of Joshua, but He was promising His presence through the seemingly impossible journey ahead of him. God had stripped away a friend, leader, and rock in Joshua's life and had called him to fill this immense gap with his own small, grieving self. But, to show the people that Joshua was the proper leader, God worked miraculously through Joshua. All He asked of him was that he believe in God's ability to prepare the way and then step forward in that faith.

Oh that I would be so faithful even in the midst of grief and even when I do not see myself as a leader or whoever it is that God has called me to be. I think that grief and a new step forward often go hand in hand. Whenever we move forward into a new challenge or phase of life, we are usually leaving behind something that was dear to us. Even if nothing we leave behind is dear to us, we may grieve the comfort of the familiar, the predictable, and the easy, for rarely is a new home/step in life/role at once easy to adjust to. Praise the Lord that He prepares us, sanctifies us, and heals us for the "Arise, go" moments.

After the people cross the Jordan and they are all circumcised, Scripture says, "They remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. And the Lord said to Joshua, 'Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.'" (Joshua 5:8-9) I'm not an Old Testament scholar so I may be interpreting this passage incorrectly, but I see God making use of times of stillness to refine and heal His people. I look back on times when I have been kept in one place (spiritually, emotionally, physically,...) for longer than I wanted to be, and I see God rolling away the reproach of my former slavery to sin and circumcising my heart (Col. 2:11-12). Sometimes we want to shrink back in fear of moving forward while other times we want to rush through a period of slowness and healing because it hurts.

I have referred to this verse in a past blog, and I will mention it again here - "Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord." (Hosea 6:3) This is the goal and the hope whether we remain in the desert or are called forth to a new land - to know the Lord. He promises His presence, and in that presence are thousands of other promises pertaining to His character. If we are afraid, then we forget who He is, that He is love and that "Perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:18)