So you want to see an example of when God wants His message to be extremely clear and to the point?
Parables are great, but sometimes you have to read them over and over again to understand them. And there is plenty of symbolism and signs throughout Scripture, so when we see a clear statement from God, it's always something to cherish!
In today's #bible911 post we're headed to one of the greatest history lessons in all of human history....The book of Joshua!
And we aren't going far either, because in today's chapter, which is the first one, the theme which was presented to us is 'Courage' and needing it....
A quick backstory about how we got to the book of Joshua. Moses is dead. He was the spiritual leader of Israel over the past 40 plus years and now it was time to enter into Canaan. The 'next in command' to lead God's people is Joshua the son of Nun.
So yeah, this was a pretty big responsibility. God knows this, and the pressure that must have come with that job description. Placed right at the feet of Joshua....
This almost feels like a pep talk of sorts, but one with some incredible lessons for not only Joshua, but us as well.
If you simply read through this chapter, without even doing a deep dive into studying it, you will see this theme come up....Multiple times:
Be strong and of a good courage.
God repeats this throughout this chapter to not only give courage and confidence to His new leader, but also to reassure Joshua that God will never leave his side. What amazing comfort can that be for us today!
I have a lot of 'favorite' verses in the bible, but two of them come directly from the book of Joshua. The first one is this:
This hits home for me because it literally...Hits home! An important reminder as the leader of my household, to always put God first and serve Him only.
But then there is one that is kind of sort of, posted everywhere around my home...
And when I say I have this everywhere around my home, I even have my wallet with this inscribed on it. lol
A powerful reminder that God is always on our side. Throughout it all!
Here's a quick exercise for you.....
Read Joshua chapter 1.
And without diving too deep into it, see how many times we can find 'be strong and of a good courage' sprinkled into the 18 verses of this chapter.
Yeah I think God is making something extremely clear to us. He is with us. Always. And He wants us to build up the courage and faith knowing that He is always with us. No parables here. No secret messages at all. A strong reminder of who we serve....
