Courageous to Obey

Before the death of Joshua, he gave the people exhortations to fear God and serve Him only.  He also said in Joshua 23:5-8:  "And the LORD your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight. So you shall possess their land, as the LORD your God promised you. ⁶ Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, ⁷ and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you. You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to them, ⁸ but you shall hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day."  Joshua commanded the people to be very courageous to keep and do all that was written in God's law, and this was what God commanded him when he was made leader after Moses.

God said to Joshua in Joshua 1:6-8:  "Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. ⁷ Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. ⁸ This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."  It is important for us to realise leaders and all they oversee need great courage to obey all God has said.  Courage, strength, integrity of character, and resolute commitment with diligence is granted us by faith in God.

In Webster's 1828 dictionary, "courageous" is defined as follows:  "brave; bold; daring; intrepid; hardy to encounter difficulties and dangers; adventurous; enterprising."  It takes courage to affirm our belief in the truth of God's word when others do not agree with it.  We must be bold and daring to do what God says is right when it is easy to adopt the world's ways and values, to be willing to stand out in holiness rather than blend in.  Courage makes us resilient to personal insults, being excluded, hated, persecuted and singled out as foolish.  God's people are to be brave to shoulder slanderous labels and false accusations in our pursuit of Jesus Christ, labouring to obediently serve Him and love one another--even  loving our enemies.  Our flesh may not be courageous to fight in hand-to-hand combat, but to be courageous by faith in Jesus is the call of every Christian.  This source of our courage is spiritual and real, and thus it translates into practical decisions we make every day to cling to God and obey Him.

Boldness and courage comes from faith in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Evidence of this is seen with the marked change in Peter, John and the disciples after they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  After Peter and John proclaimed the Gospel to the Jewish rulers they knew hated and plotted to murder Jesus, Acts 4:13 says:  "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus."  They decided the best way to silence them about Jesus was to severely threaten them, and Acts 4:18-20 tells us the response of the Christians:  "And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹ But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. ²⁰ For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."  More than speaking boldly, the remainder of Acts shows Christians lived courageously to proclaim the Gospel, spoke the truth in love and held fast to Jesus.  May we be strong and courageous by faith in Jesus to obey Him so His name will be glorified now and forever.