God called Joshua to be strong and courageous, we already talked about him being strong, now – God is also calling him and everyone of us to be courageous.

He needs courage to overcome whatever comes along their way. It’s easy to run away, it’s easy to stop especially when you see that nothing is going right. You need courage to stay, you need courage to move forward, but most of all you need courage to continue on the things God called you to do, even though it seems nothing is working.

Courage to lead – because he is a newly installed leader, he don’t know what the people were expecting from him. The way of his leadership will be very different from Moses. It takes courage to lead people, because their lives and future is in his hand. People will follow him and his instruction, and Joshua must lead them to victory.

Courage to move forward – the promise land is very different from the place where they’ve come from. They experience, season, everything is very different.. What seems effective in the wilderness, may not be that effected during this season. But they need to move forward, because that’s the only way they can conquer the land, eventually arriving in the promise of the Lord. Moving forward in the land and season you’ve never been before takes lot of courage, because of his word – uncertainty. But Joshua focus himself on the Lord and on the task given to him.

Courage to cross-over / change – before they arrive at promised land, they need to crossed over the Jordan river first.And that crossing over will be the first step of change, it’s a new land in the other side. Without crossing over,t here will be no changes. And this is what they must do, accept the reality of change. He needs to make a decision that He wants to cross-over & change, because staying will not change anything.

Courage in the face of intimidation – Joshua needs courage because they’re going to face fierce enemies, walled and armored cities. They will face enemies who might be greater than them in the first glance, but in reality powerless before God. Courage that in the face on intimidation, he will not run away.

Courage to see impossible becoming possible – It takes faith and total dependency on the Lord. It takes willingness and obedience to see the miracle working power of God. And in the books of Joshua, there are things that happened that show the might and power of God. Events that took place that only through the power of God possible. The situations may seem impossible, but Joshua choose to believed that nothing is impossible with God. He choose to have faith to the one who called him to lead. He saw the river Jordan being divided, the walls of Jericho coming down, even the sun standing still.

Courage to stay – and this is where most people do run away. When they see that nothing seems happening, they tend to run away. When they face the walls of Jericho, they need to march around Jericho for several days. And for many days, nothing seems happening until the day God commanded them to shout. Nothing is happening, nothing significant, but they continued. They stayed in the faced of what seems intimidation, and in the front of the enemy. And they saw the victory because they stayed. Joshua should show this trait first, before the people can follow.

Courage to do the right thing – Joshua needs to make hard decisions, and this takes lot of courage. When they were defeated with their war against the next city after Jericho, it is because one of them did not followed the instruction the Lord has given, everything from Jericho is the Lord’s. And eventually the Lord exposed Achan as the source of their misery. Someone who’s with them in the wilderness, a part of the next generation who’ve been promised to enter the promised land with them. But Joshua need to make a decision to cut off Achan and all his descendants or else bring the whole nation of Israel to defeat, misery and stoppage. They will not be able to continue to moving forward without cutting Achan’s family from them. Joshua need courage to do the right thing, even though it is hard for him.

Courage to obey – I’ll end this part with this. There are still a lot of things that we can connect about the call of the Lord to lead the people to their promised land, but it all starts when Joshua choose to obey the Lord. It takes lot of courage to obey the Lord, to believe God on His word, to have faith. The Lord Himself encouraged Joshua, an assurance the He will be with him. God knows that it is not going to be easy, but nevertheless – Joshua choose to obey the Lord God Almighty.

And Joshua being strong and courageous is applicable to our time during this time. We need to become strong and courageous, it’s a different season. But the promise of the Lord remains true, and He remains faithful.