Ahavat Yeshua
Jerusalem
In Joshua 1 the Israelites are preparing to enter the Promised Land under their new leader Joshua. God tells Joshua to, “Be Strong and Courageous!” Then He tells him again, “Be Strong and Courageous!” And then he repeats this phrase a third and fourth time!
Why is God saying this over and over? To understand the reason, we need to go back...
We know from Numbers 27:18 that Joshua was ordained by Moses at God’s instruction to lead the people after Moses’ death. But we need to go further back... We know Joshua was among 12 Israelites spying out the Land (Numbers 13). But, are these the only reasons? In the very first mention of Joshua in Exodus 17, Moses asked Joshua to choose men to go out and fight the Amalekites.
So, we have quite a bit of information about Joshua by the time he begins leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land. But none of this explains the repetitious exhortation from God to “Be Strong and Courageous!”
Why does Joshua, who was already a young adult soldier when we first meet him in Exodus 17, require so much encouragement?
We need to see Joshua as not just a warrior, spy and special assistant to Moses. Unlike Moses, Joshua grew up as a slave to genocidal Pharaohs and cruel task masters.
By the time Joshua enters the Promised Land, he (along with Caleb) is the very last of the generation of slaves from Egypt. After 40 years a new generation has arisen and Joshua is the last “oldtimer” who remembers the torture and the namelessness of the slave identity.
Joshua, the last slave, is stepping out of his inherited slave identity and being encouraged in his new identity as the leader of a free people preparing to enter their land of promise. God is calling Joshua into his true identity as a free man leading a free people into their inheritance – no longer a slave, and free to step into God’s full destiny.
We all have hearts wounded by slavery to sin, by the trials of life, and by interactions with other fallen humans – parents, teachers, peers, etc. Every one of us is fed demonic lies about our identity. In elementary school my mother was told she wasn’t smart, and the other kids laughed at her. How do I know? Because she still remembers and told me about the experience 40 years after it happened.
We all need the inner healing and emancipation that comes with seeing ourselves through God's eyes.
So, I want each person reading this to do two things:
1. Ask the Lord, “God, how do YOU see me?”
2. Take one step in the confidence of that identity. Then after that first step, take another.
Joshua was told four times to be strong and courageous before he took his first step into the Promised Land. He couldn’t remain a slave in his identity and at the same time move forward against a highly fortified giant-filled land with a bunch of “children of slaves.”
Maybe YOU need to hear the Lord strongly confirm your identity before you feel you can take your next step. Strengthen your identity in Yeshua. You aren’t ugly; you’re beautiful. You aren’t a failure; you have a destiny set by the Creator before the foundations of the Earth. You aren’t dumb; you are wonderfully and fearfully made! You aren’t a failure; as a person fulfilling Psalm 1:3, you meditate on the Word of the Lord day and night; you are blessed, and all that you do will be successful!
You have been set free. Your promised land is right before you. Step into it.
