Be Strong and Courageous

Day 40: Joshua 1–5; Ecclesiastes 7–12; Acts 25–28

40 days...that's a biblical benchmark!  I began Joshua, the 5th book in the Old Testament and the first of a new section called history.  Joshua is the book telling about the conquest and settlement of the Promised Land.  It begins with God encouraging Joshua and the Israelites and ends with a recommitment tot he covenant.  In between is much bloodshed, miraculous moments and passing out the inheritance like the reading of a will.

Joshua chapter one has not once, twice, but three times the exhortation to "be strong and courageous (Josh. 1:6-7, 9, 18)."  One time God adds "be very courageous."  The source of Joshua's courage is that God is will be with him and win the battles for Israel (Josh 1:5).

So the people prepare.  Joshua sends two spies to Jericho.  The story is reminiscent of the two strangers visiting Sodom for the men of the city tell the prostitute Rahab, "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house."  The men of Sodom said something similar to Lot.  And just as Lot protected the two angels, Rahab protected the two Israelite spies.  Because of her kindness and the fact that she recognized the God of the Hebrews was going to hand Jericho over to them, she was given a chance to be saved.  She hung a scarlet rope from her window.

The scarlet rope has deep meaning.  The Israelites put blood on the doorposts at passover to spare them from death during the plague of the firstborn.  A distant relative to King David and later Jesus has a red string of yarn tied to his wrist at birth (Zerah the twin to King David's direct ancestor Perez) (Gen. 38:27-30; Ruth 4:18-22). The scarlet thread/rope points to atonement...blood shed to bring salvation from sin.  Rahab is saved by the redemptive purposes of God.  She ends up becoming a wife of an Israelite Salmon and an ancestor to David and Jesus as well (Mat. 1:5).

As a Christian it is inspiring to see what the early disciples began to see when their eyes were opened to the scriptures by the resurrected Lord and the counsel of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24: 27, 30-32).  For I see God's divine plan to bring salvation through the scarlet blood of Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29).

God leads Joshua and the people by the ark of the covenant to cross the Jordan on dry land through a miraculous act to stop the flow of the river.  Remember that water in Genesis 1 and the flood story both represent chaos.  The ark of the covenant contains the Ten Commandments on the two stone tablets, a jar of manna and Aaron's staff.  The ark's contents that hold back chaos and provides a safe passage with the power of the Holy God are covenant law, divine provision and chosen priesthood.

To celebrate they set up 12 stones they took from the riverbed of Jordan as a memorial.

The men who crossed were the next generation of Israelites. They have never known slavery in Egypt. They grew up wandering about in the wilderness under Moses' leadership.  They had not circumcised their sons during the wilderness years.  So Joshua has all the males circumcised as a means of marking their holy connection to the God of Israel, the God of their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And they ate from the produce of the promised land. And when they did the manna stopped falling from heaven.  For 40 years they had eaten bread from heaven, fed by God's miraculous hand.  Now they enjoy the sweet fulfillment of God's promise.

They prepare for battle and the Angel of the Lord visits but reminds Joshua that He and the angel army hosts serve God's purposes alone.  He is not for Israel.  He is a servant of God and as long as Israel is a servant of God, they will find God's army defeating their enemies.

The writer of Ecclesiastes has heard the stories of the ancestors and how God promised blessing for obedience and curse for rebellion.  He sees that not every time this is so.  There are times when the evil flourish and enjoy long life with little struggle while the righteous suffer and seem to miss the promised blessing (Ecc. 8:14).  And so he tells his audience to not be too righteous or too wicked.  One should not wear themselves out by too much righteous law keeping or die young from excesses in wicked behavior (Ecc. 7:16-18).  In his mind there is no trustworthy means to spare the righteous from suffering.  Both the wicked and the righteous end up in the same place...dead in Sheol (Ecc. 9:9-11).

Ecclesiastes is an acquired taste.  It is not a book for rank and file Christians who tend to focus only on the positive.  This book smacks of realism, but it also seems to lack any real hope.  There is more a resigned acquiescence to the way of things.  In some ways the message of the book could be heard like the bumper sticker that reads "Life Sucks and then You Die."  But there is more to it than that. It takes a certain amount of courage to live life on life's terms.  The wise man knows life in the end will be as God desires, however little we may understand it, and that is good.  There is a wisdom that says life is meant to be enjoyed. Work is meant to be enjoyed. Food and drink are meant to be enjoyed.  And though life is fleeting and ends in death, there is an order to things in the world.  So fear God and keep His commands.  That is the purpose for the life of an Israelite in King Solomon's view.
Finally I complete the Acts of the Apostles, Luke's second work.  Paul is tried by Festus, but Paul appeals to Caesar and wishes to be tried before the emperor in Rome.  A terrible storm threatens their lives and the ship on which they travel is destroyed.  But Paul glorifies God and encourages the men.  Not one of them die.  They all make it safely to shore in Malta.  God is with Paul and because Paul is with the 275 other men, they are saved (Acts 27:37).  The book ends with Paul under house arrest preaching the gospel to Romans and Jews at the center of the western world.

God is with us still in this work to advance the kingdom of God.  Just as Joshua and the Israelites will face enemies, and Paul faces death in Rome, we too will have trouble in this world trying to serve God.  But take heart, be strong and courageous, Jesus overcame the world (Jn. 16:33) and He promises to be with us always even to the end of the age (Mat. 28:20).