Be Strong and Courageous

It’s so good to be back writing blog posts about our studies! I hope this is the first of many more to come!

Be strong and courageous" is the kind of phrase you see on a coffee mug or one of those Christian sticker sets — trendy, familiar, everywhere you look. And honestly, before I opened Joshua 1 with the girls, that's kind of where I had it filed in my brain too. But then there it was, three times in a row, staring back at me from the page — and as I was reading and looking up words in Strong's concordance and the expository dictionary, the Holy Spirit started pulling threads to the New Testament so fast I could barely keep up.

What I found blew my understanding wide open — not just of Joshua, but of what the New Testament writers were standing on when they wrote what they wrote. Because it turns out this phrase isn't a tagline. It is a theological reality check that runs straight from the banks of the Jordan River all the way to Ephesians, Hebrews, Matthew, Luke, and James.

So let's open it up together and see what's actually in there.

Start Here

“…Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous... Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you... Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

— Joshua 1:5–9 (ESV)

Three times. And every single time God says it, He immediately ties it to two things: His presence and His Word. Not to Joshua's military record. Not to the size of Israel's army. Every single time, He says I am with you, do what I said, don't look away from that.

So here's what I suspect God is doing. He is not giving Joshua a pep talk. He is drawing a line before the first battle is ever fought. He's saying — look, what is about to happen out there is going to look so impossible, so clearly beyond what a human army could pull off on their own, that I need you to settle this right now in your heart: I am doing this. Not you. So don't you dare let the victories go to your head, and don't you dare let the obstacles convince you to quit. Keep your eyes on me and keep moving.

The strength He's commanding isn't something Joshua is supposed to find inside himself. It's the kind of strength that comes from staying locked in on who God is and what He has already promised — especially when everything you can see in front of you looks nothing like what He said.

Watch This

This is where it got really good for me. Because once I started pulling the threads, I realized the New Testament didn't come up with new ideas. It kept coming back to this same moment — this same command, this same promise — and showing us what it always meant.

Ephesians 6:10 — Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

— Ephesians 6:10 (ESV)

Five hundred years after Joshua, Paul says almost the exact same words. But look at what he adds — be strong in the Lord. In His might. Not yours. Paul fills in the blank that Joshua 1 left open. The strength God was calling Joshua into was never about Joshua. It was always in the Lord. The conquest of Canaan and the spiritual warfare Paul describes in Ephesians 6 are the same fight in two different dimensions — and the instruction is identical. Draw your strength from God, because the battle was never yours to win on your own.

Hebrews 13:5 — That promise didn't expire.

...for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'

— Hebrews 13:5 (ESV)

The writer of Hebrews doesn't paraphrase Joshua 1:5. He lifts it word for word and drops it into a letter written to Christians who were scared and under pressure and wondering if God had moved on. And what he's saying is — the promise God made to a man standing at the edge of the Jordan River is the same promise He is making to you right now. It hasn't changed. It hasn't expired. Whatever you are facing, He has not left.

Hebrews 4:8–9 — Here's the one that stopped me.

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

— Hebrews 4:8–9 (ESV)

Joshua did everything God told him to do. Led the people in. Won the battles. Gave them the land. And the writer of Hebrews says — but Joshua didn't give them the real rest. He gave them territory. What he could not give them was the rest that only Jesus provides.

The Promised Land was never the final destination. It was a picture of something greater. Every crossing, every victory, every inch of ground in Joshua was pointing forward to something Joshua himself couldn't deliver. Jesus is the rest that Canaan was always meant to show us. Which means when you read Joshua, you are reading a story that is ultimately about Christ — even when His name isn't on the page yet.

Matthew 14 — Peter and the water.

He said, 'Come.' So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was frightened and, beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me.'

— Matthew 14:29–30 (ESV)

Joshua crossed the Jordan on foot while God held the water back. Peter walked on water while God held him up. Same impossible crossing. Same source of power. And the moment Peter stopped looking at Jesus and started looking at the scene around him, physics won …immediately.

That is exactly what be strong and courageous is guarding against. God isn't telling Joshua to pretend the giants aren't real or the walls aren't massive. He is telling him to keep his eyes on Yahweh when the fear hits. Because the waves were real. The wind was real. The walls of Jericho were absolutely real. But none of it was bigger than the one who said go. Courage in Scripture is not the absence of fear — it is the decision to keep looking at God when everything else is screaming for your attention.

Luke 10:19 — Authority to tread.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.

— Luke 10:19 (ESV)

Go back to Joshua 1:3. God tells Joshua — every place the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you. It had absolutely nothing to do with them. They didn’t do anything to create or even pay for the new car. They were just picking up the keys and driving the car home. The physical act of putting their foot on the ground was the declaration that the land belonged to God's people. Every single step was a claim made by God through them.

Now look at what Jesus says in Luke 10. He gives His disciples authority to tread on the enemy. He took the exact language of Joshua — feet on ground, ground being claimed — and translated it from geography into the spiritual realm. What Israel did physically in Canaan, we now do through the authority of Christ.Not our own authority as we have none. His authority.  The battlefield changed. The principle didn't move an inch.

James 1:6 — Doubt has a history.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

— James 1:6 (ESV)

James didn't come up with this principle on his own. He was describing something that Israel had already demonstrated in full color back in Numbers 13. Twelve spies went into Canaan. Same land, same giants, same God who sent them. Ten came back and said we can't do this. Two  Joshua and Caleb came back and said God promised it, so let's go. Yes, the very Joshua who is now leading God’s people in the promise land. They were the only two that remained of the previous generation to make it this far. The remaining ten received…nothing but end of line. They never set foot in the land they had seen with their own eyes.

The doubt James is warning against isn't honest questions or wrestling with hard things. It is hearing what God said and deciding that what you can see in front of you is more trustworthy than what He promised. That is exactly what cost that generation everything.

Ephesians 2:8–9 — And here is where all of it lands.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

— Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)

Here is something about the Promised Land that I think we breeze right past. Israel did not earn it. They did not deserve it. God swore the land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob long before any of their descendants had done a single thing to warrant it. Joshua 1:6 says it plainly — the land I swore to their fathers to give them. It was always a gift. It was always grace.

Paul isn't introducing a brand new idea in Ephesians 2. He is naming the principle that was operating underneath the entire story of Israel from the very beginning. Canaan was grace. Salvation is grace. God gives, we receive through faith, and nobody gets to take the credit. That was always how it worked — even back in Joshua.

Moving Forward by Going Back

Before we tie this all together, I need to take you to Numbers 14 for a minute. Because it is the most painful — and most important — illustration of what happens when we get this completely wrong.

Israel was standing at the edge of the Promised Land. They had watched God part the Red Sea. They had eaten manna that appeared out of nowhere every single morning. They had seen Him show up over and over again. And when the moment came to walk in — they refused. The giants looked too big. The walls looked too high. Their fear was louder than their faith. So God said fine. This generation will not enter. Forty years in the wilderness.

And then almost immediately some of them changed their minds. We'll go now, they said. We're ready. Moses warned them point blank — do not go up, the Lord is not with you. They went anyway. And they got crushed.

Two failures, one right after the other, and they had the exact same root.

The first time they said we can't when God said go. That was unbelief. The second time they said we'll go — without waiting on God, without His presence, on their own terms. That was presumption. One refused to trust His power. The other refused to need it. In both cases they took their eyes off of God, and in both cases they came up completely empty.

Unbelief says: I can't do this.

Presumption says: I'll do this myself.

Faith says: God said it. I'm going.

That is exactly what Paul is describing in Ephesians 2. Neither extreme works. Not I can't and not I've got this. The only position that actually receives anything from God is faith — which means He initiates, He empowers, He wins, and we trust and obey and hand Him every bit of the credit.

Back to Where We Started

Forty years after Numbers 14, a brand new generation is standing at the exact same border. A new leader has been appointed. And God says it again. Three times. Like He knows we need to hear things more than once.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

— Joshua 1:9 (ESV)

This is God's reset. Not because this generation was better than the last one — they weren't. Not because Joshua had some military advantage Moses didn't have. But because God's covenant faithfulness does not waver even when ours does. The land was still promised. His presence was still right there. The instruction hadn't changed one bit.

Fix your eyes on me. Stay in my Word. Trust what I have already said over what you can currently see. And know — really know — that I am the one who makes the path prosperous. Not your planning. Not your effort. Not your strategy. Me.

Everything God showed us physically through Joshua — the crossing, the treading on enemy ground, the victories, the inheritance, the rest — Jesus fulfilled spiritually and eternally for us. Joshua was the shadow. Jesus is what the shadow was always pointing toward.

We are not fighting for victory. We are fighting from it. The battle has already been won. Our job is to keep our eyes on the One who won it and keep walking — even when the giants are real, even when the walls look impossible, even when the wind is loud and the waves are high.

Because the Lord your God is with you. Wherever He leads you to go. And my friend, that is enough.  It will always be enough.