Deuteronomy 31

Be Strong and Courageous

Strength and courage are two necessary outcomes of tempered faith.  There is of course no fault in the Lord  that it was necessary for the Israelites to wander 40 years in the desert.   If they had the ability obey and trust the Lord’s goodness and provision, then they would have moved straight into Canaan, conquering cities as they go.  But because the nature of man is painfully ignorant to the nature and ways of God, their faith had to be trained in the crucible of the desert.  But it was their, God’s covenant people learned something of God’s uniqueness, that there is only one of Him, in a world that believes in a pantheon of deities.  They learned something of God’s transcendence, that you cannot domesticate God by reducing Him to a mere idol, as it was in the case of the golden calf.  They murmured, they grumbled, the tested the Lord over and over, but in the end as the smith tempers metal ready for use, so the Lord pulled Israel’s out of the fires of their faith.  “Be strong and of good courage” the Lord says to Moses in verse 6.  In effect God says, “It is I who is going with you. The Lord that has led you out of Egypt and has taken care of you these forty years in the wilderness.  Do you trust me now?  Be strong and courageous in your faith in me.  I have commanded this, and I am with you.”

The Lord’s expectancy of our confidence in Him does not change when we cross over into the New Testament.  Although we have not heard the thundering of God’s voice at Mt. Sinai,  God sends us another Comforter, an Advocate who speaks to us in our inner man.  Although we may not be the offspring of Abraham, we have the right to be called the sons and daughters of God to everyone who believes on the name of Jesus.  Although God did not rescue us from Egypt with signs and wonders,  God rescues all sinners who believe through the death and miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Yet even though we have more reason than the Israelites to be strong and courages, there still remains the crucible of our faith.  Our hearts must needs go through testing and tempering until strength and courage emerges.  And it is necessary that we have them.  For although we are not being sent into Canaan for conquest, but we are being sent into all the world to occupy with the Gospel until the Lord’s appearing.  It is an offensive on a much larger scale than the Israelites had faced.  But we have a better covenant established with better sacrifices, even the Lord Jesus Christ who now reigns over all.  “Rejoice insomuch as ye are partakes of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Pet. 4:12).  Be strong and courageous.