“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
– Joshua 1:9
Hi James and Ellen,
When your grandmaa and grandpaa were missionaries on the South America Mission field missionary team in Bolivia, your grandmaa and grandpaa – in January of 1982, implemented in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez a resident Bible education and leadership training program. Overland by vehicle from Santa Cruz, Bolivia – which is where the South America Mission field team missionaries base out of and where most of the missionaries live, to Concepción was always at least a six hour drive. The Rio Grande is a river located a couple of hours from Santa Cruz. To get to Concepción by land from Santa Cruz, your grandmaa and grandpaa had to cross over the Rio Grande. Because there was no bridge over the Rio Grande where your grandmaa and grandpaa would always cross the Rio Grande to go to Concepción from Santa Cruz or back to Santa Cruz from Concepción, your grandpaa would have to drive the white C-10 Chevrolet pickup that he and your grandmaa owned into a small bargelike boat that would then be pulled and pushed by several guys across the Rio Grande to the opposite shore of the Rio Grande. When it is the rainy season in Bolivia, the Rio Grande where your grandmaa and grandpaa would cross in their pickup could be up to a kilometer or over a half a mile wide. When it was not the rainy season in Bolivia, the Rio Grande where your grandmaa and grandpaa would cross in their pickup would not be more than a football field or so across. Because the Rio Grande’s current is so strong during the rainy season, the guys who pull and push the bargelike boats across the Rio Grande need to first pull their bargelike boats against the current upriver before letting the current loop them back to where they want their bargelike boat to end up at the opposite bank of the Rio Grande. So much water sometimes flows down the Rio Grande during Bolivia’s rainy season that the high, rolling waves that are being generated are at times so high that a nearby bargelike boat that is carrying a vehicle, the vehicle and who is traveling in the vehicle will completely disappear from sight.
It was during the rainy season about 3,405 years ago when the Israelite people group guys, gals and kids were told to be ready to go into the land that God was giving them to always have to live in as their very own land. The Jordan River was between where God’s specially chosen guys and gals – who were the Israelite people groups guys and gals, had set up camp and the land that God was giving them – which was the land of Canaan, to always have to live in as their very own land. The Jordan River during the rainy season would go from an 80 to a 100 foot wide river to a raging river over a mile wide in places. Joshua 1 has Joshua recounting how God set the stage for him to lead the Israelite people group guys, gals and kids across a dry Jordan River riverbed and into the land of Canaan. After Joshua and eleven other spies forty years earlier were tasked by Moses to spy out the land of Canaan, Joshua advocated with one other spy for going directly into the land of Canaan but . . . probably because of Joshua’s heroic position to go directly into the land of Canaan, Joshua became Moses’ aide. While being Moses’ aide, Joshua had to have gotten a lot of mentoring and coaching from Moses on how to effectively lead the Israelite people group guys and gals. When Moses died, Joshua became Moses’ successor. Joshua begins his Joshua Book by relating what he was told by God at the time when Moses died. God first told Joshua that He would always be with him just as He had always been with Moses and that He would never forsake him. God then promised Joshua that wherever His specially chosen guys and gals set their feet between the desert of Negev to the south, the country of Lebanon and the Euphrates River to the north and the Great Sea or the Mediterranean Sea to the west that He would give His specially chosen guys and gals that land for them to always have to live in as their very own land if . . .
What do you think was going through Joshua’s mind after Moses died? The Israelite people group at that time was probably composed of at least 2,000,000 guys, gals and kids. The flooding Jordan River had to have looked like an impassible barrier. Verse 9 is God’s encouragement to Joshua to do what He was asking him to do, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” God also told Joshua to always make sure that he was meditating day and night on the laws and decrees that He gave to Moses – when He met with Moses on Mount Sinai. that if Joshua carefully followed and obeyed these words that he would prosper and be successful. Your grandpaa is leaving tomorrow for San José, Costa Rica. Your grandpaa is going to San José to find a couple of good ministry sites near San José for Adventures in Missions short term ministry teams that are hoping to go to Costa Rica later this year. Your grandpaa this coming Friday is going to meet up with a short term ministry team that is scheduled to be in Granada, Nicaragua for eight days. Your grandpaa is the Project Leader for this short term ministry team. Because your grandpaa has never met the San José pastor who he is meeting in San José and because he had never been a Project Leader for a short term ministry team in Nicaragua, your grandpaa is feeling some angst right at this time. Your grandpaa knows that just as he trusted God to get him safely across the Rio Grande that God will help him now as he trusts in Him.
Joshua 1 (1144)