"Promise and Presence" Joshua 1:1–9

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant.

Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.

From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.

Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.

Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

For have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.

Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

We are starting a new sermon series this morning. It's on the book of Joshua.

But just a bit of information that will help situate us as we get into the text.

So Joshua comes at the very, it comes immediately after the five books of Moses.

If you're unfamiliar with the Bible, the Bible opens up with five books, but they're really like a chunk.

They're like a big story in and of themselves.

It's the history of God's interaction with his creation, and then with the nation of Israel.

We see in it the nation of Israel becoming slaves in Egypt.

And then the huge chunk of the rest of these five books really detail God's salvation.

But then this wandering season of Israel through the desert as they're making their way to this promised land flowing with milk and honey that was promised to them by God to Abraham, their father.

So in many ways, Joshua is, it's like a sequel to like a trilogy, but in this case, whatever trilogy with five, I don't know.

But it's, it comes immediately after.

But it's really a continuing story of what the Bible opened with.

So it's really important for us to know as we get into it, who is this Joshua figure?

Three important details, and I am skimming, like skimming of skimming here when I'm outlining these for us.

So three important details about Joshua.

He's a military commander.

He was one of Israel's mighty men who fought against, specifically this one great battle against this people called the Amalekites.

As Israel was leaving Egypt, they were weak, they were vulnerable, and this very cruel tribe came to attack them, to take advantage of them.

And the Lord used Joshua as a military commander to win the day.

The second big detail about Joshua is that he was an assistant to Moses.

Now, it says that right in verse one, but it'll say that throughout the Mosaic books as well.

He is Moses' assistant, like his right-hand man.

So he was there, not beside Moses, but very close to Moses, when Moses received the law from God.

When Moses would commune with God and mediate between God and the nation of Israel.

And then the third and final point that I want to draw your attention to when we're considering Joshua,

is that after Israel left Egypt, they made their way to the Promised Land.

And they were on the verge of crossing it.

And Moses sent a representative from each of the 12 tribes into the land to scout it out.

They were like a recon party.

And they came back, and the information that they had about this place was that it was full of very scary, scary people.

They were strong.

They were technologically advanced.

In fact, nobody could stand up against them.

Ten of the 12 said that.

But Joshua and another character, which we won't touch on too much in this series, Caleb,

they said, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Yeah, the reports are completely right.

But we should go in there because God has promised us victory.

And he will be the one who fights for us.

So we see in Joshua this remarkable character who really was like the right-hand man of God's right-hand man.

So we find ourselves now 40 years later after what I just described with those 12 spies,

those 12 representatives who went in for a recon mission.

40 years had passed because 10 of them were naysayers.

Two of them were like, we're going to seize this place with God's help.

But the rest of the nation of Israel, they fell into fear.

And God saw their unbelief and said, not now.

They went back into the desert.

And 40 years would go by until Joshua 1 takes place.

40 years later.

So Joshua, we find, he is not a young man.

He is a seasoned military general.

He is a remarkable man in the hierarchy of Israel.

He is a man of faith.

And here we are.

This book was written some 1,200 years ago, maybe even 1,200 years ago,

3,200 years ago, maybe even 3,500 years ago.

And yet, in these 20-odd chapters, we see a remarkable story that's worthy of our study this morning.

But I'll say this before we get into it.

One last point, and then we'll get into the text.

This book isn't without controversy.

This book will, at first glance, seem to endorse divinely mandated genocide,

slavery, collective punishment, racial supremacy, among other things.

Again, I said on first glance, on our first reading.

And these are things that are reprehensible.

There's no way around it.

We're going to encounter some really difficult passages that we're going to wrestle through.

But that's the thing.

We're going to wrestle through it.

So our commitment as a church, my commitment as a pastor,

as I open up God's Word, is always to walk towards the difficulties that we find in Scripture

and ask the tough questions and wrestle with the text.

So that's what we'll be doing in the weeks to come.

We're not going to be doing it so much today.

For today, we're going to look just at these first nine verses that David read for us

that really will set the stage for the entire book.

And in them, we'll find something deeply reassuring.

These verses are deeply reassuring.

For they're going to communicate the Lord's infinite love for his people.

And these people that he's going to communicate his infinite love for,

they are a broken people.

They're a fearful people.

They're a confused people.

A people constantly given over to temptation.

To not trust the God who time and again has rescued them.

But to trust in other gods or the strength of men.

There are people stricken with deep doubt that the Lord is not actually truly for them.

There are people that are scared and cowardly.

And I'll humbly put forward to you this morning,

there are people a lot like us.

So this book is actually very relevant for us.

Again, it could be potentially 3,500 years old.

And yet it somehow, in a brilliant way, captures the human condition for us.

That still exists in 2026 in Ottawa.

So this morning, we will see how the Lord, he sees that brokenness.

He sees that fear.

He sees that lack of courage.

And he reassures his people and strengthens them.

And assures them of his goodness.

And he does it in two ways.

Or at least that's the way I'm going to break up this text.

He does that through his kept promises, one.

And then second, through his loving presence.

So his kept promises and loving presence.

Why don't we jump right into our text.

I'll read verse 1 and you can follow along.

We're on page 6 on the scripture journals.

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord,

The Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, or Nun, Moses' assistant.

I'll read verse 2.

Moses, my servant, is dead.

Moses, my servant, is dead.

The book takes place right after a funeral.

And a very significant funeral.

Moses was the servant of the Lord.

It's interesting.

This is like, keep in the back of your mind and make like a little note here.

Moses is the servant of the Lord, but Joshua's called Moses' assistant.

The servant of the Lord is like a very lofty title.

It's not just thrown around.

God just doesn't give it to anybody.

He's given it to Moses.

Moses is something of like a superstar.

He is Israel's, I mean, God is the one who rescued Israel.

But Moses is the one, humanly speaking,

he is the one who led them through the Red Sea.

He is the one who led them through the wilderness.

He is the one who stood up to the most powerful regional king in that day.

He is the one of faith who received the law from God on Mount Sinai.

If you've seen The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, fantastic movie.

He has the two tablets, the two big giant stone tablets that he brings down from the mountain.

He's the one who disciplines and chastises the people.

Well, he is, okay, again, apart from God, Moses is everything to Israel.

And now they're on the verge of going into the promised land.

The time when they'll need Moses the most, okay?

And he's dead.

I wonder if there was great dread that fell on the people in this moment.

Their savior, their champion, he had died.

Who would mediate between the Lord and his people?

Who would lead them into the promised land?

Moses is gone.

Who would step up?

And then we see Joshua here.

Okay?

Again, Joshua has done wonderful things.

He has not been given this title of servant of the Lord.

He is the assistant to the servant of the Lord.

And does he have what it takes to lead Israel, to be a new Moses?

You see, Joshua finds himself back on the borderland, like I mentioned, not as a young man when he originally was on the border.

He has wandered for 40 years, okay, in the desert.

40 years of wandering is God's promises.

Are they going to come true?

40 years.

40 years.

All right?

If you have children, you can promise them, listen, if you do your chores, you know, you study hard in school, you have a good week, I promise you ice cream on the weekend.

Or you promise them a treat.

How long is that week for a child, okay?

It's exhausting for them.

They ask a million times.

You're exhausted for weathering this onslaught of question after question.

If you wait a week and you don't give them what you promised them, they might keep asking, but after a while they will think that you are somebody who doesn't keep promises.

What happens if a couple weeks, a couple months, a couple months, a couple months, turns into four decades?

Is God's promise still true?

Does God still, is he still worthy of our trust?

It's a remarkable question.

Again, 40 years long.

And now he is at the verge.

The nation is at the verge of entering this promised land and their savior has died.

Their hero has died.

What will happen?

Well, let's read verses two to five and see God's reaction.

Verse two.

Moses, my servant, is dead.

Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan and you and all this people into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.

From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea, that's the Mediterranean Sea,

toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

Verse five.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, just as I was with Moses.

So I will be with you.

I will not leave you or forsake you.

What wonderful words to an anxious man.

I'm assuming he's anxious.

The text doesn't say so.

But we'll see in the next part, especially, the Lord has to say three times, be strong and courageous to him.

So maybe he was anxious.

What incredible words, though, to bolster his heart.

You see, Moses is dead.

He is.

And he is a champion.

And there will never be another Moses.

Joshua won't be another Moses.

But here's the wonderful thing about this.

Even though Moses is dead, the Lord God is not.

And if God isn't dead, then his promises, they will have to endure.

They must.

In fact, nothing can derail the promises of God, not even the death of his servant.

But the promises referenced here, just really briefly, it is for the entire land of Canaan, what was described there, from the east down to the south, to the sea, up to the north.

It covers a lot of the modern-day Levant, much greater than the, I mean, it's parts of Syria, parts of Lebanon, all of Israel, parts of Egypt.

Like, it's a huge, it's a huge area of land.

And God swore to Abraham, centuries and centuries and centuries earlier, that he would give him and his descendants this land.

And it's a big deal, not only because it was promised by God centuries earlier, but also because they have been wandering for decades as nomads, as people that are strangers.

And even before that, they were slaves in a foreign land.

The people of Israel have been without a place.

They've been without a place.

And this is a remarkable thing, because maybe we don't take this in like we should, but having a place is a very important thing for us.

Having a place that we can come back to, a place where we can lay our head, a place that is ours.

Whether or not we rent or own, it is, this is my home.

You know, what's remarkable is that even people that are homeless find ways to make makeshift shelters a home.

It's theirs.

Place is such an important thing for the human condition, for the human being.

But God, here he is, he hasn't forgotten his promises.

And nor does he need the prowess or strength of a certain man or a certain group of people to ensure that his promises will be fulfilled.

God is always faithful to fulfill his promises.

The Lord always fulfills his promises because he makes these things called the covenant.

So, if you're unfamiliar, I mean, we've talked about this throughout the summer and I've talked about it in the past.

God makes these covenants with people.

Covenants aren't unique to the Bible.

They were kind of a thing you do in the ancient world.

I mean, we still talk in terms of covenantal language when we're making agreements.

But essentially, it is an agreement between two parties.

There are parameters set up.

If you do this, you will get that.

If you don't do this, you will suffer certain consequences.

And God makes these covenantal promises with his people, but always in such a way that puts the onus on him.

Because the people that he makes these covenants with, they constantly break covenant.

They constantly fail to achieve and to fulfill their side of the bargain.

But God never fails.

So, God is always fulfilling his covenantal promises, this being one of them.

And he does it through a mediator.

He always speaks to Israel, to his people, through a representative.

Okay?

There's always somebody who stands in the gap between God and his people.

If you're a bit of a Bible nerd, this is a priestly role.

A mediator.

A priestly role.

God always has a type of priestly mediator between him and his people.

So, when the mediator dies, in this case Moses, what we see here is God not panicking.

Okay?

God isn't like, well, I knew this would happen one day.

Time to enact my contingency plan.

It's not like God in the heavenlies has a giant red button with a glass case that says break in case of emergency.

And then all of a sudden the issue is solved.

Not at all.

God's promises continue and someone else is raised up and empowered.

Why?

Because the Lord cannot be denied in keeping his promises.

To this point, the French reformer John Calvin says this in his commentary on this very passage.

He says this, quote,

This suggests the very useful reflection that while men are cut off by death and fall in the middle of their career,

the faithfulness of God never fails.

On the death of Moses, a sad change seemed impending.

The people were left like a body with its head lopped off.

While thus in danger of dispersion, not only did the truth of God prove itself to be immortal,

but it was shown in the person of Joshua as in a bright mirror that when God takes away those whom he has adorned with special gifts,

he has others in readiness to supply their place.

And that though he is pleased for a time to give excellent gifts to some,

his mighty power is not tied down to them.

I think it's just a wonderful truth to remember.

The Lord delights in caring for his people and nothing will get in his way.

No one in this congregation, at least not to my knowledge,

and if you are, talk with us.

We'll get you help.

But nobody, I think, is homeless or on the verge of homelessness.

But the sense of unease in life is real.

The sense that your place in life is in jeopardy.

Do you not feel the anxiety about missing opportunities to advance your career?

That you've missed out on chances to spend time with those around you

because you are busy chasing whatever goals you might be chasing.

That your priorities are in the wrong spot.

The dread about relationships that continue to go unreconciled.

Okay?

All of these things, they shake us to our core.

Makes us feel like our place isn't very secure.

That our foundations are starting to crumble.

Our common experience as human beings is not necessarily one of consistent confidence,

although we are pretty good at putting on a face.

And I don't think sometimes you've got to kind of grin and bear it

and get on with life in certain respects.

But I would think that the common experience is actually one of anxiety.

We make decisions oftentimes not out of a great confidence in the future,

but in fear of failure.

We hedge our bets.

We lay awake with racing minds.

We have anxious hearts.

But consider that God's promises to his people,

they are always towards provision and blessing.

They're always towards provision and blessing.

His promises are there where he says to Joshua here,

that he will not leave or forsake him.

Those promises are extended to us.

I don't have the chapter and verse,

but read Hebrews 13.

The author of Hebrews, he picks up this refrain.

I will not leave you or forsake you in Hebrews 13.

What does Jesus say when he commissions the disciples

in the Great Commission in Matthew 28?

What does he say?

He says,

Lo, I will be with you to the end of the age.

This is God's promises to his people, always.

They're always promises towards provision and blessing,

to not forsake us or leave us, but to bless us.

Which means that he has made a dear covenant with us that won't be broken.

He is bound to see to our welfare and not just in a begrudging way,

but because he is bound to it, but because he delights in doing so.

Let me just read a couple of verses from Matthew chapter 6,

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

from the Sermon on the Mount.

It's the famous sermon of Jesus's.

And this is what he says, chapter 6, starting in the 25th verse.

Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,

what you will eat or drink or about your body.

What you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing.

Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not more valuable than they?

And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his life?

And why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin.

Yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all his glory,

was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field,

which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,

will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

He delights in providing for you.

Who looks after our welfare with such commitment and love?

We live in a society that has really remarkable infrastructure to take care of people.

But they don't do it perfectly, not by a long shot.

And they don't do it out of a desire to love the citizens.

We have some public service workers here.

We thank you for your service.

How often do you go to work and think,

I love the people of Canada.

I am here for them.

I am going to lay down my life for their welfare.

I mean, you have different convictions.

Some days you go in, you're just there for the paycheck.

Other days you're finding joy in work.

But do you extend, if this is your position,

do you extend the same type of love and care towards the people you are serving

that God extends to you?

Who loves us?

Who is about our welfare like the Lord God?

He is a covenant-keeping God.

He makes promises and he keeps them.

So the Lord, here we have him assuring Joshua

that he would keep his promise to give the land as a gift.

He knew that both Joshua and especially the people would waver.

And we'll see this in the weeks to come.

Their confidence would give way to fear.

And they would face the same issues that caused them to be wanderers

for 40 years in the desert.

So therefore God would remind them that along with keeping his promises,

he would also be with them.

And this is the second point.

His presence would be with his people.

And why is this so significant?

Look with me at verses 5 and then we'll read to the end of the chapter.

Starting in verse 5 here.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life

just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

Here it is.

I will not leave you or forsake you.

Verse 6.

Be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land

that I swore to their fathers to give them.

Only be strong and very courageous.

Being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left

that you may have good success wherever you go.

So this book of the law or the Torah or God's ways shall not depart from your mouth,

but you shall meditate on it day and night

so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous

and then you will have good success.

Verse 9.

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.

Such a reality is often lost on God's people

that he is with them.

For God is spirit.

He is not seen.

He is not like you or I that we can interact with face to face like this.

Therefore his presence, again, can be easily doubted.

What if God isn't actually there?

What if we are believing in a myth?

What if this is just a great religious hoax that happened,

say, 2,000 years ago, 3,500 years ago, 4,000 years ago,

and somehow it just got perpetuated,

and now there's some powerful people

that just kind of make us feel guilty

so that they would give us money and we could control them.

What if God has abandoned us?

How can we be sure that he is truly with his people?

Four verses the Lord tells Joshua,

and by extension the people,

to be strong and courageous three times.

Four, or three times in four verses.

Verse six, be strong and courageous.

Verse seven, only be strong and courageous.

Verse nine, have I not commanded you,

be strong and courageous.

And then continues, do not be frightened,

do not be dismayed.

The Lord is telling Joshua

that they are to be,

him and the people,

they are not to give in to fear.

They need to be strong.

They need to have courage.

And what's incredible about those three

commands,

and this is key.

If you're ever reading the Bible

and you notice something like this,

read it again.

Have your ears perk up to it.

See it with fresh eyes.

Because God, he says,

be strong,

be courageous.

Be strong, be courageous.

Be strong, be courageous.

But he sandwiches those three commands

in between what?

What does he say in verse five?

I will be with you

and I will not leave you

or forsake you.

And then verse nine,

he says,

for the Lord your God is with you

wherever you go.

You see,

God,

he knows that courage.

He knows that strength.

They are hard to come by.

So this whole section

is sandwiched

in God's promise

to give his people

his presence.

That he would be with them

all their days.

So just consider this

for a moment.

God is not commanding

strength and courage

because of military might.

Not because,

you know,

okay,

Moses was,

he was a great leader

but now we have Joshua.

He's the man for the job

because he's a general.

He's a proven warrior.

He doesn't say,

listen,

be strong and courageous.

Think positively.

This is the key

to getting the land.

Okay?

Think,

pessimism,

put it to the side,

be optimists.

That's how you're gonna

win the day.

He doesn't say any of that.

Instead,

he says to them,

be strong and courageous

because I'm amongst you.

I have your back.

I am before you.

I am behind you.

So how will we know

this unseen God

is truly near?

Because it's

very important

for our courage

and our strength.

How do we know

he is gonna be near?

How can

the Israelites,

how can they draw

strength and courage

from this reality?

Or put another way,

how can they

and us,

how can we

feed our faith

that God

is real and close

especially when faced

with impossible

circumstances?

It's a really

important question.

The Lord is gonna

reveal it to Joshua

and this is what he says,

verse 7 and 8

one more time.

Only be strong

and very courageous.

Here it is.

Being careful to do

according to all

the law that Moses,

my servant,

commanded you.

Do not turn from it

to the right hand

or to the left

that you may have

good success

wherever you go.

This book of the law

shall not depart

from your mouth

but you shall meditate

on it day and night

so that you may be

careful to do

according to all

that is written in it.

For,

then you will make

your way prosperous

and then you will

have good success.

Strength and courage,

it comes from

knowing and keeping,

knowing that God

is amongst us

and we know that

because he has given us

his very word.

He has given us

his law.

Like I mentioned

when I read it

the first time,

it says the book

of the law,

it would be better

translated in

God's book of instructions

or God communicating

his ways.

The law that he gave

to Moses,

it certainly does have

laws within it

but it also spells out

so much of what it means

to be human

and how to interact

with the one true God

and describing God's holiness

and his perfection

and his beauty.

God is saying,

I have revealed

myself to you.

I have given you

my word.

Think about it.

Meditate on it.

Interesting,

this is primarily

an oral culture

so when it's

meditate on it,

I mean,

for us,

I think it's still

really important

to read our Bibles

by ourselves

but this

here in our text

has a vision

of gathering

with God's people

and talking about it.

Meditating on it

is like discussing it,

wrestling with it.

Literally,

it talks about,

it translates this word,

meditate,

like a murmur.

Like,

talk about it all the time.

Like,

you know,

whisper it,

declare it,

talk about it.

When you're by yourself,

kind of hum it,

memorize it.

It's this vision

of God's word

being all-encompassing,

knowing it

as much as you can

by as much strength

as you can

and living by its rule.

And I'll just say this

and I think we,

I think it's worth

for us to consider.

Why wouldn't God

just say,

listen,

I'm going to be with you

and this is how

you're going to know

that I'm with you.

It's not so much

my word,

I'm going to give you

ecstatic experiences.

You're going to have

religious experiences

where you feel

the goosebumps

on your arms.

You feel like

this electricity

flowing up and down you.

You just know

when you're in the presence

of somebody

that has presence,

there's something

changes in the air.

That's what I'm going

to give you

all the time.

That's when you'll know

when I'm around.

Like a spiritual

spidey sense of sorts.

I want to say

that it's for our benefit

that God didn't do that.

Although spiritual

experiences are real

and I think

they're wonderful

and I wouldn't want

to discount them,

God is making it

very clear

that if we were

to rely upon

our experiences

alone,

we would be

in a terrible state.

I'll give an example.

Christine and I,

I think we were,

well,

it would have been

our first year of marriage

because we didn't

have any children.

We went down

to Clayton,

New York,

this beautiful

little opera house

to see Alan Doyle

play a concert.

Alan Doyle

was the,

the lead singer,

is,

well,

was because they're

broken up now

of Great Big Sea.

It's wonderful.

Like there's like

300 people there.

It was super intimate.

It was really fun.

We don't go to a lot

of concerts.

But he played

this one song

called Lay Me Down

to Parish

and it was this,

I won't get into

the story,

it was a beautiful

story and he played it

and I got really

choked up.

Like it was like

I was emotionally

moved.

And I can honestly

say I've never

had that experience

with music or art

since.

I mean,

not to that degree.

I don't know

what it was,

if it was just

because it was live

or it was just

such an incredible

song.

I don't know.

But,

you know,

I kind of rode

that wave

a bit afterwards.

but then it was

almost like a bit

of a hangover.

It's like I wanted

that experience

but I couldn't get it.

You know,

here's the interesting

thing about our

emotions.

They are wonderful,

wonderful,

wonderful servants

but they are

horrendous masters.

If you are

led by your

experience,

if you are led

by your emotions,

you will

be blown

around like the

tide.

You will not

be a consistent

reliable

person.

Your life

will not be

sustainable.

Your emotions

and desires

will take

a hold of you.

If God

was to give us

his presence

in an experience,

we would

treat God

as though

he was

merely

a fantastic

concert

or a piece

of beautiful

art or just

an immaculate

sunset

and then we

would find

something

else that

would take

his place.

But God

here,

he gives us

his word

that is

unchanging

and we are

to understand

it as proof

of his presence

with us.

It's a means

of grace.

It means that

we can commit

to him as he

is committing

to us and

whether or not

we feel

religiously

motivated,

we can be

sure that

because he

has revealed

himself to

us in his

word that he

truly is in

our midst.

that is

why the

Lord,

he ties

his blessing

to keeping

his word.

What does

he say

here?

For then

you will

make your

way prosperous

and then

you will

have good

success.

And just

to be clear,

this prosperity

isn't just a

financial one.

It's the

blessing and

prosperity of

knowing and

being known

by the one

true God.

Knowing that

he will never

leave you or

forsake you.

Is this not

the ultimate

source of

courage and

strength?

This is the

means to

remember that

the Lord is

the unchanging

one and that

he is for you

all your days.

So how can we

be sure that

God will keep

his promise to

care for our

welfare?

How can we be

sure that he

will be with

us?

Yes, he has

given us his

word.

Yes, he has

made very clear

that he will

fulfill his

promises, but

we see it

especially in

the person of

Christ.

But first, we

need to return to

the land because

this is significant

and ties into the

cross wonderfully.

Why is the

land itself so

significant?

What makes this

place so

wonderful?

Why is it that

even today and

all over the

world during

Passover, Jewish

people will say

next year we'll

celebrate in

Jerusalem?

Why is the

land so

significant?

And I think

it's for this

reason.

God has

always, from

the opening

chapters of

the Bible in

the Garden of

Eden to the

temple in

Jerusalem to

the new

Jerusalem that

is promised in

Revelation chapter

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

21, God is

always looking for

a place to dwell

amongst his

people.

God always wants

to be amongst

his people because

he loves us.

This is why God,

the Son of God,

came down to

us taking into

himself human

flesh yet

remaining fully

God so that

in Jesus, the

Messiah God,

what does he do?

He dwells amongst

his people in the

most intimate and

real way by

becoming one of

us.

Like Moses, he

dies, but

unlike Moses, he

rises from the

dead.

There wasn't even

time for his

friends to have a

funeral for him.

And after he

rises from the

dead, the

scriptures say he

ascends into

heaven and then

he gives his

people his very

Holy Spirit to

dwell in their

hearts.

God makes a

home amongst

us, but also he

makes a home

within us.

He dwells in our

hearts as

individuals, but

also as his

church.

Friends, consider

this.

God who needs

nothing from us.

He is fully

complete.

He is fully

whole.

He chooses and

delights in making

a home within you

and within me.

You see, Jesus

won't forsake us

because he himself

was forsaken.

He was utterly

alone, but for a

moment, okay, just

for a moment, so

that we would never

have a moment when

the Lord God would

not be near to us.

God would

be united to

God.

If you are united

to Christ by faith,

in his gift of

divine and loving

grace, we, it

says, we are

forever in his

presence.

His promises bear

witness to this.

His word bears

witness to this.

His son bears

witness to this.

He will never

leave you or

forsake you.

friends, bolster

your strength.

Bolster your

courage.

Not in the

things you can

accumulate in this

earth, on this

earth.

Not in the

strength of your

physical body or

the incredible

ability of your

mind.

Not in a

military, not in a

government.

Bolster your

strength in God's

promises.

promises.

He will never

leave you or

forsake you.

Thank you.