Certain Victory
Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded you: don't turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. — Joshua 1:7
But whoever keeps his word, God's love has most assuredly been perfected in him. — 1 John 2:5
Author
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
Summary: God promised to be with Joshua as He had been with Moses, never leaving or forsaking him. Victory did not depend on Joshua’s strength, but on his faithfulness and effort to obey the Word. We too, as a church, must cross our Jordan: give up misplaced priorities, false doctrines, and our own strategies so that we can move forward in obedience, strengthened by the Spirit. We need courage to confront what hinders God’s plans and bring His message to those held captive by sin or whose hearts are broken. Our prosperity is not what the world pursues; it is tied to obeying the Word. God’s presence among His people guarantees victory.
Let us imagine Joshua standing on the bank of the Jordan, listening to God’s voice commissioning him to continue the plan He had begun through Moses. Moses could not see the land promised since Abraham, and now Joshua was the Lord’s chosen one to lead His people. A sure promise: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not leave you or forsake you”
(v. 5)
“I will be with you,” says the Lord. An indispensable condition: be obedient in keeping the whole Law, without straying from its principles. The result of this obedience: you and your people will have victory.
Joshua’s success did not depend on his own strength, but on striving to obey the Word of God and see that it was obeyed. God’s entire command revolved around obedience to His Word. It demanded faithfulness and effort. Does it not take a supernatural effort to obey the Word?
The Jordan lay ahead. The same Jordan where Jesus would receive baptism from John a thousand and more years later. The Jordan in which the church of Christ needs to immerse itself to make God’s promises its own, if it is obedient to the Word. The church advances when it decides to cross its Jordan in obedience, trusting that, as the body of Christ, it will not be abandoned but encouraged in the Spirit. The Jordan where misguided priorities die, along with false doctrines and the embers of humanism that tries to slip in and confuse and divide the body of Christ. The Jordan where we renounce our own tactics and strategies, our self-sufficiency. The Jordan from which we emerge with the fragrance of holiness into a new life in Christ, obedient, strengthened, filled with the Spirit.
We will have to be courageous and strive. The church of Christ needs courage to confront everything that interferes with God’s plans for the advance of the Kingdom and His people. It must strive, trusting in His Word, because although God has promised it a new earth and new heavens, the church has the privilege of conquest for His glory. The conquest of lost souls, the conquest of the broken hearts of men and women held captive by sin.
The church’s true motivation comes from the Word of God. The church’s success depends on its obedience. While the world—and some corrupted churches—think of another kind of prosperity, God promises to prosper His children if we take care to do everything written in His Word. (Joshua 1:8). His presence among His people is the guarantee of certain victory, despite the false prophets of these times and despite the Jordans it will have to cross.
May God bless His Word!
Suggested reading: Joshua 1