Have you ever had a time where you felt emotionally drained, totally weak, where the only thing that seemed to come was tears, where you’d just as soon pack up and go home as do anything else?
        If so, then you’ll be able to identify with the people involved in the words we just read, the Israelite nation.
        It was a time of transition and uncertainty for them. Everything was a swirl of change. A totally unexpected time. A time of loss.
        Perhaps you’ve experienced a time like that.
        They’re the sorts of times when we feel like packing it in or running, or lashing out, aren’t they?

        Israel had just experienced the loss of their great leader, who’d been with them right through their struggle for freedom in Egypt and their journey to the edge of Palestine – Moses.
        What a history they’d experienced under his leadership:
                - challenging their slave-driver masters
                - 40 years of living as nomads in a sand and rock desert existence
                - poverty
                - the death of one generation and the birth of another

Moses had been a rock for them through it all. When everything else was constantly changing, Moses was the one constant. Oh, his leadership wasn’t perfect. And there were times when the people rebelled against it. But it was there. They knew it. Up front, for them to follow.
        - there with his staff at the Red Sea when they say Pharaoh and his mighty army destroyed
        - there when God’s thunder & lightning presence came down to the top of Mt.Sinai and His holy law was given to them
        - there when they were wrestling with thirst, and at his word water came gushing out of the rock
        - there to instruct them on the heavenly food that appeared in miracle form on the ground each morning
        - there to lead them in battle against enemy forces
        - there to show them the direction to travel next
        - always, reliably, there
And now he was gone.

And what a time to go! They were just across the river from the future that God had promised to them, a place they could call home, a place of peace!
        they could reach out and touch it – almost
                and then this loss.

Well, the previous book of the Bible tells us that they collapse into a period of mourning for 30 days - a whole month - everything grinds to a halt: weeping, remembering what was, very aware of the gaping hole in their nation’s life.

But, as our reading makes clear, they can’t stay in that 30-day space.
None of us can.
        The river of life keeps flowing.
        There is work yet to be done.
        They’re going to have to pull up the pegs, roll up the tents, and load the donkeys another time.
        Another step.
        Another day.

Just – how to do that without Moses?
        The people ask that.
        So does Joshua.

As he asks he is challenged to boldness and courage.
        Not a boldness that is foolhardy and minimizes the challenges and risks ahead – rushing in as a fool.
        Not a courage that has supreme self-confidence, perhaps overconfidence in one’s own ability, self-reliant, independent.
        Rather, it is the boldness that a climber feels when securely fastened to a safety line.

        I watched the parade of sail this past week from Halifax. Did any of you see it? As the tall ships went through the harbour, perched sometimes 125 feet up in the air were sailors on the foot ropes along the yardarms of these mighty vessels. The TV commentator was marvelling at their daring till his sidekick reminded him that each sailor was held down by a lifebelt to protect them from becoming a bug splat on the deck. That allowed them to confidently and boldly work the canvas high over the waves.
 

This is what is presented to Joshua -
        Be bold and confident, Joshua, because you’re securely fastened to a solid lifeline. Your life is anchored down. You’re safe.

Joshua, and Israel with him, right at the beginning of that new and very uncertain chapter in their lives, are called to look beyond Moses.
        They are called to see what Moses saw.
        For, really, it wasn’t Moses at the beginning of the line.
        He wasn’t really the leader.
                He was just a follower like they were.
                He, like them, looked ahead to the One in charge.
                He looked to the Lord.
                        When the Lord said to go, Moses went.
                        When the Lord said to reach out with his staff, Moses reached
                        When the Lord said to fight the battle, Moses fought.

Verse 5-6: "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous...."
Would Joshua always feel the presence of God?
Would there be a visible, tangible reminder every morning in Joshua’s kitchen -
        - the Lord saying, showing.... "I am with you."
Would Joshua hear the Heavenly Father’s voice each day?
        No.
        What he does wake up with and walk through each day with is the promise of God - "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.... be strong and courageous." (v.5,6)
                A promise on which he could and would rely.
                A promise that God would never leave him.

"I will be with you...."
        Powerful, courage-giving words.

Words found elsewhere in scripture because, you see, this promise is not an exclusive of the Lord. It comes to all believers. All through time.
        It is a promise that comes also to us.
        Hear these words...... I am with you words:

Deuteronomy 31:6 "Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you."

Ps 23 "Even when I go through the deepest darkest valleys I will fear no evil, for you are with me....."

Is 49.15-16 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands."

Mt 28.20 "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

John 14.18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."

The One who said, "Let there be"..... and it was:
        from the greatest black holes, galaxies and stars to the tiniest microbe
        who gives power to volcanoes and guides whispering breezes
        who guides ocean currents and blood flowing through arteries
That One says, "I will be with you."

He says it, and does it.
God came to be with us in the greatest of ways through His Son - who lived with us, suffered and died for us, and rose among us as the first one risen from death to eternal bodily life.
        He earned for us the forever protection and care of the Heavenly Father.
        He is our elder brother, and calls us His brothers & sisters.

That’s the lifeline of safety.
As one hymnwriter put it:
        "safe in the arms of Jesus
        safe on His gentle breast.
        There by His love o’er shadowed,
        Sweetly my soul shall rest...."

That’s what gives courage.

Courage.... which, somewhere along the way, we’ll all need.

And so,
when we wrestle with the inevitable scars and bruises that come from living in a world crippled by sin’s curse, a world groaning as it waits for the return of Christ;
and when we face the challenges of serving the Lord as a faithful developer and caretaker of this creation
and when we find seasons where temptations and attacks of a subtle or overt spiritual nature come our way, the sorts of attacks that Ephesians 6 talks about when it challenges us to keep our eyes open for confrontations with non-physical but very real powers.... evil and dark spiritual powers.

        – In these seasons we remember that great though those forces and powers seem to be there is a greater power at work in our lives......
        We have this promise – 1 John 4:4 "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

That’s what allowed St.Paul to say that we as believers are more than conquerors! (Romans 8)

You know, I think that to one degree or another we’d all like it if life would go in a predictable fashion, without a lot of turns or unexpected bumps in the road, where good-byes are at a minimum, and pain is notched down.
        But it simply ain’t so. For any of us.
        Until Jesus comes back the reality of weeds and sweat, pain and struggle will be a part of the existence of every single person on the face of this earth.
        And as we experience those moments there are going to be times when fear rises up inside us. Our mouth goes dry. We feel like running. Or lashing out.
        Fear.
        Even courageous people have fear. That’s a natural instinct when we’re in uncertain situations, or situations that may be dangerous. It’s a preservation instinct that the Lord has built into the human system.
                Nothing wrong with it.

The difference is how we face it.
        Alone.
        Or with our hand placed firmly into the hand of the Lord.

The "Word To Live By" for today is "Courage."
        Courage is that quality of mind that enables a person to encounter uncertainty, difficulty, and danger with firmness and resolve in spite of inner fears.
That’s true for us as individuals
        true for us as families
        true for us as a church community

We could remain frozen in fear, letting those emotions control us.
We could lash out at whatever we don’t understand....
                ....or run.
We could hunker down in small, safe corners of life, not venturing out too far.

But maybe, just maybe, God is calling us to pull up stakes in some area of our lives, to look ahead rather than back, at what will be rather than what was, at where we are to go rather than where we were.

It will probably involve sacrifice.
There may be uncertainty.
        But there will always be the Lord.
        The truthful daily guidance of His Word.
        The counselling, comforting presence of His Spirit.
        The power of His angels.

The power that accompanied Jesus through his life on earth
        that power that healed the sick
        the power that preached life to those who heard Him
        the power that gave Him strength to the end on the cross
        the power that raised Him out of the tomb, alive, no matter how hard death and evil tried to keep Him locked in their clammy clutches for eternity.

That’s the power that is at work in the lives of believers.
        In your life, my friend.

In the confidence of that power we assemble at the communion table.
        We will eat and drink.
        We will remember and believe.
        And we will pray – for a flowing of Holy Spirit power through this room, confidence-and-boldness-giving power.