the book of Joshua - trust

This is Day 4 of a series of posts for the month of October. I’m joining Kate Motaung over at Five Minute Friday for the annual Write 31 Days challenge.  I will write about themes found in the book of Joshua each day, with a different word prompt.

Today’s word prompt is TRUST.

At the beginning of the book of Joshua, there is a transfer of power. Moses has died and Joshua is now in charge.

I don’t presume to know what in the world God’s people were thinking at the time. But I feel like they had to be scared. The leader that defeated Pharaoh and took them out of Babylon, the leader that kept them safe while wandering the desert... he was not going with them into the Promised Land. Yet they trusted.

I would like to hope were I in that same situation that I would have responded with the same trust, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and where you send is we will go,” they cried with surety! “Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you” (Joshua 1:16-17)

I don’t know if they missed it or not, but I think it’s important to remind us all at this point that Joshua isn’t the one they should have put their trust in.

I’m sure Joshua had proven himself during their time together to be a great and trustworthy leader. But he wasn’t the one who defeated Pharaoh. He wasn’t the one who freed them from slavery and got them to the Promised Land. 

Neither was Moses.

We might be able to think that the parting of the Red Sea was God’s only participation in their release from Babylon. We might even be able to think that during those years wandering the desert, that it was their own wisdom and smarts that kept them safe from outside forces. But it wasn’t.

We see continuously in Scripture how God is for His people. He fights them. The victory is His. We will be disappointed when we put our trust in people. That’s a certainty. We will also be disappointed when we trust in God, too, though. Not because He fails us… but because often our will isn’t His will. When rejection and failure come upon us that disappoints us. 

The difference is that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

This is why we can trust.