No Man Shall Be Able To Stand Before You
“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.”
It is estimated that the amount of money invested in sport, is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. From investment at high school level through to professional sport, the money keeps pouring in with no sign of letting up. New sports are continually been invented and the money rolls in. Imagine a professional football player been told that, “no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life?” Imagine the ego or devastation wrought in that particular sport. That would mean never losing, always winning. I assume that some have been told that they are uniquely gifted for a particular sport and have the ability to play it at the very highest level, who subsequently imagine that they alone will be the greatest. Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) thought the same. No doubt all the dictators in human history thought the same (Hitler, Khan, Stalin, etc.).
Joshua was taught by the meekest man in the world namely, Moses. He was trained for leadership and conquest. This was not merely a physical task or accomplishment, but a spiritual one. To be great on earth is always measured according to physical ability or achievement. Yes, there are some who have changed history (I say that carefully, of course), through humanitarian means, but human nature always seeks greatness and applause. Moses received no applause from anyone. The older generation that came out of Egypt with him had died, and only Joshua and Caleb remained alive of that generation. Joshua would lead all the children of that previous generation into the Promised Land.
Moses recognized early on that the task he had been assigned was beyond him. God had gifted him and qualified him, and only because of this was he able to accomplish God’s purpose and will. Joshua will need the same. The reason no man would be able to stand before Joshua all the days of his life was because God was with him, as he had been with Moses. With God, all things are possible and nothing is impossible for God (Matt. 19:26; Luke 1:37). God promised Joshua that he would be with him as he was with Moses, but more than this, he promised him that he would never leave him or forsake him. The writer to the Hebrews quotes this from Joshua 1:5 in Hebrews 13:5: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The application in Hebrews is simple—you do not have to rely on physical supply or means to be sustained nor do you have to worry as to whether you will have enough. This is the secret to doing what God commands. He is with us always and that should motivate us both positively and negatively. We should strive to do his will and refrain from what is not his will. If Jesus is with us always to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20), then the strength we need will be supplied.
There is no Christian, who says that he is satisfied with his spiritual life. The truly holy and humble person would know that she is nothing apart from what God has done for and in her. Such a person would recognize they always fall short and, therefore, would rely all the more on the God who can supply what they have experienced previously for the present. The Old Testament saints seem like spiritual giants to us, yet they did not have the revelation that we have. Why do we seem so inferior? Why do we not have faith like them, we might ask ourselves? Is it perhaps that we are taken up with so much that is worldly that we do not recognize spiritual things as we ought? Perhaps we have a sentimental view of the Christian life instead of the power and reality of it. Perhaps we have diluted what it really means to be a Christian, and thus we are self-deceived. Our churches are full of people who seem to have no idea about what it means to be a Christian. We know this because there is so little evidence of holiness and purity among us. Just because there is a church in a particular location does not mean that it is full of believers. False professors are a dime–a–dozen. Just consider the doctrinal issues that are at the forefront of the Church today—homosexuality, divorce, worship, not to mention an abysmal lack of biblical knowledge. We have a preponderance of literature about all sorts of Christian subjects, yet we continue to decline. Why is this? It is because the Bible is insignificant to most people who attend Church. People don’t carry Bibles to worship anymore. People don’t sing or know the great hymns of the Church. Most Christians are completely ignorant of Church history and the great Confessions of the Faith. Ignorance is not bliss—it is disaster.
What did Joshua know? He knew God. He used to stay behind in the Tabernacle after Moses had spoken with God and left (Ex. 33:11). This was his devotional time. This was his worship. He knew whom he believed. He had seen all that God had done in Egypt, in the wilderness, and now he must take the people across the Jordan into the land God had promised them. He had been up the mountain with Moses (Ex. 24:13. Could he trust God? Yes, he could because he knew God. He knew God from a revelation of God. God reveals himself to his people. If God said to us that he would be with us all the days of our lives and would never leave us or forsake us, would we actually believe God? Yet this is precisely what God has done and has said. Jesus promised his disciples that he would always be with them, even when he was not physically with them (John 14:25–31).
That little phrase, “I am with you” is quite remarkable in Scripture. God said it to Isaac (Gen. 26:24), to Jacob (Gen. 28:15), to the prophets and to his people (Isa. 41:10; 43:5; Jer. 1:8, 19; 15:20; 30:11; 42:11; 46:28; Hag. 1:13; 2:4). Jesus said it to his disciples (Matt. 28:20; John 13:33), and to Paul (Acts 18:10). God’s promises usually begin with “I will” and when God wills, it always happens. His promises can never fall to the ground (fail). God’s Word can never fail because God is perfectly reliable. God’s promises are grounded in his existence and essence. God is eternal; therefore, his Word is eternal. God is holy; therefore, God cannot fail or be imperfect.
How could Joshua fail? If God be for us who can be against us? It does not matter the foe or opposition. Jericho must fall because God has given us the land. The land is ours because God promised it to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is how Joshua thought. This did not mean that Joshua could sit back and watch it happen. In Joshua 1:6–9, God says to him, “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. 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.”
Joshua can only be strong as long as was he was meditating in the Law of God. This is what we need more than ever. We need young boys and girls to study their Bibles. That’s where it begins. Who can stand against such a person? Joshua did it and so can we.