Dr. Rodney Plunket

William Ian Miller is a professor of law at the University of Michigan.  He is also the author of several books.  In the year 2000 he released a book entitled, The Mystery of Courage (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).  He describes that book in the first line of its preface as “a meditation on courage” (p. ix).

Miller makes extensive use of books written by and about military personnel.  One such source is a book written by a Vietnam veteran named Tim O’Brien.  O’Brien was “a conscripted infantryman” (p. 30), and he profoundly respected his captain whom he calls Johansen.  O’Brien tells of an evening when Johansen said to O’Brien, “‘I’d rather be brave,’ . . . .  ‘I’d rather be brave than almost anything.  How does that strike you’” (p. 32).  Miller’s book makes clear that such a statement strikes Miller as just right.  Miller greatly values the attribute of courage.  At an early point in his book he writes, “ . . . most men and no small num­ber of women would, if they had their druthers, choose to be known first for their courage than for any other virtue” (p. 8).

The Bible has several powerful passages that relate to courage.  We will look primarily at the one that was used as our Scripture reading this morning.  That passage was Joshua (Josh) 1:1-9, a passage in which the Lord gives a man named Joshua a pep talk on courage.  You see, Joshua has quite recently become the leader of God’s people following the death of Moses.  Simply replacing such a leader as Moses would have been challenge enough, but that is not all that Joshua has to take on.  He is also to lead the nation of Israel as they conquer and take for their own the land of Canaan.  Three times in Josh 1:1-9 the Lord tells Joshua, “Be strong and courageous” (Josh 1:6, 7, 9).  In fact, one of those times the Lord actually says, “be strong and very courageous” (Josh 1:7).

Miller’s book is full of examples of a courage that comes out of a person’s own self.  What I mean is that the courage Miller writes about tends to be a courage that a person wills into existence due to some kind of inner strength, inner confidence, or inner fearlessness.  A courageous person in this model has the right to be proud of his or her courage.

Notice the difference between that kind of courage and the kind of courage extolled in Josh 1.  Joshua is not encouraged to be confident in himself.  Neither is he told that courage is a virtue of such value that he just ought to desire it.  He is not counseled to be courageous so that people will remember him with admiration after his death.  No, the Lord’s message of courage is based solely on promises which God gives to Joshua in this passage.  The first promise is found in Josh 1:5, “No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life.  As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.”  The second promise is found in verse (v) 9 where God says, “I hereby command you:  Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua is to “be strong and courageous” not due to an inner strength of his own but because the Lord is with him.  Joshua’s courage cannot, therefore, be credited to himself.  All the glory of that courage goes to God.

The very fact that the Lord tells Joshua three times in nine verses to be “strong and courageous” likely reveals that Joshua was struggling with fear and self-doubt as he contemplated taking over from Moses and beginning the task ahead.  But the Lord does not give Joshua a pep talk on self-esteem, self-confidence, or inner strength to help Joshua overcome his internal struggles.  The Lord, instead, gives Joshua promises of what the Lord will do.  The message is that Joshua is to trust and rely upon the promises of God.  He is not encouraged to rely upon his own strength.  He is not encouraged to intensify his inner determination or fortitude.

What we see here is something seen over and over again in the Bible.  The courage the Bible wants to see is courage grounded in and upon the power of God and the believer’s trust in that power.  It is not grounded in human will or human strength.  It certainly should never lead to human pride.

In 2 Samuel 22 Israel’s King David writes a song that praises God for several victories God had given him.  In v 18 of that song David makes clear to whom the glory goes for the victories that have been won.  He writes,

[God] delivered me from my strong enemy,

     from those who hated me;

     for they were too mighty for me.

Notice, no glory to David.  His enemies were too mighty for him.  He could not defeat them.  God did it for him.  Then in v 28 of that song David sings,

You deliver a humble people,

     but your eyes are upon the haughty to bring them down.

David’s victory must not lead to pride because God delivers “humble people” and “haughty” people God brings down.

Miller’s book extols a courage that causes people to receive honor and admiration from others.  God’s book extols a courage that causes God to receive honor and admiration, and God’s book extols a people who are humble before God and are keenly aware that their victories are God’s doing.

The difference between the courage that the world seeks and the courage that the Bible extols is indicated by a great passage penned by the apostle Paul.  In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 he writes,

. . . to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.  Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”  So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

The teaching received from these verses is that when we believers are weak, when we believers are not elated by personal attributes, and when we believers are not full of ourselves then we can be full of the power of Christ.  God’s power is made perfect within us when we are weak and open to the power of God.

We want to sing a song now that drives this lesson home.  Please allow the words of “Shout to the North” to create within you a courage built exclusively on the power of God.  Adam, come lead us.

“‘If I had a wish,’ says Miller, ‘it would be never to be scared, never to feel the shame of being scared’” (Quoted in an article by Harriet Rubin, “What is Courage,” Fast Company #55 [February 2002] 96). Miller also realizes that “most courage, . . . , means doing battle with fear (p. 203).  And I reminded that Jesus cried out in the garden, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).  And the text goes on to say, “In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground” (Luke 22:44).  Jesus faced a horror––the horror of being separated from God, the horror of receiving God’s wrath against human sin, the horror of dying by one of the most excruciatingly painful execution modes ever invented.  So there were feelings at least akin to fear that arose within Him, but His godly courage took him through that experience.  He saw it through to the bitter end.

But there is also a fear that leads away from courage.  It leads to cringing, cowering panic.  It has no relationship to faith in the living God.

I do not know what you are afraid of.  I do not know what makes you cringe and cower.  But I am fairly confident that we have persons here this morning whom Satan controls through fear.  We do not know want anyone to leave here in that condition.  We know that God wants to free you from your fear. In Romans 8:15 the apostle Paul writing to Christians in the city of Rome says, “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.  When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”  Paul can talk about fear as something that Christians once faced but not anymore.  God the Father has adopted them; they do not have to be slaves to fear ever again.

Leave your fear.  Come to the God who adopts you as a daughter or a son.  Come to the God who gives you a ground for courage––the ground of God’s promises, the ground of God’s power.

I remember an extremely low day in my life, a day when I forgot who my God is.  It happened in the early 80’s, years before I moved to Lubbock.  Members of our community knew that one of the men in our congregation was behaving in an extremely inappropriate way with a woman who also was a member of our congregation.  Our community thought we knew what was going on, and they thought less of the church because of it.  We finally did find out, so three of the elders and I went to confirm what we had been told.  Just as we pulled up to the driveway out pulled the woman in her car and right behind her was the man in his.

I did not expect him and the woman to pull out like that.  I did not expect him to see us at all.  And I was on the side of the car nearer to his car.  He was a big man known to be unpredictable.  I knew he did not like me.  I feared for myself.  I feared what he might do to my young family.  I hid down in the floorboard of the car.  The elder beside me said, “Don’t do that.  Get up.”

I am weak.  That’s okay.  We all are.  And that’s not the problem.  I hid in the floorboard because I am weak and because I forgot who my God is.  I will always be weak, but I do not have to lose courage.  Faith in the power of Almighty God is the foundation of courage and that foundation is always available.  I was in the floorboard because my faith had gone out the window.

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