Be Still And Know

Deuteronomy 31:7-8 Moses said to Joshua: “Be strong and courageous!...Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Forty years before Moses spoke these words, Joshua had been one of twelve spies who had been sent into the promised land. Moses had asked them to make an assessment of Canaan and ten of the spies brought back an overwhelmingly negative report. They drew attention to the great height of the people who lived in the land and the size of their walls which, they claimed, even reached up to the sky! The people were, not surprisingly, thoroughly demoralised and concluded that the best thing to do would be to race back to slavery in Egypt. Only two of the spies brought a positive report - Joshua and Caleb. As a result, the people were condemned to 40 years in the desert and only Joshua and Caleb were eventually allowed to enter the promised land. Although Joshua had 40 years to prepare for this moment, i