BE COURAGEOUS | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 22, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 12.

BE COURAGEOUS.

THE Word of God abounds in exhortations to be courageous. And our poor human race is very much in need of these inspiring utterances, because sin has made cowards of us all.

When Moses was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, he was directed to go by way of the Red Sea, and they encamped on its western shore. Then the Egyptian army pursued them, and their position was naturally a very perilous one. From a military standpoint, it was a veritable trap. Even the common people understood the situation, when they heard that Pharaoh was pursuing them, and they at once began to chide Moses. They were “sore afraid,” and “cried out unto the Lord.”

But Moses was calm, and said to the frightened multitude, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you to-day.” Discipline and faith had made Moses courageous; and in turn he was prepared to encourage the people. “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.” The sequel to the word of encouragement spoken to the people that day was the joyful song of deliverance which they sang on the opposite shore the day following, when they realized that their enemies were all drowned in the sea.

So Moses went on, under the guidance and instruction of the Lord, encouraging the people under all kinds of trying circumstances for forty years. When he sent the twelve men into Canaan to spy out the land and report, he counselled them to be “of good courage.” Just before his death, when he had again brought them to the border of the promised land, after their long wanderings in the wilderness, his words were still full of courage. Altho he could no longer be a leader, he bade Godspeed to Joshua, his chosen successor. He “called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage; for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.”

After the death of Moses, the Lord repeated again and again to Joshua the injunction to be courageous. Before crossing the Jordan, the Lord talked with him and said, “Be strong and of a good courage; for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I swore unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayst observe to do according to all the law, which Moses My servant commanded thee. . . . Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

Let it be noted that these words of encouragement are all connected with the journey from bondage to the promised land—typical, to some extent, of the sinner’s deliverance from sin, and his probationary journey to the heavenly Canaan. All the way through the Lord recognizes that we need to be courageous, and He has not left us without the encouraging Word. Before going away, He left the assurance, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” He knew just what we would have to contend against in the world; so He summed it altogether, and said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”—that is, everything that the world can possibly bring against any of His followers. Even in the face of death He could say to the sorrowing Jairus, “Fear not, only believe.”

In the last days we are told that there will be especially “perilous times.” Looking forward to this time, the seer cries, “Wo to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” He is especially wroth with the “woman”—the church of God—and goes out “to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

For this reason we have not only words of encouragement, together with counsel to “be patient unto the coming of the Lord,” and assurance that “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved;” but we have many examples of patient, courageous, faithful brethren written for our learning. The grandest, noblest example of all is that of Him who had the courage to take upon Him our human nature for the express purpose of suffering death in behalf of sinners. He has set us the example of even enduring death on the cross, in the faith of “the joy set before Him” in seeing the fruit of His sacrifice made partakers of His joy in His everlasting kingdom of glory.

In view of this example, and the many others that might be cited, shall we not look upon all the possible trials that come to the faithful, and, with Paul, reckon them all as “our light affliction, which is but for a moment”? Shall we not accept whatever comes to us as a consequence of our faith in Christ, as logically working for us “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”? Such a view will at all times enable us to be “strong and very courageous.”