Your Life After Grief
“Moses, the Lord’s servant, was dead. So the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, who had been the assistant of Moses. The Lord said: My servant Moses is dead. Now you must lead Israel across the Jordan River into the land I’m giving to all of you” (Joshua 1:1, 2, CEV).
Just a chapter before (Deuteronomy 34) we learn the details of Moses’ death, and now the people had to journey on without their leader, and on the verge of making the most important and crucial decision they had ever made: taking the land that God had promised them so long ago. Can you imagine the shock, confusion, fear, and grief everybody must have been feeling?
The people mourned for an entire month! Moses had been leading them through the desert for 40 years! There had never been anyone as godly, powerful, fatherly, or influential as Moses, and now he was gone! And not just gone—dead!
So there they were—on the edge of the Promised Land (a place they had been to before but failed to enter) trying to figure out how they would muster the strength and courage to make God’s promises come true. Cue God’s ever-so-sensitive comment to Joshua.
Wow? Nothing like making the obvious, well, obvious.
Or was it really that obvious? Bible scholars tell us that at this time Joshua was in shock and grief, just like the rest of the people. He must have been super unsure of himself and his talents. You ever been there? Turned inside out after some sort of crisis? I have.
God’s painful words must have been reverberating in Joshua’s head as he thought about the good old days when he had Moses’ sure and confident leadership to lean on when times were tough—but no more. “Joshua, Moses is dead!”
It was basically God’s way of saying “Yo, Josh! Wake up! I’m still here! I believe in you, and more importantly, you can believe in Me!”
In verse five God reminds him who was really in charge the entire time.
“Joshua, I will always be with you and help you as I helped Moses, and no one will ever be able to defeat you” (Joshua 1:5, CEV). Then God tells Joshua—not once, but twice—to be strong and brave: brave not because of who Joshua is, but because of who God is!
How does the story end? The same way yours will, if you trust God; here’s an equation to remember: You + God = Success!
So, regardless of what you’re facing down today—or any day, never forget: “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed” (Psalms 34:18, NLT). So, regardless of how you feel, you can be brave, strong, and courageous, and know that if God is for you, no one can be against you (Romans 8:31).
Additional Resources
Dealing with Complicated Grief-Excuseless
