Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
Though he would not cross over with them, Moses assured the people that someone greater than he would go before them into the land to meet their enemies — God Himself. Therefore, Moses encouraged the people to be “strong and of good courage” — not because they were great and mighty within themselves but because the Almighty was going to fight their battles for them. He did not bring them all this way just to abandon them at the last moment; no, God was going to see that what He had ordained for His people would come to pass.
The Hebrew word translated as “Be strong” is חזק chazak and means to “be resilient, firm.” In other words, they were to stand firm in the knowledge that God was going before them to plow the road, so to speak, in preparation for their entrance into Canaan. Furthermore, they were to be confident of God’s protection against their enemies meaning there was no need to fear the Canaanites. In short, chazak emphasizes that His Word to them was truth and, therefore, reliable – they could stake their life on it. At this crucial moment they could rest assured that, even though Moses could go no further, the God of Israel was not going to leave them to fight this battle alone.
Just before His ascension, the Messiah affirmed to His disciples that, even though He would not be with them bodily, He was not going to forsake them at this crucial point in their life and that of the Kingdom of Heaven. He promised, in fact, that He would be with them until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). By this statement we must conclude that His words were not only for those disciples of two thousand years ago, but for all of His disciples, particularly those of us who are living in the end of days.
Seeing that this is a promise to be relied upon, it behooves us to embrace the words spoken to Israel so long ago — “Be strong and of good courage.” Do not fear this godless generation nor give in to their threats and intimidation — our God goes before us and will fight our battles. It falls to us, however, to follow Him as He leads. And so, as we resolve to continue bearing the banner of our King in this darkened age, chazak! — be strong; be resilient and be confident in the LORD and the power of His might.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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