The Discipline of Daring

''Only be thou strong and very courageous.''  (Josh. 1:7)

   Theodore Roosevelt's favorite chapter in the Bible was the first chapter of Joshua; and not without cause. The Rough Rider was always a man of action, in the ranch lands of the Dakotas, in the politics of the Empire State, on the slopes of San Juan Hill, in the diplomacy of the White House that talked gently but carried a big stick. He knew that life required character and courage.

   To be sure, there is the discipline of deliberation, wherein one ponders the pathway he should take and restudies the resources he will need for any given enterprise; but there is also the discipline of daring, wherein one decides to do his duty despite every difficulty and danger. To deliberate unduly can mean to delay until doubt paralyzes one's powers; to dare, when God is for us and is leading us, is to defy the human impossibilities until the outcome is complete triumph. Daring can mean the difference between defeat by default and the delight of duty well done.

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   Like Joshua, we have need of the exhortation, ''Only be thou strong and very courageous'' (1:7). There are giants now as then, that join forces against us because we are the people of God. They had been seen by Joshua when with others he had spied out the Promised Land (Num. 13). Joshua did not deny their presence in the land, nor depreciate their power; but he could not concur in the opinion of the majority that, ''There we saw the giants, . . . and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight'' (Num. 13:33). The children of God as grasshoppers because of some giants? ''Ridiculous!'' thought Joshua, and Caleb with him. ''If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not!'' (14:8,9).

   Daring sees God, not the giants; the Saviour, not the ''cities walled up to heaven''; the promises, not the impossibilities; the authority of God, not the Anakim. Daring says with Caleb and Joshua, ''Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it'' (13:30). Daring finds that there is more danger of defeat from the faint-hearted and fearful in one's own ranks than from fierce foes who may be as huge as giants. The despairing were in the majority, for ten spies reported, ''We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger

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than we'' (13:31); the daring were only two, who could affirm stoutly, ''We are well able'' (v. 30). Daring often stands alone or in a hopeless minority; and learns therein one of the primary lessons of patience that leads to triumph: dread not the majority that outvotes you nor the mob that would stone you (14:10). Happy is the heart that has learned the strong confidence of Hebrews 13:5,6: ''. . for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.'' Dare to count upon God's presence with you!

   Daring may be delayed by the counsel of the cautious, but its moment of opportunity comes at long length. Like Joshua, we stand at the border of a promised land, wherein still dwell giants, and we are told, ''Only be thou strong and very courageous.'' As we venture forth at God's Word, we find that our real foes are not the fierce sons of Anak, but rather are the furtive Achans within our own camp (Josh. 7). The self-seeking, self-pleasing, self-centered selfishness within us that disregards the commandment of God to separation from worldly acclaim or achievement of any kind; these are the real giants to be conquered. If they are not first overcome within us by the power of God, then we are powerless before small cities like Ai, not to speak of larger and more lordly ones. Devotion to duty, obedience to God's Word, separation from known sin, these must precede daring; and without them, the stoutest heart is powerless. The genuine

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giants are within us, the awe-inspiring Anakim are among us; and not until they have been put to the Sword of the Spirit can we assay to go forth against the citadels of sin and Satan. There is a discipline of daring: to be strong and very courageous, whatever giant may join battle against us.

   There is the Jordan, as well as the giants, to hinder us, as it did Joshua. The giants may represent spiritual and psychological foes that face us when we would follow God; the Jordan may well represent physical factors that render fortuitous or even foolish any thought of following Him further. To be sure, God has brought us from the iron furnace of Egypt, through certain death at the Red Sea; and has led by fiery pillar and fed by unfailing manna. With the children of Israel we have come to know the reality of Psalm 78:72: ''So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.'' But the Jordan is a different difficulty from that of the wilderness, we declare. It is untrodden and treacherous, and ''overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest'' (Josh. 3:15). It is without any bridge or ford, without any promise of passageway; rather, it is only a raging torrent that terrifies and intimidates.

   There are physical factors that make impossible our obedience to the known will of God. The Lord's word was, ''Arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people'' (1:2); but the Jordan was unchanged by that command. Caution counsels, ''Consider the matter carefully, from every angle. Do not presume

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upon the power and providence of God. He is leading you, He will bring you to a bridge.'' It is true that we are not to be presumptuous; for even the Lord Jesus, under pressure to presume upon the promise of God, repeated the Word, ''Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God'' (Matt. 4:7, Deut. 6:16). God had not commanded our Lord to leap from the pinnacle of the temple in order to test the provision of angelic help; and furthermore, there was a staircase leading down to the pavement. On the contrary, however, God had told Joshua to ''go over this Jordan,'' just as it was. There is a very fine line of differentiation between fanaticism of self-will and the faith of obedience to God's will; and happy the heart that learns that difference.

   While caution considers and deliberation delays, daring obeys the explicit command of the Lord. The fearful and faint-hearted do not know the quickening of pulse and the confidence in a Presence that comes with the obedience of venturing to put one's feet into overflowing impossibility; and to find a way where there seems to be none.

   ''And as they that bore the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bore the ark dipped in the brim of the water, . . . the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap . . . and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground'' (3:15-17). This is a discipline of daring: to be strong when the seeming impossibility stares one in the face; to be very courageous when obedience commands that we put our feet on the

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brim of certain disaster. That discipline has many memorials to God's mercy, as had Joshua in the heaps of stones within the Jordan and along its side, to testify, ''It was here that God helped me.'' Daring is doing the will of God!

   Jericho, as well as the giants and the Jordan, may jeer at us when we obey God. Why must there be one impossibility after another in the pathway of faith and obedience: the fear of giants, then the fury of the Jordan, and now the fortress of Jericho? It is because it is a life of faith, and not one of sight. It is faith that follows God implicitly, albeit with trembling on occasion; and not the sight that calculates, considers, cautions, and cringes. Daring is always on a miracle basis; deliberation is on the allegedly safe ground of human ability. Paul knew the pressure upon pressure of the impossible, even unto human despair, ''that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us'' (II Cor. 1:9, 10). He could testify, ''We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed'' (II Cor. 4:8,9). Why? Because he knew the overcoming and sustaining power of the indwelling Christ (vs. 10). To walk by faith is to face an unending succession of giants, Jordans, and Jerichos; and to dare is to conquer each one in turn.

   Whatever may be our Jericho, it will not jeer at

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us indefinitely, if we obey the word and will of our God. Its walls may be high, its battlements formidable, its strength undoubted, its occupants unyielding; but prayer and patience will bring it low before the soul that dares to obey God. God's methods may not be ours—usually are not. At Jericho it was the silent march of the host for days, and then the shout of faith that brought the victory (Josh. 6:16, 20). At Ai, it was Joshua's spear stretched forth that symbolized the faith that obeys and triumphs (8:18, 26). Centuries later the children of Israel sang at the commandment of King Jehosaphat; and their song secured the conquest of their foes (II Chron. 20:22). Silence or shout, spear or song, or any other divinely-appointed manner of service is effective in the hand of those who dare to trust and to obey.

   This is the discipline of daring: to discern one's duty, to do God's bidding, to delight in His presence, to depend upon His promise, to discover His power as we obey His word, ''Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do. . .that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. . . Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest'' (Josh. 1:7, 9).

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O for a faith that will not shrink,

Tho' pressed by every foe,

That will not tremble on the bank

Of an earthly woe!

That will not murmur nor complain

Beneath the chastening rod,

But, in the hour of grief or pain,

Will lean upon its God;

A faith that shines more bright and clear

When tempests rage without

That when in danger knows no fear,

In darkness feels no doubt.

                              —William H. Bathurst

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