Fear and Salvation

Passage: Numbers 13

The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”

This is how Numbers 13 begins.  After rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, God has led them on a circuitous journey through a barren wilderness.  The only thing keeping them going is that they’re on their way home.  Their journey will end in the lush and fertile land where they can start living the dream.  In Numbers 13 the Israelites have reached the border of their promised paradise.  God tells Moses to organize a reconnaissance mission – “Send some men to explore the land I’m giving the Israelites.”

Moses does so.  We’re given a list of names.  You may have skimmed over the list – after all, the only way you get through Numbers is skimming over the seemingly endless lists of items and names.  It’s as though the author knew you were going to do this.  Because he adds, parenthetically, at the end of the list, “(Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)”

Why is this important?  First, because this Hoshea is the Joshua who becomes Moses’ successor.  The leader who ultimately brings the Israelites into the Promised Land. 

But second, because Joshua’s names are a sermon in themselves.  His given name – Hoshea – means “salvation”, or “he saves”.  This is the name of one of Israel’s great prophets who,  more than 500 years after the Exodus, declares that his fallen people’s only hope is the love of a God who has never given up on them.  Joshua means, “The Lord saves”; as God’s appointed leader Joshua becomes an emblem of the God who relentlessly delivers exactly what he has promised: freedom from slavery; a life of abundance; rescue from death itself. 

Joshua is only one of two spies who, when the rest of the spies and the entirety of Israel give up for fear of “giants in the land”, insists, “The LORD is with us.  Do not be afraid!”  Later, God repeats this word when he commissions Joshua as leader:

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)

The Israelites despair because they do exactly what you and I do every time we encounter trouble.  They look at their circumstances.  They look at their resources.  And they recognize – accurately – that they don’t have what it takes to overcome.  Why does God rename Joshua?  Because it’s not Joshua who saves.  It’s not the people who save themselves.  It’s not you and I who somehow find in ourselves the strength to overcome.  It’s the Lord who saves.

The names Hoshea and Joshua reverberate throughout the story of God’s people.  And finally we hear echoes of the same name as the story of the Israelites reaches its fulfillment.  Through the prophet Hosea God says,

How can I give you up…How can I hand you over, Israel? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man-- the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. (Hosea 11:9-10)

God comes to his people not in a firestorm of judgment, but in person.  In a person known as Yeshua – “The LORD saves”.  Jesus, who bears the brunt of God’s wrath so that all we experience is God’s love.  Jesus, who is “God with us” – the guarantee of God’s eternal presence and acceptance.  Jesus, the embodiment of God’s constant word to his people: Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.  Jesus, who saves us from all that we fear.