Saddle Up Your Horses: Following Joshua Into The Promised Land

July 22, 2026

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide:  “Moses my servant is dead.   Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.    I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.   Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.    No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life.   As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you...

Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.   Be strong and very courageous.   Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.    Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.   Then you will be prosperous and successful.   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: 1-9 (NIV)

After leading the Israelites out of Egypt and slavery, through the desert for forty years, Moses dies and Joshua steps up into leadership, caring for the people of Israel. It is under Joshua’s leadership that God leads His people into the Promised Land.

I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Joshua. I am almost certain he thought to himself:

“I have to follow Moses. I have to follow the one who God used to free the people from slavery, who God worked through to bring the ten plagues on Egypt, who raised his staff and the Red Sea parted, who struck the rock and water poured out, who returned with the tablets, with God’s law, in his arms, whose face shone like the sun after meeting God on the mountain...How can I follow Moses?  Why would the people follow me?”

This is why Moses changed Joshua’s name from Hoshea, meaning “salvation,” to Joshua, meaning “Yahweh is salvation." Moses wanted to remind him that success did not rest on him but on God (Numbers 13:16).

This is why God tells Joshua 3X “be strong and courageous,” and just in case he missed it, adds “do not be terrified” and “do not be discouraged.”

Joshua takes the reins of leadership and the heavy responsibility of guiding God’s people into the future, into the Promised Land.  

God speaks to Joshua and tells him that it is time. It is time to cross the Jordan River, to enter the land that was promised to Abraham long ago.

Crossing the river can be compared to our salvation. We accept Christ, put our trust in God, and choose to cross the river, to surrender.

Before crossing, the Israelites consecrate themselves. They are marching closely with God’s very presence, the ark of the covenant. Israel makes sure they are ritually clean (ritual washing, abstaining from sex, clean clothes, those born on the wilderness route that are not circumcised are circumcised). The old life is gone; the new life has come.

The cross of the Jordan is a religious movement more than a military one.

Once they cross the Jordan, they are called a “nation” for the first time, just as we are granted citizenship when we choose to cross over and begin a relationship with Christ.

I Peter 2:9: “You are a holy nation.” Ephesians 2:19: “You are no longer aliens but fellow citizens of God’s household.”

So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them.   Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest.   Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing.   It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off.   

So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

-Joshua 3: 14-17 (NIV)

But once we have crossed the river, accepted Christ…once Israel has crossed the river Jordan…we/they must choose to possess the land promised. We must as Paul writes, “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12-13). We must choose to receive the blessings God has promised, choose to do our part in this relationship moving forward.

As J. Vernon McGee points out, “God gave Israel 300,000 square miles…the most claimed was 30,000 square miles,” 10% of the blessings promised. Israel’s ownership of land was unconditional but Israel’s possessing the land is conditional.

It is the same with us. Our salvation, accepting God’s gift of forgiveness and adoption, is unconditional. It is based on who God is and not on what we have done or what we do. But receiving the blessings God has for us as His children is conditional. We will miss them if we fail to grow, to learn, to pray, to consecrate ourselves, to act on God’s word, to follow God’s lead.

Joshua and the Israelites then built a memorial there on the banks of the Jordan, a memorial made of twelve stones, each stone representing one of the twelve tribes of Israel. These stones were piled in order to remember what God had done, to remember how God had led them through the wilderness and across the Jordan, to remember the day the entered the Promised Land.

Joshua and the Israelites built a memorial, but they did not stay there.

They continued forward into the future to take the land that God had promised them. Joshua did not stop because he understood, he had witnessed the truth under Moses, throughout their journey in the wilderness, that God had much more in store, much more to give, much more to show, and much more love to offer.

But the rocks piled atop one another at Gilgal are important. This is a place they will return to frequently, a base of operations, and they will see the memorial and remember all God did.

I am sure if you took time to reflect back you would find hundreds of markers, moments God interacted in your life, blessed you, changed you, helped you take the next step.

As I look back on my own life there are many markers:

• My Uncle Tommy, a Catholic priest showing me a Creator God who was mysterious, powerful, and Holy.

• My straying away from God in high school, my daughter, Anna Helen, being born when I was only sixteen years old.

• My daughter giving birth years later to our two grandchildren, Joey and Autumn.

• Feeling God sit down with me in a pew in North Carolina and being confirmed in the Catholic Church.

• Marrying Debbie and celebrating 36 years together.

• Meeting David while working on my Masters in English. He introduced me to a personal relationship with Christ.

• My son, Nate, being born.

• My son, Matthew being born.

• Officiating my childrens' weddings.

• Taking Disciple Bible Study and feeling called into ministry.

• Attending Wesley Seminary and being Ordained.

• Being called to pastor Asbury, Bethel, Mt. Hermon, Christ, Gethsemane, Rock Hall, Janes, and North East UMChurches.

• My first Emmaus weekend, experiencing God’s love more deeply than ever before.

• Meeting Christ face-to-face coming home from seminary, praying and hearing God speak to my heart, “Malachi 1:2…I have loved you, says the Lord,” never picking up my sins again.

• Receiving my Doctorate in Leadership from Bethel Seminary.

• Being called to Aspire Leadership.

• Writing my first book, Three Years: Making A Difference In The Time You Have Left.

• Moving into our camper and finding ourselves downsizing, discovering that less if more.

And so many more...

See, we have a problem with remembering. If our mind is cluttered, we can easily forget what matters most. If we don’t take time to remember, we will forget and get caught up in our present worries and our future fears.

This is one of the reasons Jesus instituted the sacrament of communion, “Do this in remembrance of me.” He knew we were forgetful people. He did not want us to forget.

This is one of the reasons I challenge you to begin keeping a gratitude journal or a gratitude jar, writing down the many blessings I have experienced and am experiencing in my life, so I might revisit them when I become forgetful or overwhelmed.

I don’t know what the next leg of my journey will be, the next leg of your journey will be, the next part of God’s amazing plan for each of us. If we don’t take time to remember what God has done and that He can be trusted, we may fail to discover the next blessing around the bend because fear will hold us back. We may fail to discover the next blessing around the bend because the world’s barrage of information will not allow us to see God at work around us or hear God’s “still, small voice” calling us to the next battle and blessing He has prepared for us. We might miss what is next just as the Israelites almost missed it.

Joshua and the Israelites cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land. There were many people scared and nervous about the crossing. In fact, the Israelites sent twelve spies into the land before crossing and ten of those said they should not go, the land was filled with giants. The spies told the Israelites they should stay in the wilderness.

Like the Israelites, like Moses and Joshua, we are called to follow God on a wonderful journey. It is a journey of ups and downs, a journey filled with great joys and great sorrows, a journey through a fallen world with a risen Christ, a journey that God promises,“…do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

As I look back on my life and my ministry, I have come to understand that the one constant with God, outside of His love and grace, is change.   Our God is a God of change.

As God cries to the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah, God cries to you and to me:

This is what God says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and c chariots and armies—they lie down and then can’t get up; they’re snuffed out like so many candles: “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history.   Be alert, be present.  I’m about to do something brand-new.   It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?

-Isaiah 43:16-19 (MSG)

God is ready to do a new thing in our lives.

We cannot go with God and stay where we are. We cannot grow closer to God by staying in the wilderness, by refusing the cross the raging waters. We cannot grow closer to God unless we are willing to look hard in the mirror and allow God to change us into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Remember when Joshua and the Israelites enter the Promised Land, it isn’t theirs! God has promised the land to them, but before it is theirs they must fight, years of battles, to take the land that is rightfully theirs.

It is the same with us. God has promised us a land “flowing with milk and honey.” God has things for you that you have not even begun to imagine or believe were possible. To get there, the one thing we must do, like Paul, is strain toward what is ahead…“press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

We must “press on toward the goal,” battling fear, battling pride, battling our need for control, and battling the enemy who is prowling at our doorstep.

But what does God say to us:

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 (NIV)

I want to change. I want to be better tomorrow...a better father, a better husband, a better friend, a better pastor, a better Christian tomorrow than I am today. I want each of you to have stronger marriages, deeper faith, and greater boldness tomorrow than you have today.

Stephen Curtis Chapman sings, “Saddle up your horses…we have a trail to blaze…out to the wild, blue yonder with God’s amazing grace…we’ll follow our leader into the great unknown…this is the great adventure.”

I am excited for each of us to begin our next leg of the “great adventure” together. It will be exciting, scary, difficult, and beautiful. It will be hard work. It will be joy abundant.

Always…we must always keep our focus on Him. W#e must keep looking up for God promises, when we keep our eyes on Him, if we will “follow our leader into the great unknown,"”Then [we] will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).

“Saddle up your horses…we have a trail to blaze…”