Rooster's Crow

When I was in the Army, going through the Officer Candidate School, our unit motto was “Follow Me.” Officers are trained to lead from the front with the mission of closing with and destroying the enemy. Regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the odds, regardless of the fear rising up in the throat, it was onward onto the objective. Up front, the soldiers could see you leading them. It wasn’t about heroics; it was about leadership.

In the Civil War, the banner was the rally cry charging into battle. Soldiers would lay down their rifles to carry the flag even though it immediately made them the primary target. As long as the flag was moving forward, the soldiers moved forward. Leaders pull their soldiers with them, not push them from behind.

In Deuteronomy 31, we see Moses passing the leadership baton to Joshua. Moses was 120 years old, and God told him that he was not going to enter the Promised Land. Joshua had been Moses’ right hand for years, watching and learning. In verse 23, we read, “And the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, ‘Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. I will be with you.’”

The mantle of leadership was passed from Moses to Joshua. The responsibility for millions of lives was a heavy weight to carry, but God told Joshua that He was going to be with him. Joshua was not going to have to bear the weight alone. But God told him to be strong and courageous. He was going to have to lead from the front, demonstrating strength and courage so that fear would not take over the people.

But if we go back to Deuteronomy 31:7-8, “Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, ‘Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’”

Here Moses relays the promise that God is actually going to be the one leading from the front. In verse 3 we read, “The Lord your God himself will go over before you.” God calls us to be obedient, often times without any understanding of the why or how; however, God never tells us to go somewhere that he has not gone before us. Too often we get wrapped up in our physical or spiritual limitations. I’m not good enough, smart enough, or knowledgeable enough. God can’t use me to do that! But what we don’t realize is that it isn’t about us. It is all about him.

The work God is wanting us to do is going to get done with or without us, but it is going to be us that loses out on the blessing if we do not go where and when he tells us to go. We simply have to have faith in the same promise that God gave Joshua. God himself is going to go before us. He is the one that is going to accomplish the task; we just have to be willing to move in obedience and allow him to utilize us.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Again, Jesus confirms that he is going to go first, and then tells us to simply follow where he has already gone. Is it scary? Absolutely! But we have a promise from a God that cannot lie that he will never leave us or forsake us.

In John 16:33, Jesus again confirms the promise. “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” The battle has already been won. The giants have already been slain. The ground has already been captured. We can’t see into the future to see what the victory looks like, but we can put our faith in the one who has overcome the world and trust that he will carry us through to victory.

The lyrics of John Sammis’s hymn, Trust and Obey, could not be more fitting:

When we walk with the Lord
in the light of his word,
what a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do his good will,
he abides with us still,
and with all who will trust and obey.

Refrain:
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Not a burden we bear,
not a sorrow we share,
but our toil he doth richly repay;
not a grief or a loss,
not a frown or a cross,
but is blest if we trust and obey. [Refrain]

But we never can prove
the delights of his love
until all on the altar we lay;
for the favor he shows,
for the joy he bestows,
are for them who will trust and obey. [Refrain]

Then in fellowship sweet
we will sit at his feet,
or we’ll walk by his side in the way;
what he says we will do,
where he sends we will go;
never fear, only trust and obey. [Refrain]