“1 The Lord spoke to Moses, 2 Execute vengeance for the Israelites against the Midianites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.
3 So Moses spoke to the people, ‘Equip some of your men for war. They will go against Midian to inflict the Lords vengeance on them. 4 Send 1,000 men to war from each Israelite tribe.’ 5 So 1,000 were recruited from each Israelite tribe out of the thousands in Israel — 12,000 equipped for war. 6 Moses sent 1,000 from each tribe to war. They went with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, in whose care were the holy objects and signal trumpets.”

“The officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, approached Moses 49 and told him, ‘Your servants have taken a census of the fighting men under our command, and not one of us is missing. 50 So we have presented to the Lord an offering of the gold articles each man found — armlets, bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces — to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.'”
Numbers 31:1-6, 48-50
—

The Israelites were moments away from beginning the campaign to receive the Holy Land from God. But before the transition of leadership between Moses and Joshua was to take place, God provided them with a complete victory, to the point of not even losing a single man in battle. They still had some lessons to learn in regards to how to conduct themselves in battle, but they learned these lessons under Moses, not Joshua. They tasted battle, victory and some mild discipline, still under Moses, before they would begin to learn these things from Joshua.

God showed kindness in letting them have this experience with Moses, difficult though it may be, so that they would know how to respond under Joshua. They themselves would be challenged through these coming battles, temptation would be addressed in many ways, and not every battle would be so ‘clean’ in regards to the loss of life and the relative ‘ease’ of the campaign. But God allowed them to taste the difficulty while still under the leadership they knew and respected, so they could be instructed and guided by a familiar voice. To take Joshua’s command of the people and begin a work they had never done before would make for an even more difficult situation, and would create doubt in the people. But since God began this effort under Moses, the people had trust that it would indeed be alright.

We are often fearful of trying new things, and our desire to be stretched in our faith is often far less than it should be. We want to seek the easy road, the comfortable road, and just as water seeks the path of least resistance, so often we do the same in regards to our walk with God. We want the simple, the easy and the least impact on our perceived way of life. We want to feel like we’re accomplishing something, but we don’t want to rock the boat or upset the apple cart. This is part of why God has provided His people with community through the Church. In having a support network, we find there are things that we can accomplish because we have other people to experience these things with. We have leaders within that community that help guide and instruct us, reinforcements to our faith that God has provided. Someone familiar, someone ‘safe.’ It doesn’t have to be a Moses, or even a Joshua. It could just be Mark from Sunday school, or Jeff from Bible study. Someone we identify with that will be an encouragement to us as we GoLove in Jesus’ Name, the Holy Spirit leading us & comforting us.

Trust God when He gives you occasions to stretch your faith. Very rarely do we do things truly alone. As is more often then case, He provides us with support in times of change, transition and growth. You may meet someone new in the process that He provides who will help you take the next steps in your faith, or you may simply grow in boldness alongside someone that you have been walking with for years. However God chooses to do it, we should trust in HIs plan, His instruction and His timing. His ways are perfect, and He has the best in mind for His children we we grow in faith.