Author: Randy Elster

Continuing my study on courage, I start at the beginning of the New Testament, in Matthew 1:1-17. I begin at a place many people skip over: a list of names, a registry of families, a genealogy.

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4 Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6 and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12 After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,
Abihud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
14 Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Elihud,
15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.
17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

What can God say to us through Christ’s family tree? How can it speak to the subject of courage? How can it encourage us?

First, some facts we pick up from the list. (Thanks to my study Bible for pointing some of these out to me.)

• It’s a list of 46 people whose lifetimes span 2,000 years.
• Some were heroes of the faith, though tarnished (Abraham, Isaac, Ruth, David).
• Some had shady reputations (Rahab, Tamar).
• Many were quite ordinary (Hezron, Ram, Nashon, Akim).
• Others were evil (Manasseh, Abijah).
• Four women are mentioned (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba).
• Two of the women were not Israelites by birth.
• All four of the women had reputations that would have made them unmentionable in a family tree.
• All of these people (except Christ) were sinners.

What lessons can we learn from this?

God is always at work, quietly laying the groundwork for His plans. In the middle of it, no one person could see and understand the 2,000 year plan God had and how they fit in. Likewise, we can be sure that God is always at work both around us and in us. We may not understand all that’s happening, but our job is simply to obey and do the work God has called us to do.

God can use anybody. No matter how low or inept I feel, no matter how sinful or broken I feel, God can use me.

God wants to use me to accomplish His purposes today!

Be encouraged! God wants to use you!

What speaks to you through this passage?

When I think of the word courage, for some reason my mind immediately goes to the image of the lion tamer putting his head into the mouth of the circus lion. Courage as impressive bravery in the face of fear. The kind of courage it takes to do big things, like parachute out of an airplane, or rescue a child from a burning building.

But then, speaking of lions, I also think of the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. I must confess that most of the time I feel more like the Cowardly Lion than the lion tamer.

Courage is not only needed for the big things. It takes courage to do little things as well, because sometimes little things loom large and intimidate us with fear. Like a young man asking a girl out on a date. Or the glance in the rear view mirror of flashing blue lights gaining on you.

And then there are the large, menacing trials of life that seem to consume us and tap our reserves of joy and peace until we are as dry as a bone. The death of a loved one. That cancer diagnosis. The boss from hell. Lingering financial issues.

The word that all these situations have in common is, wait for it… FEAR.

There’s a meme floating around the Interwebs that basically says: The Bible says “fear not” 365 times, one for each day of the year, so that we’ll be reminded every day to face the day with courage.

There’s only one problem with that nice, greeting-card thought. It’s not really true. I don’t know the exact amount of times the phrase is in the King James Version—maybe about 70. But the fact is the Bible does address fear and it does give us hope.

My goal in my study has been to walk through the Bible examining what it says to me about courage and “fearing not.”

The word “courage” itself originates from the Middle English word corage. Cor in Latin and cuer in Old French means “heart.” The word originally meant the heart as the source of emotions.

Today courage means:

• the ability to do something that frightens one
• the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous
• strength in the face of pain or grief
• the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear
• bravery
• mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty

I’ve learned something about fear as I’ve studied courage. You don’t somehow make the fear go away, and then act in courage. Courage is confronting your fears; it’s the strength to press on in the face of fear.

Michael Hyatt says, “Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the willingness to act in spite of my fear.”

Or as Franklin Roosevelt said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”

What do you think of when you think of the word “courage”?

“2015: The Year of Courage.”

That’s what I see when I look in my journal on the page dated January 4, 2015.

I remember writing it. And I also remember how I felt when I wrote it: totally devoid of courage.

Nearly a year earlier, my sister had succumbed to cancer and had gone on ahead to her heavenly blessing. I felt like we were still reeling from the grief of watching her slip away in hospice.

My mother was getting sicker, in her tenth year of Alzheimer’s ravaging her mind and beginning to cruelly deprive her of control of bodily functions. Meanwhile, my father, in his nineties, was struggling to care for her.

Personally, I felt the weight of all of this, and the black void of depression was beginning to envelop me. I knew that big decisions were ahead for Mom and Dad, and yet I was struggling with the grief of losing my sister, which revived the grief of losing my other sister 30 years prior in a car accident. Plus the grief of slowly losing my mom, her life fading way over a period of years. And in the midst of this I was supposed to carry on with my job and my family. It was all too much.

As I looked ahead to the year 2015 that early January morning, I knew there was one thing I needed above all others. One word that encapsulated what I needed most from Christ at that moment: Courage.

At that moment, I began a journey that I am still on today. It’s a journey to glean what I can from God’s Word about what it means to have courage, the kind of courage that Christ gives His children.

I’m excited to bring you along on this journey as I share what I’m learning. Because one thing I have learned this year is clear: Everyone is either in a time of trouble, or just experienced trouble, or is about to head into trouble. And, thus, everyone needs courage.