Joshua Commissioned

Joshua 1

Joshua 1:1–9 ESV

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

If you remember back from the spy mission in Numbers 13 Moses sent men to spy out the promised land and when they got back all but two of the men did not trust God to lead them into the promised land. Because of this God did not allow them to take the promised land until all but the ones that did trust him had died. Joshua was one of the two that trusted God. Here God is commissioning Joshua to take over in the death of Moses and lead the people into the promised land. The verse that sticks out to me the most in this passage is Joshua 1.8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua is about to lead a big military campaign to take over the promised land and the commission is to follow the law. Understanding the law is important to all Christians because it is a significant part of the Bible. Today I think this command to Joshua is still beneficial to our lives, to let the words of scripture never depart from our mouths and meditate on them day and night.

Keeping the word of God on the forefront of our minds is always beneficial and can help us continue to grow in the faith. It is a way that God continually fuels us and helps us to rely on him. Here Joshua is about to do something very dangerous but he isn’t to worry about that because God has that under control, just worry about what he has laid forth in his word. God will take care of us we only need to keep our focus on him and the best way to do that is to always have his word in our mouths and on our mind.

From here we will jump past the death of Joshua and into the time of the judges where we will look at a man named Samson.