And it came to pass after the death of Moses the servant of Jehovah, that Jehovah spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' attendant, saying,
The book of Joshua opens on a grave. The man who led Israel out of Egypt is gone, and God's first act is to speak to the man who served at his side. That opening line raises two questions. Why could the leader of the exodus not finish the journey? And why does God name his successor by his service rather than his rank?
Moses died before the crossing. One writer traces this to more than Moses' own failure. The role he carried made the crossing impossible for him.
Their inheritance could not come by the law in any way. So Moses, the mediator of the legal system, could not lead the people over the Jordan — and that was true quite apart from his own personal failure. The picture would not allow it. So when Moses asked to cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that fine mountain and Lebanon, the Lord answered, "Enough from you; do not speak to Me of this matter again."
That is why the story of the land begins where it does. God chose that starting point. It teaches something about how anyone comes into blessing.
Our study of the book of Joshua must begin where God begins His teaching — "after the death of Moses." God's way is not for the law given through Moses to bring a single soul into spiritual blessings. Those blessings belong to Christ where He now is, in heaven.
Joshua is not a replacement for Moses so much as the next stage of one story. Each man pictures a different side of the same Saviour.
Moses brought Israel out of the land of Egypt. In that he pictures the Lord Jesus bringing His people out of this world, which lies under judgment. Moses the mediator and Aaron the high priest also picture Him leading His people through this wilderness world. Joshua brought Israel into Canaan. He pictures Christ risen from the dead, leading His people in spirit into the land of glory and into conflict with the enemy in the heavenly places.
The commission given to Joshua reaches further than victory. He was to settle the people in what they won.
Joshua continues what Moses began. Both picture the Lord Jesus, each from a different side. Moses leads me up to the death of Christ. Joshua leads me out of it in victory, carrying his spoils with him… Under the terms of this commission, Joshua was not only to lead them into possession. By dividing the inheritance, he was to give them a settled home. This pictured the last act of our Lord, which He spoke of on earth when He said, "I go to prepare a place for you."
The verse names Joshua by his father and by his position under Moses. Older translations read "Moses' minister," which simply means a servant. The title matters, because the verse sets it against the title God gives Moses.
Moses and Joshua both speak of Christ. Moses speaks of Christ down here in the world, living among people. Joshua speaks of Christ acting by the Holy Spirit in His people — in spirit, not in person. So it is Joshua who leads into the land. Moses is the "servant of the Lord," a picture of God's perfect Servant in Isaiah 52:13. Joshua is "Moses' minister," serving and representing this personal Christ.
Joshua's earlier work at Moses' side already showed the shape of what was coming.
These early tasks are samples of the ministry of the man who was soon to subdue the nations of Canaan and divide their land as an inheritance among the people of the Lord… Peter was marked out beforehand to feed the sheep and the lambs of God's flock. Joshua was marked out to lead Israel. Both were put through their training first — and that is good for all of us.
The call that follows sends Joshua across the Jordan. That river carries its own meaning.
When Moses died, God called Joshua to "Arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them." For the people redeemed from Egypt, the wilderness was never the Lord's goal. It was only His road… The Jordan pictures our death and resurrection with Christ. The Red Sea pictures Christ's death and resurrection for us. Energy and courage were essential, and so was holding firmly to God's word. It is the same for the Christian: he is set free, and yet he is bound to obey God.
The people themselves were about to change character. What had been a journey was becoming a campaign.
They had been like a flock led through the wilderness (Ps. 77:20); they were about to be the Lord's soldiers led to fight His battles. God now looked for a soldier's character in Israel: obedience, energy, endurance.
- Death first. The book begins after a burial. The lawgiver could not bring the people into the promised land — not just because he failed, but because of what he stood for.
- Then grace. What law could not give, God gives. God calls the land what He is giving them, not what they earn.
- A trained servant. The verse names Joshua as Moses' assistant. His years serving at Moses' side had already trained him for the work God now gives him.
- A risen Leader. Moses pictures Christ bringing His people out. Joshua pictures Christ risen, leading them in — and then dividing the inheritance so they can settle in it.
- A soldier's road. Crossing the Jordan turns a led flock into an army. The same call that promises the land also demands courage and obedience to God's word.
Moses my servant is dead; and now, rise up, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, into the land which I give unto them, to the children of Israel.
Israel stands at the edge of the promised land with a fresh grave behind them and a river in front. God's first recorded word to the new leader does not begin with comfort about the loss, but with a command to move.
The book opens where a reader might expect an ending. One writer reads this death notice through the difference between law and grace.
The law commands man to do what, in his helpless state, he never can do. The grace of God gives man, when helpless, a new life in Christ Jesus. The law commands man to reach up to blessing; grace brings blessing to man where he is. These words, "Moses My servant is dead," show that spiritual blessings are all of grace. We must keep their force before our hearts. Without it we will not arise and follow our Leader, Jesus, the Lord risen from the dead, and so lay hold of Canaan blessings.
Moses himself never crossed the river. Commentators differ on how much weight to put on his role as lawgiver. Several read the refusal as more than personal discipline:
Their inheritance could not be of the law in any way. So Moses, the mediator of the legal system, could not lead the people over Jordan. That was true quite apart from his own personal failure. In the picture, it was impossible. … Joshua pictured Christ, and just because of that he also shows that God's battles cannot be fought, and the inheritance cannot be possessed, except in the power of resurrection. All the blessings of God's people are on the other side of death.
Others read it differently. For one writer the handover pictures "Christ personally with us" giving place to "Christ in Spirit," and he adds, "nor does Moses represent the law here" (F. W. Grant).
The name of the man now addressed carries the message. His first name, Oshea, meant salvation. His new name was "Jehoshua or Joshua (the Lord is salvation)" (H Forbes Witherby). One writer marks out what he pictures — and what he does not:
Here we do not have the death of the body and the spirit leaving it. Still less is it the resurrection state. That is not the point at all in the Book of Joshua. It is Christ now in Spirit leading the people into the land. That is, the power of the Spirit of God, answering to Christ's glory, enables Christians now to take hold of their place in heaven where He is, and to know it. In short, Joshua represents Christ not as coming in person later on, but as acting in spirit now, and so giving us to receive and to realize our heavenly blessedness.
The river is often read as death and Canaan as heaven after we die. One writer answers that by setting the Jordan beside the earlier crossing of the Red Sea:
On the one hand, the crossing of the Red Sea is our being dead with Christ and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is a question of righteousness. In this way we are justified from sin, and truly set free from Satan's power. We no longer dread the judgment of God. On the other hand, the crossing of the Jordan brings us into heavenly places even now, according to the full measure of Christ's title.
God calls the land His gift. Yet Israel still had to walk every field and conquer it:
The land promised to the descendants of Abraham is God's gift: "the land that I am giving to them." … They had to take hold of what God had given. As they took hold of it, they would own and enjoy the land. If they made it their own by putting their feet on the land, whether mountain or valley, it became theirs in reality. This required energy. … We must take possession in the energy of faith, as Israel had to plant their feet on the territory and conquer it.
The command names more than Joshua. It reaches every one of the people with him:
Some believers do stop short of their proper blessing. But God's mind is that all His people should enter in.
Everything hangs on one verb. The land was already theirs by promise; only one thing was missing.
One thing only was needed for them to enjoy their portion — they must "Arise" and possess. Arise, believer, and enter into the blessings God has blessed us with in Christ. All things are yours; arise, enter in.
- Dead — the book starts with a death notice. Blessing beyond the Jordan never comes by law. It comes by grace.
- Risen — Joshua's name means "the Lord is salvation." He pictures Christ acting now by the Spirit, not Christ returning later.
- Given — God calls the land His gift before Israel fights one battle. The right to it rests on His promise.
- Taken — they still had to walk the ground. What their feet trod became theirs in reality, and that took energy of faith.
- Together — the call names Joshua "and all this people." Some believers stop short of their portion. God's mind is that every one enters in.
Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall tread have I given to you, as I said unto Moses.
Moses has died, and a whole nation waits at the Jordan to enter land God had already promised to Moses. The verse holds together two things that sound opposite: the land is a finished gift, yet Israel keeps only the ground its feet touch.
The land was theirs by gift before they took a step. But a gift and the enjoyment of a gift are not the same thing.
All our blessings rest purely and simply on the ground of grace, and so they are unconditional. Yet if we are to enjoy these blessings, our souls must be in a fit condition. So we need to keep our hearts exercised before God, or we will be robbed of what is rightly ours... God had promised the land to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to their descendants after them. It was not because of what they were that the LORD gave them the land, for had He not said, "You are a stiff-necked people"? It was for His own Name's sake.
Owning a country and living in it are two different things. The tread of a foot turns one into the other.
Their inheritance was a pure gift of the grace of God... God gave them the right to it. But for the people it was a question not only of ownership, but of entering into possession... So it is with us spiritually. We have all these things, but we cannot enter into them except by passing through death with Christ, and entering by the power of His Spirit where He is... In one word, the Christian must take hold of them himself by faith to enjoy them. Otherwise he is like a poor king, sick and living abroad, who has never travelled in his own kingdom.
What does the land stand for now? One writer answers by setting Joshua beside the New Testament letter to the Ephesians.
Joshua is the Old Testament equivalent of Ephesians, just as Ephesians is the New Testament Joshua... So it is no good for me to say such and such things are mine. It is quite true they are mine in Christ, but they are not mine in experience unless I put my foot on them.
The promise sounds easy — until you see who is already standing on that ground.
God had given them all the land as far as the Euphrates, but wherever they tried to put down the sole of their foot, there was a Canaanite. That is Satan hindering us, and that is where the true Joshua work comes in. I am going to make the spiritual power of Christ real now, so as to take possession of the things God has given me in His testimony. Go and put your foot on any one of them, and there stands Satan to hinder you!
The measure in the verse cuts both ways. It promises the ground you take, and it marks the ground you never take.
Everything was theirs according to promise; actual possession was "every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon" (Joshua 1:3). Unfaithfulness prevented full possession, and God would not throw down walls for those who failed in faith.
Another writer names the terms Israel held the land on:
They stand on the ground of law, and must make good their title to the land by real victory over the people living in it... So they never actually gain the full extent of the land that the Lord describes to them.
Many Christians know a great deal and enjoy very little of it. This verse explains why.
Knowing the boundary is not the same as holding the territory in practice. We have it all in Christ; but it must be made good to us... There must be energy, dependence, obedience, purpose of heart; not laziness, indifference, self-seeking... We never enter into or enjoy these things until we begin to put them into practice... The reason we do not experience it is that the sole of our foot has not trodden it.
- The deed — God gave the land before a single battle. He gave it because of His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and for His own Name's sake — not for anything Israel was.
- The step — the foot turns title into possession. A believer who never walks his inheritance is a king who never travelled his own kingdom.
- The map — the land stands for what is already ours in Christ. It is mine in Christ, but not mine in experience until I put my foot on it.
- The resistance — a Canaanite stands on every spot where the foot goes down. Each step forward is a fight, and Christ gives the power for it.
- The measure — Israel never held all the land God described, because unfaithfulness stopped their feet. We too enjoy only the ground we have walked on.
From the wilderness and this Lebanon to the great river, the river Euphrates, the whole land of the Hittites, to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.
God promised this land to Abraham long before Moses died, and now He marks out its four borders for Joshua before Israel takes a single step. Those borders run far wider than anything Israel would ever hold, so what happens to a gift God gives but His people never collect?
One writer maps the four sides and ties them back to God's promise to Abraham.
The borders in verse 4 reach further than Israel has ever held. They take in the wilderness in the south, Lebanon in the north, and the land eastward as far as the Euphrates River. Looking west, they also take in all the land of the Hittites (toward the east) and run to the Great Sea, the Mediterranean. In Genesis 15:18-21 God's promise to Abram gave the borders from a point further south: "from the river of Egypt (the Nile) to the great river, the river Euphrates." Israel will own all this land in the millennium, but only after they have received their Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Then He will clear the way for them to claim their full inheritance.
The phrase "toward the going down of the sun" fixes a viewpoint. One writer stands us in the camp where Israel first heard these words.
In this part of Israel's history, told in the Book of Joshua, we find ourselves in the camp of Israel, at the crossing of the Jordan. Our backs are to the wilderness and the south. Our faces are towards Lebanon and the north. On the left, the country stretches across the Jordan as far as the Mediterranean. On the right, the river Euphrates forms the eastern boundary. The whole stretch is Israel's by promise. But the land given to them in particular, the land they had left Egypt to inherit, lay "over this Jordan."
History came close to these lines exactly once, and only briefly.
David won victory after victory over the Syrians. Through them, the territory the tribes of Israel had taken when they first divided the land grew far larger toward the north. So Solomon reigned over all the kings and kingdoms from "the river" (that is, the Euphrates) as far as the border of Egypt (1 Kings 4:21; 2 Chron. 9:26). This agrees with God's first promise to Joshua after Moses' death (Joshua 1:4).
The verse also hands Israel "all the land of the Hittites." One writer traces how far that stretch ran, and warns against treating any of it as fine speech.
We are only beginning to realize how far the "land of the Hittites" reached. It was smaller, not larger, than the land of Canaan, yet it went up far beyond Lebanon to the Euphrates itself. "All" of it, out to the Mediterranean coast, belongs to Israel by promise. It waits only for faith on their part, and then God will make it good to them. Keil, an orthodox commentator writing one of the best critical commentaries, even calls the promise here "oratorical"! May we, then, without sin, ascribe exaggeration to God? What if the promise of a heavenly inheritance for us be equally "oratorical"?
One writer reads the four landmarks as pictures of the world around the inheritance.
As a picture, the mountain stands for the world in its power, the great river for the world in its wealth, the wilderness for the world in its barrenness, and the great sea for the world in its lawlessness. This good land flowing with milk and honey is a picture of the place God has brought us into, as the letter to the Ephesians describes it. But there are always contrasts between a picture and the thing it pictures.
The territory named here runs well past Canaan itself, and that extra ground is the point.
The very same chapter shows us not our Canaan only, but "from the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates." So God gives us a measure of blessing that reaches far beyond what is properly ours... Does it not bring before us that God, if He gives at all, must give as God? He will make good His promises, but He cannot act below Himself.
A gift secured by God's own name still asks something of the one receiving it.
All our blessings rest on the ground of grace alone, and so they are unconditional. Yet if we are to enjoy these blessings, there must be a suitable condition of soul. So we need to keep exercising our hearts before God, so that we are not robbed of what is properly ours... The land had been promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to their seed after them. It was not because of what they were that Jehovah gave them the land, for had He not said, "You are a stiff-necked people"? It was for His own Name's sake.
- Given — God names four borders before Israel takes one step: wilderness, Lebanon, Euphrates, Great Sea. The title deed comes first.
- Large — the grant runs past Canaan on purpose, because God cannot act below Himself when He gives.
- Unclaimed — Israel's reach touched the Euphrates only under David and Solomon.
- Not rhetoric — call this promise exaggeration, and the promise of a heavenly inheritance falls under the same doubt.
- Enjoyed — the gift rests on grace and God's own name. Enjoying it asks for a suitable condition of soul, and, for Israel, for receiving their Messiah.
None shall be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee; I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Be strong and courageous, for thou shalt cause this people to inherit the land which I have sworn unto their fathers to give them.
Israel is camped on the far side of the Jordan. Their leader is dead and the promised land lies ahead. God's first words to Joshua are not battle plans but a call to courage. That courage rests on something already settled: an oath sworn to the fathers. And Joshua's task is not only to conquer. He must hand the land out to the people.
The word "for" gives the reason: God has already sworn to give the land. His purpose is settled, yet the call to courage still comes.
But then we have another thing: "Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them." This is God's purpose, and He is going to carry out His purpose, but He tells us to be strong and courageous. Divine power is ours, but faith must lay hold of it.
God does not give this call once only. It runs through the opening chapter, and each time it rests on a different reason.
In this exhortation there are three calls to strength and courage. The first is because the possessions belong to God's people. The second is because obedience to the word makes success certain. The third is because the Lord Himself is with His people.
God speaks this word to Joshua, not to the crowd. That detail shows where the nation's strength lay — and where ours lies.
In verse 6 we find spiritual energy... it is worth noting that this energy is not to be found in us; for the people it is found in Joshua; it is in Christ for us... How many Christians there are who seek to discover strength in themselves, to feel themselves strong for the fight! Their search either ends in discouragement, or in something worth no more — self-satisfaction. Power is not there; it is in Christ, but in Christ for us.
Some believers hold back from this command. Bold confidence can look like arrogance. But the two differ at the root.
What is presumption, then, as distinguished from the courage of faith, and how are we to tell the difference?... Presumption is man's courage founded on self — on the first man. The strength and good courage of the Christian is founded only on Christ. The difference therefore is complete. We cannot be too great-hearted if Christ is the one source of our courage: we owe it to Him.
This courage rests on a promise, and it was not for Joshua's own sake.
Such a promise is a wonderful basis for faith to "be strong and courageous" (v. 6). Yet it is not a selfish courage, for Joshua was to divide the land as an inheritance for all the children of Israel. He was to be a leader whose concern was first for the glory of God, and that concern took in the children of Israel too.
Joshua's commission had two halves. The second half pictures the closing work of Christ. (Older translations read the phrase as "divide for an inheritance.")
Under this commission, he was not only to lead them into possession. By dividing the inheritance, he was also to give them secure possession of it. This pictured the closing act of our Lord, which He indicated on earth when He said, "I go to prepare a place for you." Joshua's service is not finished until this is done. So we should expect to find, in the second part of his history, the trials and difficulties that arise to hinder this settlement.
The inheritance is promised, but the foot still has to cover it. Knowing what is yours is not the same as holding it.
All is ours in Christ. But only the blessings we have gained by the Spirit's teaching are ours in our spiritual grasp. Real possession belongs to those who have won ground step by step, by personal struggle... Win in the strength God gives. Get it direct from Him. Avoid the second-hand knowledge that never helps in the day of difficulty or gives strength in the hour of conflict. "Foot"-possessors in the church of God are few in comparison. Many are geographers, who can map out the varied doctrines of the Bible. Few are travellers, who can describe what this or that blessing is, because they have found its preciousness themselves.
- Sworn first. God swore the land to the fathers before a single battle. Courage rests on what He has already settled, not on the odds ahead.
- Supplied, not summoned. Strength for the fight is not found in ourselves; it was in Joshua for the people, and it is in Christ for us.
- Tested by its root. Courage founded on self is presumption. Courage founded on Christ cannot be too great-hearted.
- Spent on others. Joshua's courage was for handing the inheritance to the tribes. His concern was God's glory first, and then the people.
- Taken by treading. Mapping the blessings is not owning them. Only the ground your foot has covered is really yours.
Only be strong and very courageous, that thou mayest take heed to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
Joshua stands at the edge of the promised land, with God's promise of the land, of victory and of His presence already given. Then comes a word beginning with "only," which turns the focus from what God will do to what Joshua must do.
The call to be strong comes twice in a row. Each time it faces a different direction: the first looks out to the nation, the second looks up to God. One writer then applies it to us today.
Verse 6 emphasizes Joshua's strength and courage in his relationship with the people. Now in verse 7 he is urged to be strong and very courageous in taking care to act on the law Moses had given. This involved his relationship with God. That relationship mattered greatly if his relationship with the people was to stay faithful and honest. He was to be consistently well balanced, not wavering in one direction or the other, and in that way he would prosper. We today are not under law. But God's governing hand is still over us, and we are called to value the grace of God so much that we willingly obey the truth revealed in the New Testament.
We usually connect courage with battle, not with keeping a book. Here they go together, because a life shaped by God's word looks foolish to the world around it.
We need courage to obey. It seems like folly. The world is against us. Often there seems to be no sense in what the word of God tells us to do. Our own comfort would rather we were not so careful. The path is different from the whole world's. It assumes a living God, who acts and notices everything, to whom we belong and whose will is everything to us. Of this the world knows nothing. To do God's will and simply obey His word requires courage in the face of the world, courage with our own hearts.
There is also a timing to it. Knowing the path is not the same as walking it, because opposition rises precisely when the way becomes clear.
The path is known through the law and meditation on it, and it might therefore be concluded that it would be easy to go forward in it. Far from it. The moment God opens out His way before any of His people, all the power of the enemy will be brought to bear to hinder their walking in it.
The standard given to Joshua is all of the law. That one word rules out choosing only the parts we like.
We are called to obey God's word as a whole — "All My law" — not our particularly prized portion of it. When the believer follows his favourite lines of truth, he is not strong and very courageous in obeying the whole of God's word. Some believers have picked out the parts of God's word that suit them best and obey only those. In effect they have built themselves a revised Bible!
The verse names two directions of drift, and they are opposites. One writer sees them as the two ways we can tamper with what God has said.
Joshua adds that the people of God should by no means turn aside, neither to the right hand nor to the left. This means we are not allowed to add anything to the Word of God — our own opinion, our traditions, our self-made unwritten rules. Nor are we allowed to take anything away, such as things we do not like much or things we think are out of date.
The pull away from God's word seldom looks like open rebellion. It comes dressed as a sensible shortcut.
Joshua was not to consider for one moment any question of convenience, any change of circumstances, or any tempting promise of a shorter road to the goal. It was the same with the Lord Himself when He met the power of Satan in the wilderness. The word of God, and that alone, must be supreme, both in marking out the path and in governing the heart. "It is written" was enough for Him, was to be enough for Joshua, and is to be our only reliance.
The verse ends with a promise of success. One writer ties that promise to obedience, and to where God's help is given.
But if we are obedient His strength will sustain us and give us victory. We always need the courage of faith. It looks to God, and it shows itself in obedience to His Word. "God's strength is employed in helping us in the paths of God's will, not out of it. Then no matter where we go, what the difficulties are, how long the journey seems, He makes our way prosperous."
One writer names the enemy that decides the outcome.
Strength and courage to carefully do all that God's word says are of vital importance. The giants who defeat God's people are not the enemies they meet, for those enemies are nothing to God. The giants that win are our own unbelief and disobedience.
- Only — God promises the land, victory and His presence. The "only" of verse 7 names Joshua's part: careful obedience.
- Courage — the second call to be strong faces God, not the enemy. It takes nerve to obey a word the world calls foolish.
- All — the standard is the whole law, not a favourite part. Picking and choosing builds a revised Bible.
- Straight — add nothing, take nothing away, take no shortcut. "It is written" was enough for the Lord in the wilderness, and it is enough for us.
- Prospering — God's strength works inside His will, not outside it. The giants to fear are our own unbelief and disobedience.
This book of the law shall not depart from thy mouth; and thou shalt meditate upon it day and night, that thou mayest take heed to do according to all that is written therein; for then shalt thou have good success in thy ways, and then shalt thou prosper.
God's charge to Joshua comes as he takes over from Moses and faces a land full of enemies. The strength God offers him is tied to one book. The instruction is not to read now and then, but to keep Scripture in mouth and mind day and night. A promise comes with it, and that promise raises a question: what do "prosperous" and "good success" mean for someone in God's service?
Courage here has a purpose: doing what is written. One writer notes that God promised His power, but it would show itself in one particular way.
They were to show strength and courage, and to show it in obedience. Obedience is where strength shows itself. So by obeying, they would beat their enemies. The Lord's power would be there, but they were to show their strength in obedience. Now the world is all against us. It says, "you are fools for all your trouble." That is what it says if we keep obeying the word simply, instead of following the world's plain good sense. There is no wisdom like faith.
The verse gives meditation a stated goal — being careful to do all that is written. That goal exposes why we usually open the Bible.
There must then be, besides divine energy, diligent care to take in the thoughts of God. He says: meditate on it so that you obey. Is that our aim when we study the word of God? Often we like to read in order to learn, which is a good thing in itself. At other times we read so that we can pass it on to others, which is also excellent in its place. But do we read it in order to obey? If it were so, how it would change the whole current of Christians' lives!
Knowing much and doing nothing is not a neutral position:
Meditation and practice, like two sisters, must go hand in hand. The end of meditation is action. Those who meditate on God's law and do not do it are no better than the devil; he knows much, but is still a devil.
Set "day and night" beside how most of us treat the Bible.
Some Christians read a chapter every morning — sometimes only a verse! — as a charm to protect them through the day. Is that meditating day and night on the word of God? "What about our occupations?" you say. Well, let me ask you in return. In the middle of your work, is it God's word that feeds you? He gave that word for your soul's enjoyment, and to guide you in the path of Christ. That is the way to prosper and have good success.
The man receiving this command was not a man with spare hours:
This was a famous military commander, and he carried great responsibilities. Even so, he had to make time not only to read God's word, but to meditate on it. It was vital to his prosperity in every way. Do we "make time" for reading and meditation?
Beyond telling us God's will, dwelling on the word changes the way we see everything.
This meditation on God's word, of course, makes us know His will. But it does a great deal more. It gives the heart a settled delight in what God reveals, in what He delights in. We acquire His way of thinking of things — the true and divine way, not the way of this world's empty show. Our own hearts are formed by this divine and blessed understanding of things. What a light this is! It shows how empty this world really is.
It also produces a different kind of person than study alone does:
No hour is better spent than the hour a Christian spends alone with God over His word. There he weighs God's thoughts in God's presence. A book-learned Christian and a Spirit-taught Christian are very different. A person may know the truth of the word from reading or teaching, and still hardly ever meditate on it.
The promise is real, but the route to it is what most people abandon.
The success is great indeed, and it is certain for those who follow the rule laid down long ago to Joshua... Yet how much more often people expect success from a flexible, worldly wisdom than from close and steady loyalty to the Word of God!
Joshua had only the law of Moses. Christians have more:
The Book of the Law was to be Joshua's meditation day and night, so that he might do all that was written in it. We today need, not only the Old Testament, but the whole truth of the New Testament if we are to have spiritual prosperity and success.
- Obedience first. God supplies the power, but a believer shows strength by obeying His word, not apart from it.
- Obedience needs feeding. Meditation takes God's thoughts in. Its stated aim is doing what is written, not gathering material to teach others.
- Feeding needs time. A commander with an army to lead was told to make room for the word day and night; a verse read as a morning charm is not that.
- Time reshapes the man. Hours alone with God over Scripture shape how we think. They show up the emptiness of the world, and leave us humble, not just informed.
- The reshaped man prospers. God promises success, but to steady loyalty to His word, not to flexible worldly wisdom. For us that word now includes the whole New Testament.
Have I not commanded thee Be strong and courageous? Be not afraid, neither be dismayed; for Jehovah thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Joshua 1:9 is the climax of the three-fold charge that Jehovah gives to Joshua at the opening of the book. Throughout verses 6–9, "Be strong and of a good courage" is repeated three times — first because the land belongs to God's people by promise (v. 6), second because obedience to the word is the condition of prosperity (vv. 7–8), and third because Jehovah Himself is with them (v. 9). Verse 9 gathers up and seals the whole commission with a question that is itself the answer to every fear.
The verse opens not with a fresh promise but with a pointed question — a divine appeal to the authority already given. C. H. Mackintosh devotes an entire short paper titled Stability and Peace to this verse:
Here lies the true secret of stability and peace at all times and under all circumstances. The authority of God for the ground we occupy, and His presence with us thereon — the Word of the Lord as the warrant for what we are doing, and the light of His countenance in the doing of it. There is no possibility of getting on without these two things. It will not do merely to be able to give chapter and verse for a certain position which we have taken up; we must realize the Lord's own presence with us. And it will not do to say we have the Lord's presence with us, unless we can give a divine warrant, a "Thus says the Lord" for what we are doing and for the path we are treading.
Mackintosh reduces the verse to two imperishable sentences — "Have not I commanded thee?" and "Lo, I am with thee" — and insists that neither suffices without the other:
Joshua could never have faced the difficulties of his day without these two things. And although we may not have to meet the same things that lay in his path, yet we may rest assured of this, we shall never get on in these days without the Word of God as our authority and His presence as our strength.
F. W. Grant picks up the same emphasis in his Numerical Bible:
And what a grand word is this to give strength, — "Have not I commanded thee?" How good to bow ourselves to this yoke, and to remember that where God has spoken we must be either servants or rebels; let the matter of the command be what it may.
Henri Rossier likewise finds in the opening question the antidote to all indecision:
In verse 9 we find a further principle: "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage." What power the assurance of God's mind gives! All indecision as to the path, all terror, all fear of the enemy disappear. Satan cannot harm us; has not God commanded us?
This is the third repetition of the phrase in the chapter. W. Kelly draws out the vital distinction between presumption and the courage of faith:
"Be strong and of a good courage." The last words one sees are very emphatic, and even in the first chapter repeated over and over again... Presumption is man's courage founded on self — on the first man. The strength and good courage of the Christian is founded only on Christ. The difference therefore is complete. We cannot be too great-hearted if Christ be the one source of our courage: we owe it to Him.
The anonymous writer in The Christian's Friend (1899) connects this courage directly to the knowledge of being in God's will:
The essential requisite for confidence and courage is the assurance that we are in the path of God's will. To be without this, as the Scripture history continually illustrates, is to expose ourselves to the attacks of Satan on every side through our weakness and irresolution. Hence it is that the Lord says to Joshua, "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage," etc. For together with the consciousness that the Lord is sending us on any service, the conviction is divinely begotten in our hearts that He will sustain us in the face of all obstacles, and conduct us to the end He has in view.
H. Forbes Witherby notes that the strength enjoined is practical — both for taking hold and for standing firm:
God's own command is our authority, His presence is our power. God, who gives the command, is with the soldier who obeys His command. The strength here enjoined is that of the hand for taking and holding, and that of the knee not to be overthrown.
Witherby comments pointedly on the kind of fear that is excluded — not godly reverence, but that paralysing unbelief that shrinks from the enemy:
Fear is a bad symptom in the Christian. Fear indicates the presence of unbelief in God, or of some unjudged evil in ourselves. Not, indeed, that godly loving fear, that reverence, which dreads lest God should not be really obeyed, or His will should not be clearly apprehended, but that fear which quails before the enemy and hinders Christian warfare. Firm faith in God dispels dismay before enemies.
The writer in The Christian's Friend draws out the parallel with David in Psalm 27:
Joshua, therefore, was put upon this rock of God's will, that when he might see in after-days, the Amorites and Canaanites, the seven nations, swarming around the armies of Israel, he might not be afraid nor be dismayed; that he might say with David in a later day, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"
This closing promise is the crown of the verse. J. N. Darby states the principle with his characteristic brevity:
Again, another principle; the starting-point is that we have the authority of God to walk with Christ. Then there is energy. It is the certitude of God's will.
F. W. Grant unfolds what "God with us" really means:
"I will not fail thee nor forsake thee;" words which the apostle teaches us so to apply to ourselves as boldly to say, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." (Heb. 13:6.) This strength of an arm which is not our own arm is the sweetest kind of strength that creature can know. It is companionship, communion, perfect security, — all holiness in it, all wisdom. God with us means all that God is.
W. Kelly stresses that this promise of God's presence, while infinitely precious, is not a general truth to be presumed upon — it is bound up with the moral state of the soul:
Here is another point of immense importance. We have not only the word but God Himself... The time comes when the fresh bloom of truth is apt to pass. If it be no longer a new thing, what is to sustain a soul then? God Himself in the sense that He is with us — in the sense of His will as alone wise and good and holy. Then it is that, even though there may be trial, difficulty, and a thousand things exceedingly repulsive to our nature, yet the consciousness of His presence supplies what is lacking, and outweighs every seeming drawback. What can be wanting when God is with us, and in perfect love?
The writer in The Christian's Friend adds a searching warning against taking the promise lightly:
We are taught, therefore, that, in all our service and conflicts, it is utterly useless, yea, worse than useless, to proceed unless the Lord is with us. It is not too much to say, indeed, that all the defeats of the people of God may be traced back to the lack of this one essential of success... Too much reliance is often placed upon the general truth that the Lord's presence can be counted upon; the point to be remembered is, that except we are in the path of His will and following after holiness He will not manifest Himself as being with His saints.
Mackintosh gives the verse perhaps its most penetrating personal application:
Our lot is cast in a time of special confusion. A multitude of conflicting voices fall on the ear. Men are taking sides. We see apparently the best and holiest, the most devoted and intelligent men ranged on opposite sides of the same question and pursuing opposite ways, though professing to follow the same Lord. What are we to think? What are we to do? What do we want? We want to hear, deep down in our very inmost soul, these two weighty and imperishable sentences, "Have not I commanded thee?" — "Lo, I am with thee." These are grand realities which the feeblest and most unlettered saint may enjoy, and without which none can possibly make headway against the tide of evil at present rising around us.
Do not, therefore, we entreat you, be satisfied with anything less than God's authority and God's presence. Be not troubled or perplexed about the conflicting opinions of men... Far above all the din and confusion, the strife and controversy, the opposition of sects and parties — far above all these things, in the clear light of the divine presence, in the calmness of the inner sanctuary, faith can hear with distinctness those precious, soul-sustaining words, "Have not I commanded thee?", "Lo, I am with thee."
Joshua 1:9 is the seal on the whole commission. God does not merely encourage Joshua — He holds him to the authority already given. "Have not I commanded thee?" is not a rebuke but an anchor: it ties the call to courage to a known, settled, divine will. On that basis — and only on that basis — Joshua is told not to fear. The promise of God's presence "whithersoever thou goest" is not a blank cheque but the companion-truth to obedience: where God sends, God sustains. As Grant memorably puts it, "God with us means all that God is." The verse thus contains in seed the whole spiritual history of the book — the Word as sole authority, courage as the expression of faith (not of self), and the presence of God as the one resource sufficient for every enemy.