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. Joshua 1:5 (ESV)
Joshua is the new leader for Gods people and needed to be encouraged to lead with boldness and confidence, God affirmed his new chosen leader by encouraging him that he would be with him as he was with Moses.
This principle of God maintaining continuity in the leadership of the church continues in the NT where elders are called to raise up younger men who can continue to lead God’s people forward, passing the baton from generation to generation. See 2 Timothy 2:2 where 4 generations of leaders are mentioned (Paul, Timothy, Faithful Men, Others)
Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Joshua 1:6 (ESV)
God tells Joshua three times in this chapter to be strong and courageous, on this occasion God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous because he (Joshua) will cause the people to inherit the land that God had promised to them. Another reason for Joshua to be confident is that in the last verse (5) God made an amazing promise of invincibility, God said no one would ever be able to stand before Joshua.
Joshua is an old testament type of Jesus, they share the same name and both have a calling to bring God’s people into their inheritance as the captain of their salvation. No one can stand before Jesus, he is the ultimate victor. See the following regarding our inheritance Matthew 19:29, Colossians 3:24 and Hebrews 9:15
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 1:8 (ESV)
There are many books today about being successful, God’s formula is simple… keep reading the bible, think about it and live it out, this leads to prosperity and success and very often this will be the true riches valued by God and his people but not appreciated or recognised by the world. See 2 Timothy 3:16
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.” Joshua 1:9 (ESV)
God’s 2nd command to be strong and courageous, this time is because God promises to be with Joshua.
We can take encouragement from this, God will fight our battles, no devil can stand before us because greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world and we can be bold and courageous as we claim our inheritance in Christ. We see the call to boldness by the Holy Spirit from the start (Acts 4:31) to the end (Acts 28:31) of book of Acts and throughout the NT in places like Ephesians 3:12 and 1 Thessalonians 2:2
And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Joshua 2:11 (ESV)
This is a great and true confession, God alone is God, not just of heaven but of the earth which is his own creation. This is like Rahab’s statement of faith, she did not just hide the spies out of fear but had faith that the God she had heard about was the true God and that he was guaranteed the victory.
Rahab’s wise actions and faith were used in the providence of God to bring her as a pagan into the family of Gods people and covenants. It is from her line that David and later Jesus is born, pointing to the fact that God seeks to save people from all nations and walks of life.
See Matthew 1:5 for Rahab in Jesus family line, Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25 for the reference to her faith.
And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window. Joshua 2:21 (ESV)
Rahab did this in faith. Like the blood on the doorposts at Passover the red cord points forward to the blood of Jesus, when it is applied to our lives, when we put our faith in the word of God concerning the blood Jesus shed on the cross on our behalf we escape judgement, The judgment passes over us. See Ephesians 2:13 and Revelation 1:5
Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. Joshua 3:17 (ESV)
The crossing of Jordan into the promised land is alluded to in some of our hymns as being symbolic of death, passing from this life into the promised land of heaven. This death can also be seen as dying to the old self and coming alive to the new life in Christ which is symbolised by baptism. Romans 6:6–11
So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction. 2 Corinthians 9:5 (ESV)
Paul was a true father to this church, he did not want them to be shamed by the very church they had inspired to give to the collection for the poor in Jerusalem. To avoid this sort of shame we should follow through with our pledges as quickly as we can. When we give and serve the Lord we should actually do it, not just think or talk about it and we should do it willingly and with joy.
Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! Psalm 47:1 (ESV)
The psalms call us to sing loud songs of Joy to our great God, we are going to sing songs like this at our conference tonight 🙂
Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! Psalm 47:6–7 (ESV)
We should sing praises to God just because of who he is, God is the true King, he is the King of all the earth, not the devil, the earth is God’s and we should sing to him the praises any people would sing to their beloved and powerful king
God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. Psalm 47:8 (ESV)
God’s throne and authority is above all, God is sovereign, God is sovereign over every nation. This is said of Jesus in Colossians 1:16, Matthew 19:28, Ephesians 1:20-22 and Philippians 2:9–11
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