God Commissions Joshua

 

Joshua Introduction

 

Taken from Holman Christian Study Bible

 

 

The book of Joshua is named for the most famous member of the Israelites in the generation after the death of Moses.  The book describes the history of that generation of Israel who crossed the Jordan River and entered the promised land of Canaan.  
Their battles and faithfulness have a place among the greatest stories of faith in the Old Testament.  Joshua led the people to defeat the adversaries who opposed God’s people.  He then oversaw the division of the land into the tribal allotments.  Finally, Joshua renewed the covenant between the people and God.

 

 

Chapter 1: 1-9

 

God Commissions Joshua

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.”

As a follower of Jesus Christ, have you experienced death, not to someone else but to your hope and desires?  Have you come to a place in your walk with the LORD, where you say “I can’t, You never said I could, and from this day with your help, I put to death, my hope and desires and want only your will.  Give me a teachable spirit and the wisdom to discern your written word.  Moses, the man of God, was a very humble person, and a friend of God, but like you and me he sometimes did not follow God’s directions and it cost him being able to go into the promised land.  Not doing as one is told has a price, it may be more costly than you would have paid, or can pay, so obey the LORD.  The good news is each day we begin a new 24 hours, and it is a choice you make on how that is used.

 

I read the account of men God has used in great ways that have shared the same promise God made to Joshua; “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you,” verses5-9, it a promise to you and me, but it comes with a death call on your flesh desires.  Do not forget “You can’t, He never said you could, He can, and He promised He would.”

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice