The greeting.
Grace, peace, and mercy to you beloved in the Name of Christ. I trust that this day has been a day of spiritual and physical rest for you. A rest in the Lord. In the OT sacrificial system, they had the morning offerings and the evening offerings. (Exod.29:39, 2 Chron.13:10) Some are quick to use this as Scriptural proof for requirement to have two services on the Lord’s Day, a morning, and an evening. Well, I am not so certain on dogmatically applying such texts. However, the morning and the evening services do facilitate us keeping the Lord’s Day holy. For me, the evening service is so practically helpful in my keeping my mind and heart on the Lord’s things. I found during the initial shut-down strictures that by the middle to the end of the day that my mind was already running into the work week. Well, let’s turn our eyes upon God’s word.
The Scripture.
Please open your Bible to the book of Joshua. We will read Joshua 1:1-9. Hear the holy word of our holy God. Read.
Joshua 1:1. Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying, 2 “Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. 3 “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. 4 “From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. 5 “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. 6 “Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. 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 success. 9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Immanuel)
The prayer.
Please join me in prayer as we seek the Holy Spirit’s assistance in worship tonight.
The introduction.
This is our first sermon in our series on the book of Joshua. Joshua has 24 chapters. My sense is that each chapter contains 1 to 2 to 3 divisions within each chapter from which we can take one whole sermon. So, likely we will have somewhere around 48 sermons. If things go as I intend this will be our book for our evening sermons in 2021.
Tonight will be an introduction of this book.
The history of God’s people – the Church.
Joshua is the sixth book in the OT canon. The first five books of Moses are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These books teach us the beginnings of all things and the beginnings of God’s people. So, the beginnings of God’s OT church as Stephen calls Israel in the wilderness moments before he was stoned to death. (Acts 7:38)
And then we have this book – Joshua. What we have beginning with the book of Joshua running to the end of the book of Esther is the history of the Jewish nation. So, this is a historical book, written in historical narrative style not in poetical style like the psalms. The history of the OT church.
This is important for us as NT Christians because Israel was broken off for their unbelief and we Gentiles were grafted into the people of God. (Rom.11:17-20, Mt.21: 18-46) So in a sense we can say this is our early church history. Because in Christ we are the Israel of God as the apostle Paul calls us in the book of Galatians. (Gal.6:16)
I am not saying anything novel. Paul says in First Corinthians 10:1-10 that the history of Israel coming out of Egyptian slavery and then Her time in the wilderness is written for our instruction. Paul says “brothers our fathers” were under the cloud (the shekinah glory cloud of God) and all passed through the Red Sea and all were baptized into Moses. All of the Believers in the OT, and that we will see in the book of Joshua, are our “fathers in the faith”. James calls Abraham “our father”. (Jas.2:21) Paul calls Abraham the father of all those that believe in Christ. (Rom.4:4, Gal.3:26-29)
The assurance of God’s Christ – the Christ.
And this brings me to another truth that Joshua teaches us. We have the record of God’s people in part to give us the assurance that God is bringing in His promised Deliverer. The Bible is a book of redemptive history. The Bible is one extended promise that God will bring in His appointed Savior to save sinners from their sins and to bring saved sinners to Himself. Well, God is making good on that promise from the Garden onward.
And what we learn here is that God preserves His chosen people in the midst of enemies in order to bring the Messiah through Israel. As Jesus Himself says, salvation is of the Jews. God preserves the Jews in order to bring in Christ. (Jn.4:22)
The earthly man Joshua here is a faint type of the true Joshua Jesus. (Heb.4:8) We will look at this in more detail as we go along.
The provision of God’s rest – the Land.
The next major truth that Joshua teaches us is that not only is God redeeming a people for Himself by His chosen Redeemer, but He is also bringing His people into the Promised Land to live with Him in peace and joy by that Redeemer.
And God has promised to give His chosen people their own special land in which we will live and enjoy God. The book of Joshua testifies that God is faithful. (Gen.12:1-7, Heb.4:1-11, Rev.21:1-3)
The book of Joshua is about Israel entering the Promised Land. The Land that the writer to the Hebrews tells us will be our land of rest. True rest with Jesus. (Heb.4:8-11) This is the land where the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. (Job 3:17-19)
Let me give us the outline of this book with an eye to understanding the truth of the Promised Land.
The general outline of the book of Joshua runs something like this: in chapters 1-5 we have the people of God entering the Promised Land. Then in chapters 6 to 12 we have the children of God fighting the inhabitants of the Promised Land and to some degree expelling the heathen from the Promised Land. These chapters represent the conquest of the Promised Land. Then from 13 to 22 we see the division of land within the Promised Land, each tribe receiving their portion of the Promised Land. The final two chapters, chapters 23 and 24 are Joshua’s final words to Israel about keeping the Promised Land.
Joshua will teach us in shadows what the ultimate Promised Land will be like. It will be a land flowing with milk and honey. There will be no lack there, no poverty, no privation. The enemies of God will be cast out and the children of God gathered in. Sin will be banished forever. Therefore, the sad miseries of sin will be absent from the Promised Land. No more sickness, disease, death, Satan – all gone.
The Bible calls the Promised Land Beulah Land. Beulah in Hebrew means married. Oh Beloved, the book of Joshua testifies to every Believer that we will enjoy, soon and very soon, the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Bible says that the Promised Land will be Hephzibah, meaning My delight is in Her. (Isa.62:1-5) Oh what glories and joys await the redeemed with our Redeemer in the heavenly Promised Land, the glorified Bridegroom and the glorified Bride forever. (Heb.11:1-41, Rev.19:6-9)
Remember that the heavenly Celestial City in the heavenly Promised shows us that the OT people of God and the NT people of God form one people in Christ. (Eph.2:12-21)
Revelation 21:9. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. 12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The testimony of God’s witnesses – the Pilgrims.
This history of Joshua leading the people of God into the earthly Promised Land is part of that great cloud of witnesses that testify to us that by faith in Messiah one day we all will enter the true heavenly Promised Land in Glory. (Heb.11:1-40, Heb.12:1)
The time frame that we are looking at here with Joshua is somewhere around 1450-1390 BC. So just a little bit after Moses. And a three hundred years before David (of 1100 BC).
Here is where I think I need to make a pointed application. The people in this book were looking forward to the true Promised Land. Read Hebrews chapter eleven. These people are still pilgrims, even when they entered the physical earthly Promised Land.
Beloved listen to what the Word of God is teaching us.
At the time of Moses Israel was in slavery to Egypt for 430 years. (Exod.12:40) Then God freed them. Then God saved them. Then God led them in their wilderness pilgrimage for another forty years. And here is the reason why.
Deuteronomy 8:1. All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. 2 “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.
After the pilgrimage then they enter the Promised Land. Let me say that again. After the pilgrimage then they enter the Promised Land. The pilgrimage land was not their home. They were going home. Oh Beloved, many professing Christians are becoming sinfully engrossed in the politics of the pilgrimage land and they are treating this place as our Promised Land.
Oh Beloved, we need to live like an otherworldly people. Many Christians have forgotten heaven. (Col.3:1-3) Christ says, My kingdom is not of this world. (Jn.18:36) The true Promised Land is not of this world. It is of the next world, the new heavens and the new earth.
The leader of God’s people – Joshua.
In today’s text we are looking at the new leader of the people of God. As we look at Joshua tonight I want us to consider the Greater Joshua that he represents.
Hebrews 4:8. For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. (Acts 7:45)
Prior leader.
Moses has died. God has raised up Joshua to replace Moses.
Beloved we just learned from 2 Corinthians 4 and 5 God tells us that our bodies are like earthen pottery and earthly tents. We are here in this life only for a little bit of time to serve Christ and to serve others ministering Christ to them. (2 Cor.4:7, 5:1)
This is true for all people. But for our purposes this is also true for God’s appointed servant leaders over His church. Moses was a mighty man of God. A prophet like no other. He spoke face to face with God as it were. (Exod.33:11-15) But Moses was just a mere man, a servant of God. He is not God. He is not the Messiah Savior of the people. He was a saved sinner just like us. He got mad at the people and he struck the rock instead of speaking to the rock. (Num.20:6-18, Dt.3:23-28) (prior he as told to strike the rock – Exod.17:6)
And for that God would not let him enter the earthly Promised Land. For that God was going to take him home immediately. (Dt.34:1-12)
But God is so good to His people. He raises up another servant leader this time Joshua.
Before we move on to look at him, we do learn some important lessons by the death of Moses and the replacement of Joshua.
God’s people ought not make an idol of God’s servant their minister. The minister always points to Christ and not to himself. The minister and the people ought always to remember that their work on earth is very brief and we are soon to depart. And that we always need to keep our eyes on the true leader Christ. Paul reminds Timothy that he has run the race, he has fought the good fight, he knows that he is soon to depart and be with the Lord. The work goes on beyond the life of the servant. (2 Tim.4:7-8)
Christ’s church does not depend upon the minister. It depends upon the Christ. There is only one true Leader of the church that never dies. Or that died once and now lives forever, Christ. (Rev.1:18)
Also, for Moses. The pains of his leadership were over the moment he died. Dying time is the Christian’s resting time. And not before. Moses “retired” from ministry when he died. Joshua himself will die about 20 years after entering the Promised Land at the age of 110. (Josh.24:29) So he is about 90 when he takes servant leadership over Israel.
Current leader.
Now let’s look at the new leader. And God always does raise up a new leader. And knowing this, ministers ought never exaggerate their own (self) importance. When we are gone, God will raise up another man to take our place. Jehovah Jireh. God will provide.
Let’s look at what God teaches us about His leader of His people.
He is a man. Male leader.
V.1. First, he is a man. God calls men to lead His people. In the OT the prophets, priests, and kings were men that led the people. In the NT where the church is no longer a theocracy we are still led by men. The NT extraordinary officers were male apostles. (Lk.6:12-16) Then after them the ordinary officers the male elders, men that must be the husband of one wife, ministers of the word of God. (I Tim.3:1-2)
This is not a form of sinful discrimination by God against women. This is an expression of the holy sovereignty of God. God has all right to dictate how His church will be governed. And He does. God places each distinct member of Christ into the Body of Christ with the gifts and the calling that God wants. (I Cor.12) And no one properly has grounds to question or critique Him. (Dan.4:35)
Though people sinfully do all the time. Female leadership in Christ’s church is against God, while pretending to serve God.
Also, the principle of male headship in the family and in the church is not a denigration of the dignity and worth of women before God in His church. Women are as equally loved in Christ as are male Believers. In Christ there is no male or female as regards to our belonging to Jesus. (Gal.3:26-29) But as regards to our temporal rolls in Christ’s church there are differences as determined by God.
I Timothy 2:11. A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. 12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. (I Cor.14:34-35)
Someone may be quick to say what about the Judge Deborah. Doesn’t she prove female leadership in the household of God. She was a female leader in the house of God. But it was to Israel’s shame. Even she herself said to Barak the army commander that would not fight unless she led, that God would mock him by giving glory to a woman for the victory. (Judges 4:1-9)
Isaiah says that inexperienced young men and women that rule God’s people is a form of God’s judgment against them. (Isa.3:12)
Again, think of leader Joshua-Jesus. Unto us a son is born. And the government of His church will be upon His shoulders. (Isa.9:1-7)
He is a Jew. Jewish leader.
Next we learn that Joshua is also a Jew. The Bible says that he is from the tribe of Ephraim. (Num.13:8)
We are told that Joseph had two sons by his Egyptian wife. The first was Manasseh. The second was Ephraim. (Gen.41:50-52) Joseph’s father Jacob-Israel, “adopted” both of these boys as his own. In this way they are leaders of their own tribes in Israel. (Gen.48:1-6)
And he is leading his fellow Jews into the Promised Land. Salvation is of the Jews as Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well. (Jn.4:22)
Remember the NT tells us that as the ethnic Jews were broken off because of their unbelief and us ethnic Gentiles were grafted into the people of God. We Gentiles after the flesh are the wild olive branch grafted into Israel. (Rom.11:17-24)
Joshua-Jesus is a Jew according to the flesh. Messiah is the king of Israel. Come to seek and to save both Jews and Gentiles. But the Savior is a Jew.
He is a brother. Sympathetic leader.
Within this idea is also the idea of solidarity. God raises up a brother-leader out of His brothers to lead and serve his brothers taking them into the Promised Land.
You see in this way the salvation that the people need is the same salvation that Joshua needs. In fact, for Joshua he himself was born into Egyptian slavery. So, he was a slave just like the rest of Israel were slaves. Christ was born under the law. (Gal.4:4)
This gives a mutual love and concern of the leader for the people. He is one of them.
Of course, this is shades of Christ. Christ was made like His brothers in every way but without sin. Listen to what God told Moses as regards to this principle of brotherly solidarity with the leader and the people being applied ultimately to Jesus.
Deuteronomy 18:15. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. 16 “This is according to all that you asked of the LORD your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’ 17 “The LORD said to me, ‘They have spoken well. 18 ‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 ‘It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.
Hebrews 2:16. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. 17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
He is a savior. Saving leader.
His name is Joshua. Joshua in Hebrew means Yahweh Saves. The Greek equivalent is Jesus. (Acts 7:45) Jesus means Yahweh Saves. Or Yahweh is Salvation. (Mt.1:21-23)
As I said earlier, Joshua is a type of Christ. In this instance, a type of Christ as leader and conqueror and savior. The idea is that our salvation comes from the Lord, the LORD saves us. The LORD come in the Flesh Immanuel leads us into the Promised Land. The Lord Joshua-Jesus conquers all of His and our enemies. That is the idea here.
Joshua “saved” these people delivering them from their enemies the Canaanites. Christ is the ultimate One that does this.
Now as we consider Joshua’s lineage. He was the son of Nun. No, I am not going to say that this is an allusion to Christ’s virgin birth! Nun is N–U–N. (Num.11:28, Num.13:16, I Chron.7:26-27) Not. None. 😊
Let’s look at some of the things that made Joshua an effective leader-savior of God’s people entering the Promised Land to defeat the enemies of God.
He is a Servant leader.
Joshua served as Moses’ servant from the time he was a young boy. (Num.11:28) We have a man that learned before he taught, that served before he ruled.
Christ, the second person of the Godhead, emptied Himself by taking to Himself human flesh. Christ the King humbled Himself to come as a servant, and the lowest of servants at that. (Phil.2:1-11) Christ came to serve and not be served. (Mt.20:20-28)
Think of this. Before Joshua ruled, he learned to obey the commands of another.
Listen to this of Christ.
Hebrews 5:7. In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,
All God’s ministers are God’s servants. Yes, we rule or guide in Christ church but we do so with a servants heart. Like our Christ, He calls us to gird our loins and to wash feet.
He is a Military leader.
Then Moses used him as one of the 12 spies to spy out the Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb came back with a pleasing report and counseled Moses to obey God and enter the Promised Land and fight against the heathen. All the other spies were cowards. As an aside, at the time Moses sent out the spies he changed Joshua’s name from Hoshea to Joshua. I think Hoshea means “desires salvation” to Joshua the LORD is Salvation. (Num.13:16)
Moses used Joshua to lead battles and fight the enemies of God. And God gave Joshua great victories. (Exod.17:9-14, Num.13:16-14:6)
In our passage we see that God is calling Joshua to be a military leader, a military savior. A leader with power and courage to lead and to fight.
Christ has all power and authority in His hands. Christ is the Lamb of God. But He is also the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
Listen this description of Joshua-Jesus.
Revelation 19:11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
He is a Holy or Moral leader.
One of the other things about Joshua is that he was a devout Believer. He was jealous for the honor of Moses as God’s true servant. He loved the Lord and served Him in spirit and in truth. (Num.27:12-23)
Numbers 27:15. Then Moses spoke to the LORD, saying, 16 “May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, 17 who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD will not be like sheep which have no shepherd.” 18 So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; 19 and have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and commission him in their sight. 20 “You shall put some of your authority on him, in order that all the congregation of the sons of Israel may obey him. 21 “Moreover, he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the LORD. At his command they shall go out and at his command they shall come in, both he and the sons of Israel with him, even all the congregation.”
God says of Joshua that he followed the Lord fully. (Num.32:12)
Christ always did and does the things that pleased His Father. (Jn.8:29)
The commissioning.
He is an authorized leader.
Then as we consider the specific commands and promises associated with these commands, we are looking at the formal commissioning of Joshua for his divine work. God himself is calling him out and setting him apart for this work.
He has a particular mission.
V.1-9. The idea with this passage is that Joshua is a man on a mission. God has given him a divine work to do. And he is busy about that work. Of course, this is also seen in its zenith in Christ Jesus.
God raised up His Son and sent Him to seek and to save a people and to lead them into the heavenly Promised Land. (Jn.5:17, Jn.17:1-17, Jn.6:39)
And I will say this about being a man on a mission. God commissioned Joshua to a very specific office and gave him very specific work to do. The notion is, do only the work that God sent him to do. Do not turn to the left or the right. Christ was this way. One day a man said, Jesus please arbitrate between me and my family over some money problems. And Jesus said, Man who made Me a judge over such things? (Lk.12:13-14)
Christ set His face like flint to do the work God the Father had for Him. And shunned getting absorbed in things that would detract from the work. (Lk.12:50-52, Jn.6:28)
I think it was the prophet Nehemiah that also exhibited this singular focus given his divine commission for divine work.
Nehemiah 13:1. Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, to Geshem the Arab and to the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, although at that time I had not set up the doors in the gates, 2 then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me. 3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” 4 They sent messages to me four times in this manner, and I answered them in the same way.
If I could say by way of application to NT ministers. They also have received a commission for a particular office and work. And likewise, ought to be singular in their devotion and labors. And not dissipate their actions or affections in worldly things. (I Tim.6:1-21, 2 Tim.2:1-7, 2 Tim.4:1-8)
V.2-4. In this commissioning God tells Joshua to enter a very specific land. This is the land that God promised to give to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis. (Gen.12:7, 13:14-15, 15:18-21) So God makes this promise circa 2,000 BC. Now circa 1400 BC, 600 years later God brings His promise to fruition. (Gen.35:10-12)
God always does what He says He will do. He said He will seek and save the Lost. He does. He says He will gather His sheep into on sheepgate in the Promised Land. He does.
But what we learn with this commissioning is that most often God uses means. He raised up a leader. Moses. Then Joshua. He raises up men to fight the gentile pagans to drive them from the land. In this way God “gives” the Land to the people. This is still grace-gift even using means. Because He makes the means effectual.
The encouragement of God’s promise – the Success.
Think of how God advances the Gospel of Joshua-Jesus conquering enemies. He uses the preaching of His Gospel Word. God Himself is the efficacy. Look at the promise of success that He gives Joshua. And why Joshua will succeed.
Joshua 1:5. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
The exhortations – believe God’s promise.
God tells His man to “Be Strong and Very Courageous”. Read 1: 6, 7, and 9.
Joshua 1:6. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go… 9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
God has just repeated something that Moses was inspired to say to all of Israel earlier. (Dt.31:1-9)
We have the command. But notice where the ability to keep the divine imperative comes from. It comes from the Divine indicative. The Divine indicative is something that God does for us. And we know that all that He does for us He does for us in Christ. In this case, Joshua is told to be strong and courageous knowing that God is always with Him. The idea is, be courageous knowing that Immanuel is your strength.
I do not want to gloss over these exhortations for the leader of God’s people.
Be strong. You will need strength to lead the people of God. You will need strength to fight the enemies of God. Be courageous. Your enemies are many and mighty and merciless.
The exhortation – obey God’s word.
Then God tells His leader – be obedient to My Word.
Joshua 1:7. Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. 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 success.
Oh Beloved how thankful we are for Joshua-Jesus. He is strong and very courageous. He has obeyed His Father in all things. He faced the wrath of God upon the Cross of Calvary. By which He has defeated the world, the flesh and the devil. Even now He is preparing the Promised Land for His promised people. May we trust in Him even more. May we be more certain we will arrive at Beulah Land. Glory to God. Immanuel.
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