You don’t stand still for long in the book of Joshua. There is a sense of God being with His people and leading them forward. Joshua and the people are on a spiritual journey as well. There are four things for them to consider:-

1 – The vitality of God’s promise (vs. 1-7)

Notice two things.

• The content of the promise – God was still promising a land. The content has no changed. See Genesis 12. God is not flipping a coin and hoping to call right. His promises are sure.
• The context of the promise – Moses was an outstanding leader but now he has died. It is time for Joshua to step up. Sometimes God changes the personnel but the promise continues.

2 – The encouragement of God’s promise (vs. 5, 9)

God says “I will be with you”. It is said many times to Joshua. The people may be concerned that perhaps this young leader may not know exactly what he is doing. However, God is with Joshua just like He was with Moses. See Hebrews 13:5-6. God does not forsake His people. We are not on our own. He will be with us. We are encouraged to be strong and courageous. God has unlimited resources. We don’t have the resources of ourselves. God needs to grow in our perspective. Our confidence is to be in God.

3 – The centrality of God’s Word (vs. 8-9)

God wants us to meditate on God’s Word. We are to “chew” over it. We need to get nourishment from it. We are to anchor ourselves in the Word of God. The Word of God is truth and we need to weigh it, chew it and do it in our lives.

4 – The unity of God’s people (vs. 10-18)

See Numbers 32. What we do, we are to do together. The Reubenites and the Gadites were to help out. There was to be togetherness in pursuing the purposes of God. We need to encourage one another as we pursue God’s calling in our lives.

Categories: Joshua