Introduction: The book of Joshua tells the story of Israel’s conquest of Canaan, the Promised Land, under Joshua, Moses' successor.
Joshua 1:1-2 — No man is indispensable to God, not even a Moses, but God is indispensable to all men.
God always has a Joshua ready to step into the shoes of His Moses, so that God’s Word and work will go on, even after God’s Moses is gone.
“The cemeteries are filled with indispensable men.” (Winston Churchill)
Joshua 1:3 — God gives all places to His people for as far as they will go; the problem, however, is most have very little because they’ve never gone very far.
The further you go with God the more you’re be given by God.
Joshua 1:4 — Here we have the boundaries of the Promised Land. It was bordered in the south by “the wilderness” or Arabian Desert, in the north by Mount “Lebanon,” in the east by “the great river” or the Euphrates, and in the west by “the great sea” or the Mediterranean.
Although “all the land of the Hittites” or Canaanites was encompassed within the Promised Land, which God gave to Israel, the specific “land of the Hittites,” which was also divinely given to Israel, was, much to the chagrin of today’s Pro-Palestinian and antisemitic protesters, what they mistakenly refer to as Palestinian territory, which supposedly includes East Jerusalem, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
As Charles Spurgeon makes clear, in his commentary on this verse, though the verse refers to a literal land, it also has a spiritual application, teaching us the following: “All that is in Christ is meant for all believers, and therefore all believers may have all that is in Christ, who is all in all. We should not, therefore, be content with pence when He endows us with pounds.”
Joshua 1:5-6 — All we need to be assured of success in God’s service is God’s promise that He will be with us and never fail nor forsake us.
It was not Moses, the lawgiver, who led Israel into the Promised Land to possess it, but Joshua, whose Hebrew name “Jeshua” is translated “Jesus” in Greek and means “the salvation of Jehovah.”
“In the presence of God, Anakim become dwarfs, a stronghold a shed in a garden of cucumbers, and chariots of iron thistledown upon the hillside. What is strong against the Most High?” (Charles Spurgeon)
Joshua 1:7 — The path that leads to spiritual prosperity is found within the strict parameters of Scriptural precepts.
If we want to be confident and courageous in Christ we must stay within the confines of His commands and not deviate from them one iota to the right or to the left.
Joshua 1:8 — The only mention of the word “success” in Scripture is in Joshua 1:8, where we learn how to have “good” success in the eyes of God. It is simply to live in His Word and to live out His Word in our lives!
“If you make much of God’s Word, God will make much of you!” (A. W. Tozer)
To prosper spiritually and to have good success in the eyes of God is to be all God wants you to be, not all you dream of being or all the world demands you to be. Many a worldly success story is told of a spiritual failure whose dreams all came true.
Joshua 1:9 — If we are living within God’s will and according to God’s Word, we can be courageous, confident of both God’s sure presence and our spiritual prosperity.
If we are disobedient to God, we should not be dismayed if we are deserted by God or defeated in our designs.
Joshua 1:10-11 — Although the former and faithless generation had been hesitant and reluctant to obey God’s command, this generation was commanded to hastily ready themselves to enter the Promised Land in obedience to God’s command.
An eleven day walk had been turned into forty years of wilderness wandering by disbelieve and disobedience, but now, faith would finally, in just three short days, step into the Promised Land that had for so long been longed for.
Joshua 1:12-15 — None of God’s people were permitted to sit it out on the wrong side of the Jordan, but all were required to participate in the conquest of Canaan.
Too many Christians today are sitting it out on the wrong side of Jordan. While they want the Gospel preached, prayers prayed, ministry performed, service rendered, and offerings taken, they want someone else to do all of the witnessing, praying, ministering, serving, and giving.
Joshua 1:16 — Those who’ve taken possession of God’s promises should not rest until their brethren have taken possession of God’s promises as well.
We should be willing to do whatever we’re asked to do and to go wherever we’re asked to go, in order to help our fellow Christians to get, not only whatever God wants them to have, but also to wherever God wants them to go.
Joshua 1:17-18 — Having returned to the threshold of Canaan, where the previous generation had been turned away forty years ago, for its obstinacy under Moses, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh, now vowed absolute obedience to Joshua, Moses’s successor.
In order to get to where God wants them, as well as to get all that God has for them, God’s people must not only dedicate themselves to unanimously obeying the God-given orders of their God appointed leaders, but they must also determine to hold all dissenters accountable for their disobedience, lest they cause division, impede progress, and prevent God’s people from possessing God’s promises.
Joshua 3:1-6 — The presence of God leads us into the promises of God.
We need to stand off, in reverential solemnity, not presume to come near, in irreverent familiarity, if we are to see God’s presence clearly before us before crossing over into uncharted territory.
Joshua 3:17 — As God's believing priests, accompanied by His presence, we must step out and stand fast in the midst of peril, if we are to persuade others to pass over into God's promises.
To be brought out—out of Egypt—as well as to be brought in—into Canaan—both required miraculous crossings—the crossing of both the Red Sea and the Jordan River on dry ground. Only by the miraculous work of God can Egypt (the world) be escaped and Canaan (the promises of God) be entered into and enjoyed!
Joshua 5:12 — Manna was food for the wilderness, it was never meant to be fare for forty years on a mere eleven day journey. It stopped as soon as the Promised Land was entered and its fruit first enjoyed. (Deuteronomy 1:2)
Many a spiritual wanderer, who has never gotten anywhere spiritually, survives on a daily diet of manna. Having never tasted the savory promises of God, they spiritually subsist on savorless pabulum.
Joshua 5:13-15 — When Joshua asked the Lord, “Are you for us or for our adversaries,” the Lord answered, “Nay.” The question is never whose side is the Lord on, but always who is on the Lord’s side!
“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” (Abraham Lincoln)
Joshua 6:5 — For the walls of overwhelming and immovable obstacles to fall down flat, requires the shout of faith, not the squawk of doubt, the shriek of dismay, nor the sniveling of despondency. (Hebrews 11:30)
It was not the shouting of the troops nor the sounding of the trumpets, but the faith of the people that brought the walls of Jericho down flat. (Hebrews 11:30)
Joshua 7:1-9 — Many a time an assumed easy triumph is turned into an agonizing and embarrassing trouncing over the taking of an accursed thing by the army of God.
Presumption—the sin of presuming that God will do what He has not promised to do or that we can do what He has not called us to do—not only leads to us be defeated at the hands of the world, but also to our God be discredited in the eyes of the world.
Joshua 14:6-9 — Caleb, whose name means “wholehearted,” wholly followed the Lord. It is only a Caleb, a wholehearted follower of Christ, who ends up inhabiting God's Promised Land. All halfhearted followers of Christ end up interred in the wilderness.
A halfhearted commitment can no more get you to Christ than it did Israel into Canaan. You'll either come wholeheartedly or not at all.
Joshua 14:6-14 — To be an overcomer, who is ever-ready to overcome, one must wholly follow the Lord. Those who do will dwell on higher ground and defeat harrowing giants. (Numbers 13:30)
To become a giant-slaying spiritual highlander one must leave the lowlands of sin and disbelief, and scale the steep slope of unassailable faith.
Joshua 15:19 — In the dry and arid wilderness of this world, you should pray to your Heavenly Father for upper and lower springs, so that you will be preserved for your coming life above, as well as through both the highs and lows of your current life below. (Judges 1:15)
I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame,
And nothing satisfying there I found;
But to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came,
Where springs of living water did abound. (John Peterson)
Joshua 21:45 — The promises of God are proven unfailing by their ultimate fulfilling.
There are no “ifs,” “ands” or “buts” in the never-failing promises of God!
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