Joshua 1:6-9 Complete Jewish Bible
6 “Be strong, be bold; for you will cause this people to inherit the land I swore to their fathers I would give them. 7 Only be strong and very bold in taking care to follow all the Torah which Moshe my servant ordered you to follow; do not turn from it either to the right or to the left; then you will succeed wherever you go. 8 Yes, keep this book of the Torah on your lips, and meditate on it day and night, so that you will take care to act according to everything written in it. Then your undertakings will prosper, and you will succeed. 9 Haven’t I ordered you, ‘Be strong, be bold’? So don’t be afraid or downhearted, because Adonai your God is with you wherever you go.”
Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Our hearts stir with the stories of courageous people in the Bible.
We admire Abram for leaving his homeland to follow the Lord.
We applaud Moses for marching in before Pharaoh with God’s demand “Let my people go!” We love to hear of young David going out to meet mighty Goliath.
Look at God’s approach to Joshua, who is about to take over in Moses’ place.
God’s first words to Joshua are about courage.
Three times in his address to Joshua, God repeats the challenge “Be strong and courageous.”
Courage is needed when the task is big–and this task is immense!
God says, in effect, “Call Israel together; cross the Jordan; conquer the cities; overcome the enemies; resist their gods.
Yes, the enemies will be fearsome, but you must be courageous!”
Courage has always been a necessary quality among the people of God.
Moses had led Israel for forty long and sometimes difficult years (Joshua 5:6).
The people had known no other leader.
Now they would be going into their new land without Moses to guide them.
What would the new leadership do?
As God appoints Joshua,
does not say, “It’s time for fresh ideas; it’s time to do things differently than Moses did. Be creative.”
Rather, God says that the words of Moses are still relevant.
They were right for Israel’s life with God in the desert, and they will always be right for the people’s life with God in the promised land.
It was not that Moses had such good ideas, but Moses had spoken the words God had given him to lead and teach Israel.
To listen to Moses in the desert was to hear the Word of God.
And now, though Moses had died, the Word of God would not pass away.
So God said to Joshua:
“Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. do not turn from it either to the right or to the left; then you will succeed wherever you go. 8 Yes, keep this book of the Torah on your lips, and meditate on it day and night, so that you will take care to act according to everything written in it. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; nor be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
Such a line will not deviate toward any other direction.
But such is really true only in ideal terms; in our reality, there is no such thing as a completely straight line.
It is possible to make a line seem very straight indeed, but we cannot make a perfectly straight line.
This nicely illustrates the human predicament.
God provides a standard for living; in the old covenant, it was the Law of Moses.
Ideally, Israel would hold firm to the Law, observing everything in it, not deviating at all, or, as God encouraged Joshua, and in turn Joshua the people, “to not turn from it to the right hand or to the left” (Joshua 1:7, 23:6).
In the new covenant in Jesus Christ, we are to love and know God and keep His commandments, walking as Jesus walked (1 John 2:1-6).
This remains the ideal today.
And yet none of us can live up to that standard perfectly.
Peter and Paul declared as much in regards to Israel and the Law (Acts 13:38-39, 15:10, Romans 3:20).
John understands Christians do not live up to the ideal either (1 John 1:8-2:6).
If we cannot perfectly go straight, why would God provide such exhortation to Israel and to Christians today?
The ideal is not worthless or irrelevant simply because no one save Jesus has ever lived up to it perfectly.
God always understood our deficiencies as humans; such is why He established the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, and continues to grant grace and mercy through Jesus in the New Testament (cf. Leviticus, Romans 5:6-11, 8:1-39).
And yet we must not become complacent or content by acknowledging our imperfection; it is easy for us to think that since we cannot live up to the ideal perfectly, we should not try!
Therefore, we do well to confess that the ideal is ideal: we should be following what God says perfectly. We should walk in God’s ways without any deviation; we should go “straight” and should not go “to the right hand or to the left.”
When we do deviate from God’s command, we ought to admit as much, change our minds and ways, and return to the good path (1 John 1:9). In all things we must place our trust in God and His ideal way for mankind (Hebrews 11:6)!
The image of going “straight” and not turning “to the right hand or to the left” also underscores the necessity of balance.
It remains true many people have deviated from God’s path and purposes on account of rebellion and a desire to sin, and many others have deviated from God’s path because they overemphasized certain aspects of God’s truth to the detriment of other aspects.
This proves quite easy to do; we humans easily go to extremes. We rightly see a problem with one side; it is tempting to run far to the other side in response. We see certain groups associated with certain practices; it is tempting to want to go from one extreme to the other so that no one would confuse “us” with “them.”
This is why it is important for us to remember that God wants us to not deviate to the right hand or to the left; truth is rarely, if ever, found in the extremes.
Furthermore, there remains many aspects of the faith that are held in a sort of tension: God’s sovereignty and grace with human freedom, for instance, or the imperative to holiness with the imperative to love, mercy, and grace.
The Scriptures are filled with examples of people who have gone to one extreme or another: the Pharisees, Sadducees, the “Judaizers,” the Gnostics, and so on.
God is far greater than ourselves, and His truth remains sublime (Isaiah 55:8-9, Romans 11:33-36).
God has set forth His standard for the creation and all mankind; it is up to us to confess its value and make it our goal in life.
Whenever we deviate from that standard, either by stumbling into some sin, or by overemphasizing certain aspects of truth to the detriment of other aspects of it, we must change our ways and seek to properly re-align our will to God’s.
God’s ways and God’s truth and God’s life remain ideally straight, firm, and balanced; we, in our sin and corruption, have turned to the right or to the left.
Let us turn our away from all deviations, distractions, divisions and all seek to exalt, glorify magnify God in spirit and truth in all we think, say, do, and teach!
Hebrews 4:12Amplified Bible
12 For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged [a]sword, penetrating as far as the division of the [b]soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 Amplified Bible
16 All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage]; 17 so that the [a]man of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 2:14-18 Amplified Bible
An Unashamed Workman
14 Remind the people of these facts, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God to avoid petty controversy over words, which does no good, and [upsets and undermines and] ruins [the faith of] those who listen. 15 Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth. 16 But avoid all irreverent babble and godless chatter [with its profane, empty words], for it will lead to further ungodliness, 17 and their teaching will spread like gangrene. So it is with Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have deviated from the truth. They claim that the resurrection has already taken place, and they undermine the faith of some.
God’s Word Will Not Pass Away
Standing for righteousness in a society that accommodates itself to evil takes courage. Faithfully, Steadfastly Spreading the true gospel of Jesus Christ in a culture that wants to say any religion will do, takes courage. Allegiance to Jesus Christ in a world that is too often against the centrality of Christ takes courage.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 