Joshua 1.5 - The Promise of Success (Josh. 1.5-9)

Today in our study of Joshua (the Promises of God) we're looking back at God’s charge to Joshua.  Previously in ch1 we looked at the promise of presence.  The King of the universe promises Joshua, I WILL BE WITH YOU! Just as I was with Moses!  God’s presence is what fuels up Joshua (and us!) with strength and courage!  To move forward.  To keep going.  Flooded rivers, fierce sons of Anak.  He is with us, the great I AM!  [v5] And God’s promise of presence is part of what positions Joshua for success.  God says, I will be with you AND I will not fail you.  You WILL give this people possession of the promised land.  I promise.  There's no better guarantee anywhere.  The promise of God.  God’s presence quashes fear, and it sets us up…for success!  This is what we see throughout Scripture: God’s presence with His people is linked to their success  [Gen. 26:23-24  The LORD appeared to [Issac] and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, for the sake of My servant Abraham.”  [Gen. 39:2 The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.][1Sam. 3:19  Thus Samuel grew and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fail.][1Sam. 18:14 David was prospering in all his ways for the LORD was with him.][2Chr. 1:1  Now Solomon the son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him and exalted him greatly.].

In these passages we do see worldly success.  And given a choice between success and failure, which would you choose? [cue videos of fails...]  And God here gives Joshua a double scoop of yet another amazing promise: Joshua, YOU will have success (2x).  BUT, the Hebrew word actually means understanding or insight.  This is the ability to process through complex thoughts and options, resulting in wise dealing and good common sense.  In other words, this is more about the decisions we make, less about the results.  It’s the ability to understand the situation and make the best possible decision.  Eve infamously sought to get this from a tree [Gen. 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise].  But no, this wise discerning insight comes from God Himself [Psa. 32:8  I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.].  Yes, Great decisions usually yield good results. [1Kings 3:5,9 The LORD appeared to Solomon; and said, “Ask what you wish Me to give you.” “Give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil.”] It’s not a guarantee of worldly success per se - but for the person who accumulates divine insight from the Lord, their life trajectory will generally be trending up.  AND they will experience the joy and peace of the Lord, no matter what results.  [Isaiah 48:22  “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.  Psa. 16:6  The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places…].  This is the hard-to-find ability to enjoy life, however the lines appear fall for us.  Many are those who have climbed the ladder of earthly success only to reach the top and find it hauntingly empty [Eccl. 2:11 Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.].  Worldly success is the proverbial carrot-on-a-stick - we think catching it will fill our cup, but no matter how much carrot I think I got into my cup, the carrot is still out there dangling in front of my face.  

This promise of success that God gives to Joshua is actually a conditional promise, i.e. there’s a condition which must be satisfied in order for the promise to be fulfilled… [7] Be careful… Do according to ALL the Law… Do not turn from it… So that (You will) have divine insight.  [8] This book will not depart from your mouth… Be meditating on it DAY AND NIGHT… So that (You will) be careful… Do according to ALL… because then/that is how (You will) succeed and then (You will) have divine insight.  The key to success is found [right here], in God’s Word.  Literally.  Being careful to do according to all of God’s Word (2x).  This is how the lines fall for us in PLEASANT places.

Now, can you and I achieve worldly success apart from the Lord, apart from carefully doing God’s Word?  Of course.  But material/worldly success without divine insight is sort of like [the lottery].  There’s NO promise of hitting it, it’s hard to repeat, it’s easily squandered.  AND it leaves you empty [what Pascal called the "infinite abyss" in our hearts…].

So God says, be careful (2x) - be watching.  Be watching what tho? [For pool lifeguards - job #1 is patron surveillance; check out marydonahue.org/not-rescue-ready for some lifeguard fails].  For Joshua (and all of God’s people) - job #1 is [Scripture surveillance].  The key is meditating day and night [8].  Be careful, be watching.  Makes us Rescue Ready.  Ready to bless others - with Good News.  This is the promise of Yeshua, the God Who saves.  This is OUR vital life-and-death mission [it's the two paths which diverge in the woods and taking the one less-traveled, which makes all the difference].  

Scripture surveillance.  What we think on and look at is what we talk about.  What goes in will come out.  Have you ever woken up with a song stuck in your head?  Often it was one you were listening to before you went to bed.  Day and night, God says.  Day and night.  What do you think meditating “day and night” should look like? [and let's not forget that there is a verbal element - Deut. 6:7 “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.]

One last observation.  We see Joshua repeatedly referred to as Moses’ servant.  [v1] Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ servant.  It’s a special word [sharat] used for higher ranking servants, those who serve an important person, a ruler or a leader of some sort, or those who are serving the Lord more directly, who stand in a special position in the temple.  And this person is more focused on the job…

The other word for servant in Hebrew is [eved].  Eved involves the idea of possession.  It’s not about the job.  It’s about who owns them.  And a few people God calls “My Eved”: Gen. 26:24  The LORD appeared to [Isaac] the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, for the sake of My servant Abraham.” Num. 12:7-8  “Not so, with My servant Moses, he is faithful in all My household; with him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?” Num. 14:24 “But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.  (NOTE: The Lord does NOT describe Joshua in this way at that point.)  Job in Job 1:8.  David in 1Kings 11:34.  Messiah in Is. 53:11.  Jesus in the garden: "not what I want, but what You want".  For these "eveds", their supreme motive is to please the Lord Who owns them.  James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 2Cor. 5:9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. Phil. 2:13 For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Heb. 13:21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.  Success is not about results - it’s about a decision to please the Lord…to put Him first in everything.  Seek first [what?]…

Scripture surveillance, day and night.  Pleasing the Lord.  A desire to please the Lord, and a hunger for His Word go hand in hand.  They fuel each other.  And both of these come from the Lord.  With an assist from our brothers:  [1.14] “Help your brothers…”  We go farther [together].  i.e not in rows per se, but IN A CIRCLE!!!

18x throughout Joshua's book, Moses is called "Moses the Eved of Yahweh" (3x just in this first chapter, "Moses MY Eved" - talk about living in a big shadow!).  For his part, Joshua is never once referred to as the the Eved of the Lord.  Not until after he is dead (most likely a postscript).  Josh. 24:29   It came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being one hundred and ten years old.  So a question as we close today: whose Eved am I?  Whose Eved are you?  And the real question is, who owns who? [There's a great old hymn which says, "I am His and He is mine"].  Do I see myself as belonging to the Lord, do I exist to serve Him, or does He exist to serve me?  For the Promise of Success, the answer to that question makes all the difference...

Joshua 1 - The Promise of Presence (Joshua 1:1-6)

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.  [NASB]

So, it's been 40 yrs since the Exodus.  Joshua is in his 60s.  Moses is dead.  NOW, arise.  Get up.  NOW is your time to get up, to step up.  Joshua is God’s appointed person, for this place, for this time, for this specific purpose.  Cross this Jordan (2)… This is no small feat.  Ch 3 says the river is at [flood stage].  Lead these 2 million people with all these kids and all these animals through this flooded river.  Red Sea 2.0.

Here is the foundational Promise of God: Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, Joshua, I have given it to you [3]: All land of the Hittites (4) - ie all the Hittites.  The Promised Land [map] [Deut 11:24 “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea.][Gen 15.18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.]

Remember Joshua (with Caleb) did not let appearances tempt him to doubt this promise of God.  But what did the rest say? [Num 13:28-29,31 “Nevertheless, the people in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”  The men who had gone up said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.”].  Not to mention, how do you think all these Hittites are going to feel about these foreigners coming in and taking their land?  No, c’mon in and help yourself.  Yeah, we were just leaving, it’s all yours.  Not a chance.

Walking in God’s land of Promise is not always easy.  Entering in can be scary.  There can be giant obstacles.  At least they can look like giants.  And those giants can make us feel small and weak [We became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight, Num 13.33].

But check out this next promise (5): NO MAN, no one, will be able to stand against you - BECAUSE I will be with you!  There is no giant or plan of man that will ever be able to KEEP us away from the promise of God.  There is actually only one being who could ever pull that off.  And that’s me.  Me (and you) - we are the only people who could somehow derail one of God’s precious powerful promises in our lives.  Those are guaranteed never to fail.  But God here give a promise that helps Joshua (and us!) move forward in the face of giants and other seeming insurmountable obstacles and enter into all His promises:

I will be with you = The Promise of Presence.  God has promised this previously.  First direct communication from the Lord to Joshua: Deut. 31:23 Then He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with you.”  But now, on the banks of this raging river, the massive fortified [walls of Jericho] on the horizon, where the rubber meets the road (and actually there is no road, definitely no bridge), the first thing God says (again) is, I will be with you.  He renews the promise.  I will be with you - just as I have been with Moses.  I will not fail you or forsake you.  And God repeats the promise, twice.  I will be with you (5).  I am with you wherever you go (9).  Even the people affirm this promise one more time in v. 17.

And so, Joshua - Be strong and courageous.  Be strong and courageous.  3 times in this chapter.  Strength and courage.  And why is Joshua going to need to be strong and courageous?  Do you think Joshua was weak?  Or was he normally timid?  [v9] “Do not tremble or be dismayed”.  Think about what he is about to undertake.  Filling huge shoes, and leading God’s chosen people - Joshua had a front row seat for 40 yrs, seeing what a pain in the donkey it was for Moses to try and lead these people.  How many times did they want to kill Moses?  And now the Jordan, Jericho, the Hittites.  Complete with the sons of Anak, the Nephilim.  Giants.  Fear is debilitating.  Fear can get any of us off track, holds us back from entering into what God has for us.  It makes us cautious, passive, tempts us to compromise.  Fear of failure.  Fear of rejection.  Fear of reprisal.  Fear of the Bites.  I’m afraid.  I can’t do this.  I can’t go there.  I can’t love that person.  I can’t forgive that person.  I can’t respect that person.

The promise of God’s presence is the fountainhead of strength and courage - these flow out of a heart and life that taps into the gracious, all-sufficient presence of almighty God.  Especially when things look hard.  And scary.  Anyone can keep going when the going is easy.  In fact when the going is easy, we can tend to be oblivious of God’s presence.  Unmindful of our need for Him, to depend on Him apart from Whom Jesus says we can do nothing.  But in our [toughest times], our deepest valleys, facing our biggest giants - God’s presence helps us say no to our fear, to the giants, helps us keep going.  You CAN’T do this, Joshua - but I can.  I will be with you - don’t be afraid.  The promise of presence.

Pharaoh hot on your heels with an angry army of 600 chariots - God is with you, right there in a pillar of cloud and fire.  Rack Shack and Benny in Nebby K’s fiery furnace - God is with you, He shows up IN the fire, right there with them!  David: Psalm 23:4  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me. God with us [quashes] fear in us.  Daniel in the lion’s den, an angel shows up - God is with you.  Paul in Corinth, major opposition, the Lord is says to him, “Do NOT be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you…” [Acts 18.9].  And what is the last thing Jesus says to His disciples as He sends into all the nations?  Evil regimes, zealous jihadis, hungry headhunters, skeptical neighbors?  “I am with you always, even to the end of the age…” [Mt 28.20].  Rom. 8:31  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?  And He’s not only FOR us, He’s WITH us! [Heb. 13:5 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU”].  I.e. when we know God is with us, we can be absolutely certain that we have everything we need [Psa. 23:1  The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.].  He’s a Good Shepherd - the BEST - and where DO we find the shepherd?  Where does He spend his days - and nights?  The promise of presence.  I will be with you.  I will not fail you or forsake you (8x to Joshua!).  You and I will NEVER be the first one to be forsaken by the Lord.  I will be with you.  The question is, are we with Him?  Is He our Shepherd?  He’s the Good Shepherd, but is He MY Shepherd?

[Psalm 91:1-9  Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.  For He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease.  He will cover you with his feathers.  He will shelter you with his wings.  His faithful promises are your armor and protection.  Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day.  Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday.  Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you.  Just open your eyes, and see how the wicked are punished.  Make the LORD your refuge, make the Most High your shelter.] The Lord so wants us to make Him our dwelling place.  It’s not a physical place, but a mindset of trust.  In other words, I am with Him - and He is with me.  Not saying the road ahead, the next step God has for you, isn’t scary.  But trust puts fear in the rearview mirror.  My refuge and My fortress, My God Who is with me, in Whom I trust…