The Unflinching Promise Text: Deuteronomy 31:1-6
Introduction: The Relay Race of Covenant History
History is a relay race, not a series of disconnected sprints. We are always receiving the baton from someone and, Lord willing, preparing to hand it off to someone else. This is true in our families, it is true in the church, and it is true in the great sweep of redemptive history. But our sentimental age does not like this. We prefer to think that everything depends on us, right now. We want to be the hero of the whole story, not just one runner in a long line of runners. We want the glory of the finish line without acknowledging the labor of those who ran the earlier legs of the race.
Here in Deuteronomy 31, we come to one of the most significant baton passes in all of Scripture. Moses, the singular, monumental figure who has led Israel for forty years, is at the end of his race. He is 120 years old, and God has told him his work is done. He will not be the one to lead the people into the tangible inheritance of the Promised Land. That task will fall to his successor, Joshua. This is a moment fraught with potential for anxiety, instability, and fear. The people have known no other leader. Moses was the one who confronted Pharaoh, who received the Law on Sinai, whose face shone with the glory of God. And now he is stepping aside.
But the stability of God's covenant does not depend on the longevity of any one man. God's promises are not tied to the life-expectancy of his servants. The central message of this chapter, and indeed of the whole book, is that God Himself is the constant. Leaders come and go. Generations rise and fall. But Yahweh is the one who goes with you. He is the one who goes before you. The entire enterprise rests on His immutable character and His unbreakable word, not on the strength or charisma of any human instrument.
This passage, therefore, is not just a historical account of a leadership transition. It is a foundational lesson in the nature of faith. Faith is not trusting in the runner; it is trusting in the one who laid out the course, who established the rules, and who guarantees the prize. The courage that is required of us is not a manufactured emotion, a stiff upper lip in the face of long odds. It is a logical, reasonable confidence that is firmly anchored in the promises of a God who cannot lie and who will not fail.
The Text
So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today; I am no longer able to come and go, and Yahweh has said to me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan.’ It is Yahweh your God who will cross ahead of you; He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as Yahweh has spoken. And Yahweh will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them. And Yahweh will give them over before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or be in dread of them, for Yahweh your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”
(Deuteronomy 31:1-6 LSB)
The Honorable Handoff (v. 1-3a)
We begin with Moses' final address to the entire nation.
"So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them, 'I am 120 years old today; I am no longer able to come and go, and Yahweh has said to me, You shall not cross this Jordan.'" (Deuteronomy 31:1-2)
Moses initiates this transition publicly. There are no backroom deals, no whispered appointments. He goes out and speaks to "all Israel." This is crucial for an orderly succession. The people need to see that this is God's plan, not the result of some political maneuvering. Moses is not being deposed; he is obediently finishing his course. He states the facts plainly. He is 120 years old. His physical strength is waning. Though we are told later that his eye was not dim nor his vigor abated, he acknowledges his limitations in the role of a military commander who must "come and go" before the people in battle.
More importantly, he submits to the clear command of God. "Yahweh has said to me, 'You shall not cross this Jordan.'" He doesn't grumble. He doesn't protest his sentence, which was the result of his disobedience at Meribah (Numbers 20:12). He states it as a settled fact from God. This is the mark of a true leader. He honors God's word even when it cuts against his own desires. He is teaching the people that obedience to the word of Yahweh is paramount, more important than any leader, including himself. He is modeling the very thing he is about to command them to do.
Then he immediately shifts the focus from himself to God.
"It is Yahweh your God who will cross ahead of you; He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them." (Deuteronomy 31:3a)
Notice the glorious, emphatic pronoun. "It is Yahweh your God." Not Moses. Not even Joshua, ultimately. The success of the entire mission depends on God going first. He is the tip of the spear. He is the one who will secure the victory. The people's role is to follow Him into that victory and take possession of what He has already won. This is the paradigm for all Christian warfare. The victory is already accomplished in Christ. Our task is to walk in that victory, to take possession of the ground that He has already conquered for us. We do not fight for victory; we fight from victory.
The Designated Successor (v. 3b-5)
Having established God as the ultimate leader, Moses now formally presents the human leader God has appointed.
"Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as Yahweh has spoken." (Deuteronomy 31:3b)
The legitimacy of Joshua's leadership rests on one thing: "just as Yahweh has spoken." Authority is not self-generated. It is not based on popular vote or personal ambition. True authority is delegated authority, received from God. Moses is careful to ground Joshua's new role in the prior revelation of God. This ensures a seamless, stable transition. The people are not being asked to follow Joshua because he is impressive, but because God has appointed him.
To bolster their confidence, Moses points them to their recent history. He gives them a tangible, historical anchor for their faith.
"And Yahweh will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them. And Yahweh will give them over before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you." (Deuteronomy 31:4-5)
Sihon and Og were the two formidable Amorite kings on the east side of the Jordan whom Israel had already utterly defeated. These were not minor skirmishes; they were decisive, supernatural victories against entrenched, powerful enemies. Moses is saying, "Look back. Remember what God has already done. The God who gave you victory over the giants on this side of the river is the same God who will give you victory over the giants on the other side."
This is a crucial principle of the Christian life. Our confidence for the future is built on God's faithfulness in the past. We are to reason from past grace to future grace. He has delivered, He does deliver, and we trust that He will yet deliver. And notice the conclusion: because God will give them the victory, they are to be obedient. "You shall do to them according to all the commandments." God's sovereign grace does not eliminate our responsibility; it establishes it. Because He is faithful to His promise to give us victory, we must be faithful to His commands in the midst of the battle.
The Foundational Command (v. 6)
Based on these unshakeable realities, Moses issues the great command that will echo down through the rest of the conquest and into the New Testament.
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or be in dread of them, for Yahweh your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6)
This command to "be strong and courageous" is not a call to psychological self-hypnosis. It is not an exhortation to drum up some courage from within. The command is based entirely on the reason that follows, introduced by the word "for." Why can they be strong? Why must they not be afraid? "For Yahweh your God is the one who goes with you."
The foundation of biblical courage is the presence of God. It is theological, not psychological. Fear is the natural human response to overwhelming odds and dangerous enemies. The antidote to that fear is not to pretend the enemies are not dangerous, but to remember that your God is infinitely more dangerous to them than they are to you. The presence of God with His people is the central promise of the entire covenant. It is Immanuel, God with us.
And this promise is then stated in the most emphatic negative terms possible. "He will not fail you or forsake you." The Hebrew is potent. He will not drop you. He will not abandon you. This is the bedrock. Human leaders will fail. Your own strength will fail. Your best-laid plans will fail. But God will not. This promise is the inheritance of every believer. It is quoted directly in the New Testament as the basis for our contentment and our fight against covetousness. "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we may boldly say: 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:5-6).
The Greater Joshua
This entire scene on the plains of Moab is a magnificent foreshadowing of a greater reality. Moses, representing the Law, can bring the people to the edge of the promised land, but he cannot bring them in. The Law can show us our sin, it can guide us, it can reveal the promised inheritance, but it is ultimately weak through the flesh and cannot give us the inheritance itself. The Law brings us to the Jordan, the river of death, but it cannot take us through it.
For that, another leader is needed. A new leader, a successor. And his name is Joshua. But the name Joshua, in Hebrew, is Yehoshua. And the Greek form of Yehoshua is Iesous. Jesus.
A greater Joshua was needed to do what the Law, represented by Moses, could not do. Jesus Christ is our Joshua. He is the one who goes before us, not just across a literal river, but through death itself. He has already crossed over, defeating our ultimate enemies, sin, death, and the devil. He has conquered the land, and He now leads His people into their inheritance, which is nothing less than the new heavens and the new earth.
And the command to us is the same. Be strong and courageous. Why? Because our Joshua, the Lord Jesus, is the one who goes with us. He has given us the ultimate promise: "And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). He will not fail us. He will not forsake us. Our God has already defeated our Sihon and Og. He has triumphed over principalities and powers at the cross. Therefore, we are not to be afraid. We are not to be in dread of our enemies, whether they be cultural, political, or spiritual.
The basis of our cultural confidence, our evangelistic boldness, and our personal sanctification is not our own strength, but the unflinching promise of the faithful God who has gone before us in the person of His Son. He has already won the war. Our task is simply to follow our Captain, our Joshua, and take possession of the territory He has commanded us to fill, for His glory and for our good.