The Unflinching Calculus of Conquest: Joshua 1:1-9
Introduction: The Age of the Shaky Knees
We live in an age of gelatinous leadership. Our pulpits are filled with men who speak in hushed, therapeutic tones, and our political leaders govern by polling data and focus groups. The prevailing spirit of our age is one of appeasement, compromise, and a desperate desire to be liked by a world that crucified the Lord of Glory. We are told that the Christian mission is one of quiet retreat, of managing our decline, of holding on to a few scraps of cultural relevance until the Lord raptures us out of this mess. The modern evangelical church is, by and large, terrified of its own shadow, and even more terrified of the world's scowl.
Into this timid and wavering scene, the first chapter of Joshua lands like a thunderclap. It is a chapter about transitions, yes, but it is a transition from one mighty, conquering leader to the next. It is a chapter about inheritance, but an inheritance that must be taken by force. It is a chapter about promises, but promises that are claimed by muddy boots and drawn swords. This is not a manual for managed decline. This is a divine commission for conquest.
The book of Joshua is the great Old Testament case study in optimistic, eschatological, dominion-oriented faith. It is applied postmillennialism in seed form. God gives His people a mission, He gives them His authoritative Word, He gives them His unwavering presence, and He tells them to go take the world. The Canaanites were not going to be converted by a winsome dialogue series. They were idolaters, child-murderers, and demon-worshippers who had filled up the cup of God's wrath. The land had to be cleansed. And God, in His sovereignty, chose to use His people as the instrument of that judgment and the inheritors of that cleansing.
This reality makes our modern sensibilities squeamish. We prefer a God who is a celestial guidance counselor, not a divine warrior. But the God of Joshua is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The principles of spiritual warfare, of bold obedience, of Word-centered courage, and of promised victory laid down here are not dusty relics. They are the unchanging marching orders for the Church of Jesus Christ in every generation. We have a greater Joshua, a greater promised land, and a greater enemy. But the calculus of conquest remains the same: God's promise, God's presence, and God's Word. If we neglect any part of this divine formula, we will find ourselves, like the previous generation, wandering in the wilderness of our own fears.
The Text
Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of Yahweh, that Yahweh spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ attendant, saying, “Moses My servant is dead; so now arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. 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. 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. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous to be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn aside from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be prosperous wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way successful, and then you will be prosperous. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be in dread or be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go.”
(Joshua 1:1-9 LSB)
The Unchanging Commission (v. 1-2)
The book opens on the heels of a monumental death. The pilot has been dropped.
"Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of Yahweh, that Yahweh spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ attendant, saying, 'Moses My servant is dead; so now arise...'" (Joshua 1:1-2)
God is brutally direct. "Moses My servant is dead." There is no time for a protracted pity party. The death of even the greatest of God's servants does not put God's timetable on hold. The mission is not dependent on any one man. Moses was a great man, the servant of Yahweh, but he was a servant. The Master remains. The plan remains. The promises remain. This is a crucial lesson for the church. We are not to build personality cults. When God takes a great leader, we are to grieve, yes, but then we are to look to the living God and ask, "What's next?"
And God's answer is always forward: "so now arise." This is a command to get up and get moving. The period of mourning is over; the period of marching has begun. Joshua, who had been Moses' faithful attendant for forty years, is now called to step out of the shadow and into the sun. His long apprenticeship is over. Leadership is not something you drift into; it is something you are commanded to take up. God does not suggest; He commands. "Arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people." Notice the scope: Joshua is not to go alone. He is to lead the entire nation. This is a corporate task, a covenantal conquest.
The Unconditional Grant and the Conditional Possession (v. 3-4)
Next, God reiterates the foundational promise of the land. This is the basis for all that follows.
"Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses... your territory." (Joshua 1:3-4 LSB)
Here we see a glorious tension that runs throughout Scripture. The land is an unconditional grant. In the eternal counsels of God, it is already given. "I have given it to you," God says, past tense. The deed is signed in heaven. But the possession of that land is conditional upon obedient faith. "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads." They will not possess one square inch of Canaan from a comfortable distance. They must get their feet dirty. They must march, they must fight, they must occupy.
This is the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. God has sovereignly decreed our inheritance in Christ. He has given us "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3). But we must, by faith, tread on those promises. We must actively possess our inheritance. We must put to death the sin that remains, we must take every thought captive, we must advance the gospel into enemy territory. The blessings are not delivered to us on a silver platter while we sit on the couch. God gives the victory, but we must fight the battle.
And the boundaries are vast, from the southern wilderness to Lebanon, from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean. This was the full extent of the land grant promised to Abraham. Israel never fully possessed all of it, because their obedience never fully matched God's generosity. This should be a sobering lesson for us. How much of our spiritual inheritance lies unclaimed because we are content to camp on the borders instead of marching into the heartland?
The Unwavering Presence (v. 5-6)
The task is immense, the enemies are giants, and Joshua is not Moses. God knows this. And so He gives Joshua the only assurance that ultimately matters.
"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. Be strong and courageous..." (Joshua 1:5-6 LSB)
The promise of victory is absolute: "No man will be able to stand before you." This is not based on Joshua's military genius or Israel's strength of arms. It is based entirely on the promise that follows: "Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you." The key to Moses' success was not his staff or his eloquence; it was the presence of Yahweh. And that same presence is now promised to Joshua. This is the great, central promise of the covenant. From Abraham to Jacob, from Moses to Joshua, from the disciples to the church today, the promise is "I will be with you."
This promise, "I will not fail you or forsake you," is quoted directly in Hebrews 13:5 as the basis for our contentment and freedom from the love of money. Why? Because if the sovereign God of the universe is with us and for us, then what can man do to us? What material loss can truly impoverish us? This is the bedrock of all Christian courage.
And because of this promise, God issues a command: "Be strong and courageous." This is not a suggestion. It is an imperative. Courage, for the believer, is not a feeling; it is an act of obedience. It is not the absence of fear; it is acting rightly in the face of fear, based on the promise of God's presence. God does not command us to do something without giving us the grace to do it. He commands courage because His presence is the fuel for courage.
The Unbending Standard (v. 7-8)
The promise of God's presence is not a blank check for Joshua to do whatever he wants. The presence of God is tethered to the Word of God. The power is channeled through the Book.
"Only be strong and very courageous to be careful to do according to all the law... This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night..." (Joshua 1:7-8 LSB)
Notice the repetition. "Be strong and courageous" again. But this time, the courage is tied directly to obedience to the law of God. The greatest courage required is not on the battlefield, but in the quiet, daily discipline of submitting every thought, word, and deed to the authority of Scripture. It takes more courage to obey God's law regarding money, sex, and power than it does to face a Canaanite army. The world, the flesh, and the devil are far more insidious enemies than a man with a spear.
The law is not to be trifled with. Joshua is not to turn from it "to the right or to the left." This is a call for radical, uncompromising, whole-souled obedience. There is no middle ground. And the result of this obedience is true success: "that you may be prosperous wherever you go." This is not the health-and-wealth gospel. This is the dominion gospel. When God's people walk in obedience to God's law, God blesses their endeavors. He causes their way to be successful, not for their own glory, but for the advancement of His kingdom.
And how is this obedience cultivated? Through constant meditation on the Word. "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night." The Hebrew word for meditate here, hagah, means to mutter, to speak in a low voice. It's the idea of constantly chewing on the Word, turning it over and over, speaking it to yourself until it becomes part of the very fabric of your mind. This is not some mystical, Eastern emptying of the mind. This is a rugged, disciplined filling of the mind with the truth of God. You are to eat the book. You are to breathe the book. You are to bleed the book. Success in the Christian life is a direct result of saturation in the Scriptures.
The Unmistakable Authority (v. 9)
God concludes His commission with a thunderous rhetorical question and a final, bracing command.
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be in dread or be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9 LSB)
"Have I not commanded you?" This is the end of all argument. The basis for Joshua's action is not his own feeling of adequacy, or the consensus of the people, or the strategic possibilities. The basis is a direct command from the sovereign of the universe. When God commands, the only proper response is "Yes, Lord." To hesitate is to rebel. To question is to call the character of God into question.
For the third time, the command comes: "Be strong and courageous!" And here it is contrasted with its opposites: "Do not be in dread or be dismayed." Dread is the fear of what might happen. Dismay is the terror of what is happening. God commands us to reject both. Why? For the same reason given before, now stated with the covenant name of God. "For Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go." He is not a distant deity. He is Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God. He is your God, in a personal, covenantal relationship. And His presence is not limited to the holy places. It is with you on the battlefield, in the marketplace, in the family, wherever you go in the path of obedience.
The Greater Joshua
This entire chapter is a magnificent portrait of leadership, obedience, and faith. But it is a portrait that points beyond itself. Joshua, whose name in Hebrew is Yehoshua, is the exact same name as Jesus, Yeshua. Joshua is a type of Christ. He is the one who leads God's people out of the wilderness and into their promised inheritance.
But the first Joshua could only secure a temporary, physical land by the sword. He could not deal with the ultimate enemy, which is sin and death. He could not give his people new hearts to obey God's law perfectly. His story, for all its glory, ends with the people failing to drive out all the inhabitants and eventually falling into idolatry and exile.
Our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the greater Joshua. He has crossed the ultimate Jordan, the river of death, and has risen on the other side in victory. He has conquered not just Canaanites, but sin, death, and the devil. He has secured for us an eternal inheritance, a heavenly country, a New Jerusalem (Heb. 11:16).
And He gives us the same commission. "Moses My servant is dead", the old covenant of law and ceremony is fulfilled and has passed away. "Now arise", go and make disciples of all nations. He has given us the grant: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Matt. 28:18). Now we are to go and possess it by faith, treading on the enemy's territory with the boots of the gospel. He has given us His unwavering presence: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matt. 28:20). He has given us His unbending standard, His completed Word, and the Holy Spirit to write it on our hearts.
Therefore, the command to us is the same as it was to Joshua. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and very courageous. Do not look at the giants in the land, the rampant paganism, the cultural decay, the political hostility. Do not be in dread or be dismayed. Look to your captain, the Lord Jesus. Meditate on His Word day and night. And arise. Go forward. The world is His promised inheritance, and He has promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His conquering church.