TEXT [Commentary]

I.   Israel’s Entrance into Canaan (1:1–6:27)

A.   God’s Commission; Joshua’s Acceptance (1:1-18)

1.   God’s promise to Joshua (1:1-5)

1 After the death of Moses the LORD’s servant, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant. He said, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them. 3 I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you—4 from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea[*] in the west, including all the land of the Hittites.’ 5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.

NOTES

1:1 After the death of Moses. The opening of the book of Joshua ties it firmly to the account of Moses’s death at the end of Deuteronomy (Deut 34), which it follows. Moses, who had led Israel out of Egypt and throughout the years in the wilderness, had died on Mount Nebo east of the Jordan. Now it was time to cross the Jordan and enter Canaan. The first order of business was to confirm Joshua as Moses’s successor.

1:2 Moses my servant is dead. This first short sentence is laden with finality: Moses was gone; he had fulfilled the tasks God had assigned to him; Israel had grieved for him the customary and respectful 30 days; Moses would not be back. Therefore, it was time for Joshua and Israel to rise up from their grief and enter into the land God was giving them. Even unconditional gifts must be received; Israel could receive the land only by going into it.

1:3 I promise you what I promised Moses. God took pains throughout this charge to assure Joshua that Moses’s death would not end God’s presence with Israel, nor God’s guidance of Israel’s leaders.

1:4 the Negev wilderness in the south. This is the area around Beersheba, stretching westward toward the Mediterranean and eastward toward the Dead Sea. “Negev” is not in the Hebrew text, but is a legitimate inference here, because the Negev was the southernmost region of settlement proper for ancient Israel. See also “The Negev” under “The Central Hill Country” in the Introduction.

Lebanon mountains. The northernmost of Israel’s tribes settled southern portions of these mountains, becoming neighbors of the Phoenicians. Joshua did not lead Israel as far as the Euphrates River, but later David and Solomon ruled some of the kings of those regions in a suzerain-vassal relationship.

1:5 No one will . . . stand against you. . . . I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you. This is a fantastic set of promises, and Joshua and Israel needed them. Moses, their father figure, was gone. They had very little confidence without him, either in themselves, or in God’s steadfastness now that the one who had talked with God face-to-face was no longer present to talk with God for them. The modern Christian believer must understand and act on these promises in the light of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. God promises to be with us, never to fail us or abandon us.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Finally, Israel was ready for the great adventure! Through awesome deliverance from Egyptian slavery (Exod 5–14), through nation-making at Sinai, through rebellious unbelief at the edge of the Land of Promise, through the death of an entire generation, God had led and borne with Israel. Now that Moses the great leader had died, Joshua assumed leadership as the people prepared to enter the land that their parents’ fears had kept them out of (Num 13–14). It was a new day with a new leader, as the new generation prepared to enter the new land. Bolstered by God’s presence, Israel knew that every good thing God had promised was about to happen!

These first six chapters, the first quarter of the book of Joshua, record ancient Israel’s actual setting foot into the land of Canaan for the first time and securing a foothold by the conquest of Jericho. God had promised Israel this entrance for several centuries, but the memory of the promise had grown dim in the generations of Egyptian servitude. Many of these people had come out of Egypt as children. They had waited 40 years for this entrance.

Entrances are important. The first time of doing something is an important milestone in the life of an individual or of a people. It is fitting that one-fourth of the book of Joshua is devoted to Israel’s entrance into the land God had promised their ancestors so long before.

Chapter 1, God’s charge to Joshua, introduces most of the themes of the book. God’s sovereignty and God’s initiative are highlighted. It was God who commanded Joshua to end 38 years of Israelite inactivity by leading the people across the Jordan to possess the land. The beginning of the charge to Joshua gives three promises: (1) all the land would be theirs; (2) no enemy would withstand them; (3) God would be with them and never forsake them.

We should not transfer this historical narrative in a material way when we consider whether it offers anything of promise for God’s people after Joshua. We cannot conclude that, because God promised all this to Joshua, God promises a Christian today one particular house, one particular spouse, or one particular position. The transfer of a specific promise in a particular ancient context to a particular modern context is risky, because the contexts usually are not really parallel. But we can make a legitimate transfer of promise or of principle from the specific context of the ancient situation to the general human context in all ages. God gives the Christian all the “land” of his/her experience, for an eternal inheritance. Even though the Christian may suffer reverses in this life, ultimately no enemy of the soul can stand before the one whose trust is in God. No Christian ever awoke to find that God had forsaken him or her.

The land of Israel was always more than a physical entity. If we err by “spiritualizing” the material or the temporal, we equally err by “unspiritualizing” them. God created the human race with one foot in the world of space, time, and matter, and the other foot in the eternal world. The spiritual creature is also the material creature; for this life, at least, our material destiny is an important part of our spiritual destiny. While we are here, the two really cannot be separated. The land as the promised rest for God’s people is also presented in this first chapter. What Israel had held in hope for many years was soon to become a reality. This theme continues to be important, as the New Testament writer to the Hebrews picks it up again (Heb 3:18–4:11) and enlarges on it for all God’s people.

Moses had been God’s chosen agent to bring Israel out of Egypt to Sinai, where God made a covenant with them. Moses had been Israel’s leader for 40 years, through rebellion, judgment, and repentance. Because of his own failure to give God glory for a miraculous provision of the people’s need at a crucial point, Moses was forbidden entry into the Land of Promise (Num 20:2-13). As the people of Israel were poised on the east side of the Jordan River, ready to cross and enter the land God had promised them, Moses was dead.

Joshua, Moses’s long-time aide, was Moses’s designated successor (Num 27:18) to the leadership of Israel. But Joshua as sole leader was new, his abilities unknown and untested. How did the people, and Joshua himself, know he would be a good leader? Would God be with Joshua, as he had been with Moses? Anxiety, even fear, would be natural reactions both for Joshua and for the people at this time. Joshua may have wondered what was to come next. God had brought Israel to the plain of Moab, across the Jordan River east of Jericho. God had said he was bringing them into the land he had promised Abraham to give to his descendants. But now Moses, through whom God had worked for 40 years, was dead. What was Joshua to do now?

God reassured Joshua, first, by making himself known to him. The first verse of this narrative identifies Moses as the servant of the Lord, and Joshua as Moses’s aide. Joshua had been Moses’s chief aide since Israel’s sojourn at Mount Sinai (Exod 24:13). The simple fact that God now spoke to Joshua as he had for years spoken to Moses was a sign that God had chosen Joshua to take Moses’s place of leadership and to bring Israel into the promised land of Canaan.

Verse 2 states “Moses my servant is dead”; the last verses of Deuteronomy record Israel’s 30 days of mourning for Moses. Thus, God’s opening statement was not an announcement of news, but a signal that now it was time for Joshua to assume active leadership over Israel and for Israel to get moving again. God’s next words emphasize the point: “the time has come.” Here the command is, “Arise, cross this Jordan” (1:2, NASB). This was the goal toward which God had been leading his people for 40 years. Now it was about to happen, and God was giving Joshua his final marching orders. Israel was on the east side of the Jordan River in the plain of the Jordan Rift Valley, just north of the Dead Sea. God intended them to cross the Jordan into Canaan proper, entering opposite Jericho, and from there to proceed with the conquest of the land.

God’s initiative in leading the people from Egypt to the land had been clear from the beginning, and now, as Joshua began his new role, God reminded him that this was his enterprise, not Joshua’s. Joshua was to take Israel into the land, but God would give it to the Israelites. Joshua could lead Israel with confidence, knowing that God had set him to this task.

The structure of verse 3 is important because of the way it assigns emphasis. It reads literally, “Every place which the sole of your foot shall tread in it, to you I have given it, just as I spoke to Moses.” The expression “every place” is first for emphasis. If Joshua walked there, it would belong to Israel. “To you” is first in its clause, again for emphasis. Finally, in case Joshua still didn’t understand the force of God’s declaration, God reminded Joshua that he had given Moses this same promise that Israel would enter and possess this land. God knew that Joshua needed reassurance at this time of great change. God’s willingness to reassure Joshua stands as testimony to God’s unfailing presence with his people always, in every situation.

God proceeded to remind Joshua of the borders of the land (1:4); God had described these borders previously to Moses (e.g., Exod 23:31). By the use of concrete geographical references, God reinforced in another way his commitment to fulfill his promise through Joshua’s leadership. Joshua would remember the land as God described its borders because he had walked through it before. About 38 years earlier, Joshua had been one of the 12 men sent to scout the land, preparing for the entry, which did not happen because of Israel’s unbelief (Num 13–14). Now Joshua would remember places and districts and the compass of the whole land, and his memory would help him believe that what God promised, God would deliver.

The desert refers generally to the deserts that formed the eastern and southern borders of the areas of Canaan that were already settled. This included the regions just traversed as Israel made their way from Kadesh, around Edom and Moab on the east, to their present camp east of the Jordan opposite Jericho.

Lebanon included the coastal mountain range north of upper Galilee—the land of the Phoenician cities, the inland Anti-Lebanon Mountains, and the valley between the two ranges. Since, as a geographical region, Lebanon extended in this period to the Euphrates River valley in the north, the Euphrates is mentioned here as Israel’s northern boundary. Israel never actually settled most of this northern territory, but did control it for a time under David and Solomon.

As for “the Great Sea” on the west (see 1:4, NLT mg), this is the Mediterranean. The borders of Israel thus would be the deserts to the south and the east, Lebanon to the north, and the Mediterranean to the west. Throughout its history, when Israel was in right relationship with God, these were its general boundaries.

This passage is God’s assurance to Joshua. In verse 5 God made a threefold, emphatic promise, with no frills, no qualifications, and no beating about the bush. Sometimes, God’s people need such to-the-point reassurance. God’s first promise was that Joshua did not need to fear that any enemy would be able to stand against him as he carried out the task to which God called him. Though the men of Ai did win a minor skirmish because of Achan’s sin (ch 7), Joshua was victorious in every other battle throughout his life, and died having won for Israel the right to settle in the land of Canaan.

That God had been with Moses throughout his 40 years of leading the people of Israel had been evident in many ways. God’s presence with Moses had encouraged, amazed, and sometimes frightened the people, but they always knew that God was with him. Joshua knew this better than any other person, for he had been with Moses on Mount Sinai when God gave him the tablets of the commandments (Exod 24:12-13). Joshua, more than any other person, had seen the effect on Moses of his close encounters with God. This second promise to Joshua, the promise of God’s continued presence with him, just as God had been with Moses, certainly encouraged Joshua tremendously.

The third promise God stated in a twofold manner, again for emphasis and for Joshua’s encouragement. “I will not fail you or abandon you” (1:5) was a personal restatement of a promise God had given to all Israel through Moses. On that same occasion Moses even had said the same thing to Joshua in front of all the people (Deut 31:6-8). Now God himself made the same promise to Joshua, using the personal pronoun “I.” If Joshua needed reassurance, he certainly had it!

Some writers and speakers on biblical matters have pondered when it is and is not proper for God’s people of today to claim promises like this for ourselves. This certainly is one promise for all God’s people through all time. Though given originally to Israel, all believers since then have become part of “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16, NLT mg). Though here given to Joshua, all God’s people are invited to walk with God throughout our lives. God promises all his children that he never will leave us nor forsake us. This was Jesus’ promise to his followers just before he ascended into heaven (Matt 28:20). The reality of this presence is evident in the fact that God has given his children the Holy Spirit of Jesus (John 14:15-17).