Do God's Word

No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.  Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them.  Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go.  This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful.  I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:5-9

Can you recall a moment when you felt wonder, delight, joy beyond words simply because you were freely able to hold a Bible and commune with God through His holy word?  I am in awe that almighty God would go to the trouble of inspiring so many authors to record His holy word so that we might know Him, and by knowing Him, gain the best possible life.  He loves us.  We are His creation into whom He breathes the breath of life.  Through Jesus Christ, He offers the way to Him, He offers life abundant, and through His holy word He explains how to live our best possible life. 

In the passage above God explains what Joshua needs to do to be successful.  Then, in the next breath, God repeats the message.  In essence He says, do God’s holy word and you will be successful, which means living your best possible life.

As I hold His holy word in my hand I am filled with delight and awe.  As I open His holy word, I pray that He opens my heart to understand Him through it, and as I read, I seek Him, desire Him, need Him all the more, and as my love for Him grows I desire to please Him.  God expects us to do His holy word because this leads us to our best life.  Doing His holy word requires us to first know it, but we should not do so out of a sense of obligation or a desire to earn His favor (we can never earn His holy grace, we must merely receive it) rather, out of love – simply because we desire to please the ones we love.  Praying and studying His holy word is not another responsibility or obligation piled on an already crowded to-do list.  They are our passion, our desire, our delight and our incredible privilege.

In the passage above, God urges Joshua to know God’s holy word, to keep it on his lips, and to meditate on it always, so that he will do it.  Then He explains why.  God urges Joshua to do God’s holy word because that is the key to living a good life.  This is not an isolated directive.  Knowledge must be combined with action.  Here are a few examples.

Jesus explains that people who love Him know and do His holy word saying, 

They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”  John 14:21

So loving Jesus equates to knowing and doing His holy word.  Similarly, the prophet Micah tells us that God expects us to do His holy word saying,

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  Micah 6:8

God calls us to love Him with everything we are and everything we have, and He calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and He calls us to demonstrate our love through action, through our lives.  

Similar to His message to Joshua, through Moses God urges us to keep His holy word fresh in our minds and to live our lives in such a way that our children grow in faith saying,

 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.  Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.  Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.  Deuteronomy 6:4-9

God loves us and He wants the best for us, and in the passage first set forth above, He gives the key to living our best possible life.  Let’s look at the passage a little further.  Sometime after Moses’ death, the Lord speaks to Joshua promising His power and protection as He grants His people possession of the Promised Land.  God promises “no one shall be able to stand against you,” and He instructs Joshua to “be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you … so that you may be successful wherever you go” (Joshua 1:7).  God gives Joshua the secret to success:  be strong, be courageous, and act the way God instructs you to act.

While God’s statement in verse 7 is very clear and direct, and it would be impossible to act in accordance with God’s holy word without first knowing God’s holy word, God adds a somewhat repetitive instruction saying, “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful” (Joshua 1:8). 

True strength and true courage come from our certainty that God’s promises are true.  True strength and courage flow out of faith and faith comes from the word of God (see Romans 10:17), and it is impossible to do God’s holy word without first knowing it.  

When God spoke to Joshua saying the words first written above, Joshua had been wandering in the wilderness for his entire life.  They carried all their belongings with them everyplace they went.  They ate manna and quail, and God provided for them every day and they trusted that God would continue providing for them each day they were blessed to have.  As God speaks to Joshua, they were preparing to enter the Promised Land.  They would soon be surrounded with material abundance, and God discusses the good life in terms of prosperity and success.  Prosperity means thriving in a good life.  Success means accomplishing good things.  

At verse 8 God promises that if Joshua (i) keeps God’s holy word in his mouth, meaning he keeps it in the front of his consciousness, (ii) meditates on God’s holy word all the time, meaning he contemplates it deeply and prayerfully, and (iii) acts in accordance with God’s holy word or does God’s holy word, then his way will be prosperous and be successful.  The key to a good life really boils down to doing God’s holy word.

Jesus says,

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”  Matthew 5:17

And so He did.  May you breathe Him in.  May you connect with Him in a new and refreshed way through His holy word, through prayer and through His Holy Spirit dwelling within you.  Amen.