TRUE SUCCES IS IMPOSSIBLE APART FROM GOD
In a world heck bent on a grossly misunderstand misdirected understanding of what ‘SUCCESS” truly is, God tells us clearly in Joshua 1 what success is, and how to achieve it. That being said, I want to make clear that our personal “motivation” is essential in achieving true success. If our true motivation is selfish and self-centered, we ought not expect God to bless our efforts. If we seek God’s idea of success in His will, we will achieve His will, and experience true success at a much greater level than we ever dreamed of. Let’s start by looking at the Book of Joshua, chapter one.
In the Book of Joshua, God commands you and i to be a number of things I will discuss today and make some observations that lead up to showing us what exactly success is and how to achieve it. I want to focus on and mine down to verse nine as a start point. Let’s read that now:
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9).
Before we mine down, it’s important for us to understand the proper context of what God is saying and doing in verse nine. In Verse nine, God is reiterating vs. six which I will discuss further. As such, let’s look at this verse in greater depth and rewind the verse and to the entire section for proper context with the goal understanding true success for your and my life today.
1) In my first observation, notice that God opens by asking the rhetorical question: “Have I not commanded you? My mother would do this to me as a young man in reminding me twice or even three times very directly to do something, or to keep something at the forefront of my mind because it was very important. God is reiterating through Joshua in verse 6 which says, “”Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to your fathers to give them.” Here God directly commands Joshua to “be strong and courageous”, The idea of strong does not necessarily mean physically strong-though for warfare, that would not hurt. The root idea is “holding firmly” to something, It means “to be be in firm control of one’s faculties”-far from the absence of fear, courage holds the energy of fear under control and channels it towards positive ends. In this case, Joshua would be asked to muster the courage and obedience to take the land and apportion or distribute the land according to God’s command. This plays into the big picture.
2) In my second observation, we can see that God is commands are not just rules, but always carry the idea of trusting that God has so much more for us than we can imagine if we will only be obedient to Him, and not be afraid to walk in his will and ways for our life. Here, this is made clear in that Joshua was motivated by the land promise God gave him, the promise of success, and the promise of God’s presence in the land and upon his own life and endeavors. In application for your life and mine, we can see that if we seek God and are obedient to him, that we can be motives in our success by a supernatural payoff according to God’s provision, blessing and plan. Sadly, too many people have achieved worldly success at the expense of forfeiting true success, joy, happiness and fulfillment. This doesn’t mean that God won’t use your business or ministry efforts-only that it is God that fits us into His plans and we who fit God into our plans. The latter entails justifying our desire to make God’s will fit our desires, goals and fleshly motivations.
3) In my third observation I noticed that the success of Joshua’s mission is contingent upon his personal obedience to the Law of God. While this may seem legalistic, let’s keep in mind that it is we who move to God and not God who moves to you and I. God makes clear to Joshua here that if he is to remain laser focussed, not turning to the left or right, but keeps laser focussed on God through His Word and through “meditation” that success in all God promised him would be fulfilled. This command was absolutely necessary for God’s blessing of Joshua and his success. Let me reiterate again that in verse 8, God is clear that the success of Joshua’s mission would lie in his “personal” obedience to the “law”. What this means is that Joshua is not just to skim over or quickly read God’s Word. Joshua is to “Meditate”, which means to “Ponder”, to “Muse” on God’s Word and His law. To mediate and ponder or muse meant to half-aloud read and reread the Word as illustrated in Psalm 1:2) “…but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night”).
4) My fourth and final observation is a simple but important one in that the “Law” was already “written” by and at the time of Joshua’s interaction with God in Joshua chapter one. Furthermore, the Law was held to be “authoritative” and established by this time. This is important because it puts the entire passage and command into proper context in that Joshua’s marching orders were God’s reiteration based on His established law and not evolutionary.
In conclusion, Joshua chapter one verses two through nine in whole is God’s speech encouraging Joshua to move forward with God’s mission for Joshua and the establishment of the Israelite landscape. I would like to leave you with one final, encouraging observation. It’s important that we see and understand that this speech by God to Joshua has is encouraging, warmhearted and tender. God here is assuring Joshua of His care, protection, and presence, urging him to obey His Law. It is a model for you and I of God graciously encouraging His servants. As such, it’s exhortations are still of value to you and I today in application in that “true success in life cannot occur apart from knowing I and doing the will of God”
