Strength and Courage

Four times in the first chapter (vss. 6-7, 9 and 18) Joshua is told to be strong and of a good courage, or to be strong and courageous. It is connected always with obedience. In verse 7 God adds: "That thou mayest Observe to do according all the law, which Moses My servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest," The point for believers is that we cannot be either strong or courageous in spiritual things in our own strength. We need to learn that we are feeble failures and that all our strength and encouragement is in God our Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. But to see such strength in action, we need to be obedient to the Word of God. "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only" (fatties 1:22).