From the Book of Joshua, Chapter 1
"From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. (v4) Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to 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. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success" (vv7-8)
God gave Israel 300,000 square miles of land and the most they ever claimed was 30,000 square miles. They did not do very well, did they? They took possession of about one-tenth of what God had given them. That is about the same amount of spiritual possessions claimed by believers today.
Joshua, average man that he was, needed to be encouraged. God encouraged him in a most wonderful way. God said, "I won't desert you. Just as I was with Moses, I'll be with you" (read verse 5).
Now notice something which is most important in verse 8: "This book of the law . . ." There were no written Scriptures before Moses, and God communicated to Moses by speaking with him face to face. But Moses had faithfully recorded all that God had given to him so that the first five books of the Bible were available to Joshua and the people of Israel. In it God had given them all they needed to know to enter the land. They were not to depart from it. They were to meditate on it and observe to do it.
In studying Chapter 1 of Joshua, it brought to my mind how people today are looking for success. They want to be successful in everything that they do. I'm not saying this is not good, but the word success is only mentioned one time throughout the entire Bible ~ here in Joshua 1:8. Now, this led me to looking up the Hebrew definition to this word. Most people would define success as "I did it!" or "I made it to the top" or "I have achieved!" and so on. But success in Hebrew means "to be careful with knowledge, knowing which way to go." Think about that for a second. Now let us go on to "shall not depart . . ." Depart: to touch or handle in Hebrew. And meditate: give study to in pleasure even to mourn. Then observe: to hedge about with thorns (meaning to guard or protect). Verse 8 is very very interesting. It says much more than we realize. God is telling us how we can have success in our lives also. But first we must take hold of our Bibles and handle them, let them speak to us through the Word of God; study in pleasure even to mourn (I must also add, if you took out a novel with a sad ending, would you not cry over it?); guard and protect God's Word, doing all according to all that is written in it, and then "thou shalt have good success!" All that we have belongs to God anyway, so why not try it God's way Christians?
God bless you as you study God's Word seeking His will for your life and the success He has in store for you.
Love in Christ Jesus, Sandy |
