Comments on Joshua 1 v1-4 The Lord's commission to and endorsement of Joshua. This follows up on the closing words of Deut. 34:9-12 wherein we are informed Moses laid his hands upon Joshua and set him apart as the leader of Israel as he was commanded to do in Num. 27:18-22. The Lord tells Joshua his calling is to take the land of Canaan for Israel as was promised to Moses some 40 years earlier. This continuity in the Lord's plan indicates that a change in leader from Moses to Joshua results in no change whatsoever in the Lord's intentions. Thus, the real leader in Israel is the Lord, and not any one man. The prophet is simply the mouthpiece. Also note the way the Lord is emphatically endorsing everything Moses wrote and taught in these verses and the following v. 5-9. The Lord is making it perfectly clear that the commands He gave via Moses are not dependant upon Moses at all, and with Moses' passing does not come a change in the Law. The role of Prophet is not a social or political personality cult where with the death of the person the cult disintegrates. The Laws delivered by the Prophet are the Lord's and as the Lord is eternal the Laws are independent of the mortal who delivers them. Moses has died, but the Law is alive. v5-9 A personal admonition to Joshua. The Lord promises to support Joshua the same as he did Moses (cp. v. 5 "I will be with thee" with Exod. 3:12 "I will be with thee"), a promise with great potential but also sure to worry Joshua as he saw firsthand what Moses has been through over the past 40 years. Verses 7-9 then form an admonition anyone familiar with the Book of Mormon will pick up on. I'll arrange it structurally as a repeating A-B using the JPS to make it as transparent as possible: A - 7 But you must be very strong and resolute to observe faithfully all the Teaching that My servant Moses enjoined upon you. Do not deviate from it to the right or to the left, B - that you may be successful wherever you go. A - 8 Let not this Book of the Teaching cease from your lips, but recite it day and night, so that you may observe faithfully all that is written in it. B - Only then will you prosper in your undertakings and only then will you be successful. A - 9 "I charge you: Be strong and resolute; do not be terrified or dismayed, B - for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Which is very similar to the BofM adage typified by 1 Ne. 4:14: And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: A - Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, B - they shall prosper in the land of promise. Here we have very common covenant formula rhetoric, the epitome of which is Lev. 26 and Deut. 28. If you keep the Lord's sayings, He will bless you. If you do not, then He won't. v10-18 Joshua assumes command of Israel and tells them to prepare for going into Canaan. v11-15 recount Joshua's statements to the tribal leaders of Israel. v13 refers to the substance of Num. 32:1-27. v16-18 recount the tribal leader's response to Joshua's statement in v. 11-15. Note the irony of v. 17, just as they harkened to Moses, so will they harken to him. Well, Israel's track record of harkening to Moses wasn't very good, so Joshua at this point has got to be holding his head in his hands. We again have some interesting rhetorical structure at work: 16 And they answered Joshua, saying, A- All that thou commandest us we will do, and A - whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go. A - 17 According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, B - so will we hearken unto thee: C - only the LORD thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. A - 18 Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, B - and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death: C - only be strong and of a good courage. Note the conditional nature of the C lines, where they say they will support Joshua insomuch as he obeys the Lord. This seems reasonable to us, but recall that Moses laid his hands upon Joshua at the behest of the Lord in the eyes of all Israel. So, such a statement on their part is once again ironic (see 3:7 for the Lord's response to this level of support). However, we see later in ch. 7 that the death penalty is in fact invoked on those who violate Joshua's commands, so the oath here is taken seriously. Copyright © 2002 by S. Kurt Neumiller . All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form or by any means for commercial gain without the express written consent of the author. Digital or printed copies may be freely made and distributed for personal and public non-commercial use.