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We can find courage in the truth that God keeps His promises.
1 After the death of Moses the Lord’s servant,
the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’s assistant:2 “Moses my servant is dead.
Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan
to the land I am giving the Israelites.
3 I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads,
just as I promised Moses.
4 Your territory will be from the wilderness and Lebanon
to the great river, the Euphrates River-
all the land of the Hittites-and west to the Mediterranean Sea.
5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live.
I will be with you, just as I was with Moses.
I will not leave you or abandon you.”
Moses had not been allowed to enter the promised land because of his sin.
Deuteronomy 34:1-8 records Moses’s death.
Moses had lead Israel for forty years, and during that time Moses and Joshua became close.
For instance, in Numbers 13:16,
Moses changed Joshua’s name from Hoshea meaning “deliverance” to the name Joshua which means “Yahweh saves.”
In the Greek traditions of the Old Testament, it is the same name as Jesus in the New Testament.
Joshua’s name foreshadows how the Lord Himself
would deliver the Israelites from their enemies. .The Israelites mourned Moses’s death for thirty days east of the Jordan River in the plains of Moab.
After that, it was time for Joshua and the people
to prepare to cross over the Jordan and enter Canaan. (PSG, p. 12).
God had promised a home for His people in the days of Abraham.
Joshua’s first order of business, as the new leader of the Israelites,
was to get them ready to move into the promised land.
Emphasize God’s faithfulness in keeping His promises to His people.
God’s promise of land also included the promise of His presence with Joshua and the Israelites.