Joshua 1 chiasm

We've started reading through Joshua in our fortnightly pastors' meetings. There's a fascinating chiasm in the second paragraph:

Having success in following Yhwh is only possible when Joshua is bound to the book of the law, both for himself as well as for his people. Being bound to the book looks like following them obediently, meditating in it, and doing all that is written in it. Success in taking the land and occupying it (inheriting, ירשׁ, ch2) is the promise which is predicated on this obedience.

There is also some beautiful symmetry in the two sets of negative commands: "I will not desert you and I will not leave you (v5)" is matched with "do not be afraid, do not be discouraged (v9)." And of course Yhwh will not leave you, because, in the first and last clauses, Yhwh has promised that he will be with Joshua, as he was with Moses, wherever he should walk.


Also of note is the command to "be strong and courageous," which occurs above as spoken by Yhwh to Joshua (3x), but also occurs as the last two words of the chapter. However, when they occur at the end of the chapter it is not Yhwh speaking but the tribes to the east of the Jordan, and not quite as a condition of following Joshua, but as a hope and a blessing.

What we have then is a command from above and below, Joshua being commissioned both by his God and by his people, to be strong and courageous in what he does and how he does it.


Perhaps finally it is worth restating the original context: this is not a promise for physical prosperity to all people at all times. It is a promise to Joshua for success in occupying the promised land, and for Yhwh to be with him to grant him success in so doing. I'm not saying you should send back your coffee cups with "be strong and courageous," just to say that being strong and courageous and gaining success and prosperity have very specific referents in this descriptive, not prescriptive, passage. That is all.