Anyone who has ever had to step into the shoes of someone admired and irreplaceable knows the weight that rested on Joshua’s shoulders. Replacing Moses, the man who had spoken with God face to face and parted the sea, was no task for the faint of heart.
Joshua first appears as Israel’s general against the Amalekites, still in the wilderness (Exodus 17:8-13). Shortly after, he was one of the twelve spies sent into Canaan: he and Caleb were the only ones who trusted God’s report instead of the majority’s fear of the giants in the land (Numbers 13:1-2; 14:6-9).
For decades, Joshua served as Moses’ assistant, entering the tent of meeting with him (Exodus 33:11). When the time came, God himself commanded Moses to commission him before the whole people, transferring the leadership of Israel (Numbers 27:18-23).
At the start of his command, God repeated the same order to Joshua three times: be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:6-9). He crossed the Jordan on dry ground, watched the walls of Jericho fall at the sound of the trumpets, and conquered city after city.
But the conquest was not without setbacks. Achan’s hidden greed cost Israel a humiliating defeat at Ai (Joshua 7), and a treaty made by deception with the Gibeonites tied the people to allies they should have avoided (Joshua 9). Joshua led men, not angels.
Near the end of his life, now old, Joshua gathered the people at Shechem and challenged each family to decide, right there, whom they would serve: the ancient gods or the Lord who had freed them (Joshua 24:14-15). He declared that his own household would serve the Lord, and he died at a hundred and ten years old, having seen every tribe already settled in its inheritance (Joshua 24:29).
Joshua’s life shows that God fulfills ancient promises through ordinary people who obey one step at a time. It was not Joshua’s military genius that brought down Jericho, it was obedience to instructions that seemed to make no sense.
Anyone who inherits today a mission bigger than themselves, a family, a church, a calling, can hear the same word that sustained Joshua: be strong and courageous, for the Lord is with you wherever you go.