Joshua 1:8
I love the book of Joshua because of its emphasis on new beginnings. The Israelites had wasted forty years wandering around in the wilderness for their unbelief. Now under Joshua’s leadership, they are poised to lay claim to their inheritance. God had promised that the land was theirs, yet they had to exercise faith and possess it. The practical message of the book of Joshua is that Got keeps His promises and enables His people to succeed if they will trust Him and obey His Word.
In the opening verses of the book, the Lord promises to be with Joshua just as He had been with Moses. Joshua’s success was a matter of knowing and obeying God’s Word. Verse 8 says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua had to ‘meditate’ in it day and night. The word translated as ‘meditate’ means to mutter. It is the idea of filling the mind with God’s Word and rehearsing it throughout the day. Before we will ever obey God’s Word in the practical sense, it must first fill the mind and grip the soul. Joshua had to pour over God’s Word daily and make it a part of his inner person by carefully meditating on it.
Now, be sure that the ‘meditating’ that is commanded here is very different than the world’s understanding of the concept. Many people have an idea of meditation that empties the mind. That is not the way the word is used here. Rather than emptying our minds, biblical meditating means that we fill our minds with truth. To meditate on the truth means that we roll it over and over in our mind much in the same way that a cow chews its cud. Have you ever seen a cow just chewing away? Well, imagine chewing on God’s Word like that. It drives God’s Word down deep into the soul!
For more, read Psalm 1:1-6
