Joshua 1 · a question people ask
"Then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success" (1:8). Is this a promise that I will succeed?
The verse ties the success to what comes before it: "that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it; for then…" (1:8). The verse before says the same: "Don’t turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go" (1:7). Here it is spoken to Joshua, with a task: "go across this Jordan" (1:2), "you shall cause this people to inherit the land" (1:6). The word behind prosperous (tap it) shows what it can look like. Genesis uses it of Joseph as a slave, "The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man" (Genesis 39:2), and in prison, "because the LORD was with him; and that which he did, the LORD made it prosper" (Genesis 39:23). And Psalm 1 speaks of anyone whose "delight is in the LORD’s law. On his law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:2): "Whatever he does shall prosper" (Psalm 1:3). The chapter doesn't say what the success will look like beyond Joshua's task. It says where it comes from: keeping the book, and "the LORD your God is with you wherever you go" (1:9).
The verses
““Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go across this Jordan, you and all these people, to the land which I am giving to them, even to the children of Israel.”
““Be strong and courageous; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.”
“The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. He was in the house of his master the Egyptian.”
“The keeper of the prison didn’t look after anything that was under his hand, because the LORD was with him; and that which he did, the LORD made it prosper.”