The Inerrant Command That Steadied a General's Knees

When Moses died on Mount Nebo, Joshua inherited not a throne but a trembling nation camped on the eastern bank of the Jordan. Ahead lay fortified Canaanite cities, iron chariots, and giant clans the previous generation had refused to face. Joshua had every human reason to be paralyzed by fear. Yet God did not offer him a motivational speech or a vague spiritual impression. He gave him a propositional command, recorded verbatim in the inspired text: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9).

Notice the grammar of divine authority. This is not a suggestion but an imperative, grounded in the very character of Yahweh. God does not say "try to feel brave." He commands courage because He has already declared the outcome. The land promise given to Abraham in Genesis 15 was as certain as the God who spoke it. Joshua's courage was not psychological self-talk; it was a rational response to an inerrant word from an omnipotent God.

B.B. Warfield once argued that Scripture's authority rests not on our experience of it but on its divine origin. Joshua modeled exactly this. He did not wait until he felt courageous. He obeyed the command because the One who issued it cannot lie.

When fear grips your heart, do not look inward for strength. Open the unchanging, infallible Word of God, read what He has commanded, and obey. Courage is not the absence of fear but the presence of an unbreakable promise from the God who cannot err.