Joshua 1 & 2: Be Strong
Verse of the Day: (1:6) Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. 

1. Strong (1:1-18)
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. (1:7)

Why did God keep encouraging Joshua, the successor of Moses, the leader of Israel, to be strong and courageous? It was because Joshua knew that what he was about to do for God was impossible in the human mind. He was to lead Israel to cross the river Jordan and fight the enemies on the other side so as to possess God’s Promised Land. Without boats how could Israel cross the river Jordan? Without swords, spears, shields and armours how could Israel fight the enemies and possess the Land? Yet God encouraged and enabled Joshua that He shall be with him and Israel, and He shall open the river Jordan, just like He had opened the Red Sea for Moses. Indeed God fought for Israel, and they managed to overcome their enemies and possessed the Promised Land. The only thing that Joshua and Israel did was to trust and obey God and His commandments. Indeed, let us trust and obey God, and be strong and courageous, and believe that God is able to help us overcome our struggles and storms, just like He did for the nation of Israel. (Psalms 46)
  
2. Spy (2:1-8)
And Joshua the son of Nun sent out Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there. (2:1)

Moses and Joshua failed to trust God when they sent out spies to their enemy’s territories. When God promises, He shall deliver, yet man fails to believe in Him. Just like Moses, Joshua send spies to Jericho to assess how great their walls and army were. Though he failed God, yet God still protected his spies, and used Rahab, a prostitute, to help the spies escaped, when the king of Jericho discovered that Israel had sent out spies to infiltrate their land. Though Rahab was an immoral woman, yet when she repented of her sins, and believed in the God of Israel, God used her to delivering the spies. Let us repent of our sins, and God is always faithful to forgive us our sins and to bless us. (1 John 1:9)

3. Save (2:9-24)
And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. (2:13)

As a result of Rahab delivering the spies out of Jericho, and her request to the spies, God delivered her and her entire extended family when Israel defeated Jericho. (Joshua 6:25)

Prayer of the Day:
Dearest God, please help me to be strong even as I go through life’s hardest trial.