Joshua 1:9: courage as an order rather than a feeling
9Behold, I am instructing you. Be strengthened, and be steadfast. Do not dread, and do not fear. For the Lord your God is with you in all things, wherever you may go.”
The third time the same order appears in the chapter. The repetition says something about the state of the man receiving it.
Short answer
Joshua 1:9 is an order, not encouragement: be strengthened, be steadfast, do not dread, do not fear. The reason arrives at the end and does not depend on Joshua — the presence of God wherever he goes. It is the third time the same instruction appears in the chapter.
- Written by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 2 min read
The line turns up on graduation banners and in messages of encouragement, and that use is not wrong. What gets lost is the genre: this is a military order given to a newly appointed commander, not a wish of good luck.
The repetition is the most human detail in the chapter. Nobody says the same thing three times to someone who is already convinced.
Where this verse appears
Moses has died, and Joshua takes over the crossing of the Jordan with an entire people. The campaign ahead is the hardest thing he will ever do.
The same order appears in verses 6 and 7 before returning here, and by the close of the chapter the people hand it back to him. Between the second and third repetition the text inserts an instruction about keeping the book of the law continually in mind.
What it says
Courage arrives in the imperative, which only makes sense if it is not a feeling. Nobody can be ordered to feel something. What can be ordered is the behaviour of a person who is afraid.
The four instructions come in pairs, two positive and two negative. They describe the same thing from two angles, which is typical of commissioning language — the redundancy is deliberate.
The closing reason is the only part that does not depend on Joshua. He does not have to generate courage out of himself; the ground offered is a presence, and this edition extends it twice over — in all things, and wherever he may go.
What to do with it today
If you are facing something you are afraid of, the verse does not ask the fear to pass first. It asks for the step. That is why it works better read in the morning, before the hard thing, than at night after it.
The structure of the chapter is worth copying. Between the second and third repetition sits the instruction to keep the text in mouth and mind — so the courage commanded there comes with a reading practice attached, not with willpower alone.
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, I am not feeling brave, and you did not ask me to be. Make me take today’s step, counting on your presence wherever I go. Amen.