Joshua 1:8 “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
Up until this point there had been no Bible, because Moses wrote the first five books, so this is the first statement of what to do with the Bible as a written book. In Deuteronomy Moses said things like “the words of this law,” (Deuteronomy 31:12) and he did talk about how he had written it down, (Deuteronomy 28:58; 31:24-26) but Moses is now out of the picture. That gives extra weight to this verse, in my view. At this point the vast majority of the Israelites were illiterate, so that made it all the more important for the leadership to be fully versed in the Book of the Law, to be able to make decisions and act on the basis of it. The culture as a whole was largely oral, so it is significant that the Lord says, “Don’t let it depart from your mouth.” Just having it as a written book isn’t sufficient, and that’s something we urgently need to remember today. There are probably more Bibles than people in the US, but the vast majority just sit on shelves or in boxes, never read and certainly never acted on. What Joshua was to do with the Bible is expressed in English as “meditate,” but in Japanese it says, “continually recite.” The Japanese are noted for knowing a thing or two about meditation. If we’re just thinking about something, our thoughts are very likely to go out into left field in short order, to the point we can’t even remember what we were thinking about in the first place. Reciting Scripture while thinking about it helps us avoid that problem. It’s very important to note that we are to do so not for the sake of the words themselves, like some sort of magical spell, but so that we may do what they say. Only then will we have the success we desire. I couldn’t begin to count how many people I’ve dealt with who treated the Bible as a good luck charm, who wanted to have one but never opened it. That does no one any good.
I regularly participate with the Gideons in handing out Bibles outside of schools, and it is always with the prayer that the Bibles will be opened and read. It is ironic and sad that such Bible distribution is probably illegal in most if not all of the US at this point! The devil knows the power of the Word, and he strives to keep it out of people’s hands, because then they might read it, take it in, and give him the boot! As a pastor, I seek to encourage the believers to take in the Word and act on it, not just treating it as literature. I call my blog “Virtual Vitamins,” because though the Word isn’t physical (apart from the book it might be printed in) it is, if anything, even more essential to our spiritual health, our life even, than the nutritional elements that are so essential to our bodies. It is ironic to me that far more people read my blog, even getting it as email, than are in my physical congregation. I could get depressed dwelling on that! However, I need to be faithful to receive and apply the Word myself, and then express and share it however the Lord allows, leaving the results in His hands.
Father, thank You for Your Word and for the privilege of sharing it. Help me not miss any opportunity You provide to do so, by trying to dictate how things should happen. May I be faithful in Your sight, however the world looks at me, so that Your purposes may be accomplished in and through me for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!
