1: Recipe for Success (Joshua 1) – Teaching Outline

Introduction: Would you like to be successful? You know, of course, that book stores and the Internet have all sorts of “How to” instructions? How to be happy. How to be content. How to be more efficient. How to get rich. How to lose weight. How to buy land with no money down. Of all the books to consult, why not first look to God and what He says in the Bible? Our lessons this new quarter continue from the journey we have taken in Exodus with the Hebrews and Moses to the land God promised Abraham. Moses has now died, and our lesson this week tells Moses’ successor, Joshua, how he can be a successful leader for God. It is a powerful lesson for personal and evangelistic success. So let’s plunge into our study of the Bible!

I. The New Leader

A. Read Joshua 1:1-2. How would you react to such a commission from God? (It is like God telling you that you will be the head of your country to lead the people to a new land. What could be more challenging?)

What is the cause for new leadership? (Moses died.)
What is Joshua told to do first? (Cross the Jordan river.)

a. What is the significance of this after their forty-year experience in the wilderness? (They are finally going home.)

B. Read Joshua 1:3-4. What does God promise Joshua that is an extension of His promise to Moses? (Wherever Joshua walks, God’s people will own that property.)

As you consider verse 4, what land is Joshua told is open to his conquest? (The land bordered by the Mediterranean on the west, the Euphrates river to the east, the Lebanon mountains to the north, and the wilderness to the south. This would, at a minimum, include all of modern Israel, the Palestinian territories (West Bank/Gaza), Lebanon, western Jordan, and southwestern Syria.)

C. Read Joshua 1:5. What promise does God make about this vast property option? (That if they move forward to defeat the current occupants, none of them will be able to defeat Joshua and the Hebrews.)

One commentator explains that the area described is about 300,000 square miles (777,000 square kilometers). The most that Israel ever claimed was about 30,000 square miles (77,000 square kilometers). What is the first lesson for success that you can draw from this? (We need to trust God for much more than we think we can achieve.)

II. Reaching Your Goals

A. Read Joshua 1:6. How important is Joshua to taking the promised land? (God says, “You shall cause the people to inherit the land.”)

When we studied Exodus, over and over again we read the lesson that God is the power to whom we should turn. How do you understand that Joshua “causes” the conquest? (God is in a partnership with us. We have an essential role in accomplishing the will of God on earth.)
What are the essential qualities for Joshua’s success? (To be “strong and very courageous.”)

B. Read Joshua 1:7-9. In these verses two additional times God instructs Joshua to be “strong and courageous.” Is that essential advice for us? (The week I wrote this lesson I watched an amazing evangelistic service of the kind I doubt will ever be repeated in my lifetime. Charlie Kirk, a political activist who was also a Christian evangelist, was assassinated. Charlie was “strong and very courageous.” At his memorial service I was astonished that several of the most powerful political figures in my country shared the gospel of Jesus! I read that 100 million streamed the Kirk memorial on the Internet.)

C. Look again at Joshua 1:7. What is the required companion to being strong and courageous? (Obeying God.)

When God commands Joshua not to turn from obedience “to the right hand or the left” what does that mean? (The law of God is our centering point. This is where my old friend Deuteronomy 4:1-2 comes in. We must not instruct others to do things God has not commanded, and we must not teach others that they can violate God’s commands.)

D. Look again at Joshua 1:8. What keeps us centered? (A constant consideration of God’s law.)

You might say, “I have a job. How can I be thinking about God’s law all the time?” (You make decisions all day. As you make decisions you should ask what is God’s direction on those decisions?)

E. Did you notice that both Joshua 1:7 and Joshua 1:8 promise that the result of courageous, centered, Bible-based decision making is “good success.” Do you want to be successful in life? This is the formula!

F. Read Romans 2:9-11. What additional blessing is promised to those who obey God? (Not just success (glory and honor), but also “peace.”)

Would you like more peace in your life?
How can it say, “God shows no partiality?” Didn’t it just say God chooses winners and losers? (Paul is talking about race. God does not choose winners and losers based on race, He chooses them based on whether you promote good or evil. You can be sure that those who connect goodness or evil with a specific race are promoting evil.)

3. Let’s have a reality check. Joshua and the people faced years of battle. How can that constitute peace? (Peace is not what is going on outside us, it is what is going on inside of us. We must have a courageous confidence that God is with us as promised in Joshua 1:9.)

III. Gad and the Crossing

A. Read Joshua 1:10-11. What critical thing is Joshua doing in response to God’s instructions to him? (He is following through. He is acting on what God told him to do.

B. Read Joshua 1:12-14. This seems very odd. Why are these two and a half tribes not crossing over Jordan into the promised land? (Recall the territory that God promised Joshua that he could conquer? The Jordan river is well west of the Euphrates river. This is area promised to God’s people. And note that Joshua says that Moses approved them living on the east side of the Jordan.)

C. Read Numbers 32:20-22 and Joshua 1:16-18. What have Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh promised? (The warriors will cross over the Jordan and help secure the land promised to all the other tribes.)

D. Read Joshua 4:12-13. Did they keep their promise to Moses, Joshua, and the rest of the tribes? (Read Joshua 22:1-4. They kept their promise!)

E. Read Joshua 22:9. This tells us that God permitted them to stay in Gilead as opposed to Canaan. Why would they not want to cross over the Jordan to be with the rest of the tribes? (Read Numbers 32:1-2. The land east of the Jordan had great grazing land and these tribes had a large number of livestock.)

F. Read Joshua 22:10-12. How easy is it to have misunderstandings among church members? Is being on the other side of the Jordan a contributing cause for mistrust? (Read Joshua 22:19. Being on the other side created mistrust.)

G. Read Joshua 22:15–16 and Joshua 22:21-23 and Joshua 22:24-27. Why did the two and a half tribes build this giant altar? (It was to dispel the idea that being on the other side of the Jordan meant that they were not followers of the true God.)

What lessons for success in our church today do we find in this story in which the tribes almost went to war over a concern about obedience to God? (Both sides were concerned about obeying God. They mistrusted the other side to do the right thing. But talking it over instead of going to war resolved the conflict.)
Did either side compromise on the issue of obedience? (No one compromised.)
Is Deuteronomy 4:1-2 part of the solution here? (Yes. The Jordan divide was not a deviation from the words of God. Both sides were concerned about a matter of free-choice, not a matter of sin.)

H. Friend, would you like to do great things for God? Would you like to conquer territory held by demonic forces and their allies? Would you like to create a new and powerful force among humans that is devoted to God? Then go forward. Be strong and very courageous. Be obedient and do not turn to the right or the left. With God that is possible!

IV. Next week: Surprised by Grace.

Copr. 2025, Bruce N. Cameron, J.D. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Suggested answers are found within parentheses. If you normally receive this lesson by e-mail, but it is lost one week, you can find it by clicking on this link: http://www.GoBible.org. Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as you study.