Life's Soundtrack
Moses had just died, and Joshua was called by God to lead His people into the Promised Land. With such an arduous task at hand, the Lord gave Joshua this encouragement for his leadership.
The Lord said to Joshua, “This Book of the Law (Bible) shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8).
We need to be careful to recognize that this command was specifically for Joshua. God is not promising us success in everything we do, or prosperity in all things from this text. The context is an address from God to Joshua, so we must honor that context and realize that this is not a promise to us.
However, there is certainly a principle here that is established all throughout Scripture. God commanded Joshua in his leadership to do two things. One, don’t let the Bible depart from your mouth. How shall Joshua achieve that? Two, by meditating on God’s word day and night, or continually, all the time.
The Hebrew word for “meditate,” means dull noise. Meditation on God’s word is like playing the words of Scripture as a faint background noise all day long. Meaning, the Bible is to permeate all things in our lives, it is to be playing, like a movie score, all day, throughout all our lives, impacting all of our attitudes, actions, and thoughts.
There is a greater purpose to God’s word being the soundtrack to our lives. God says to Joshua, “So that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” Obedience to God is the intended result of meditation that plays the faint background noise to all things in our lives.
When obedience happens, we move in-line with God’s desired will and purposes for our lives, and in obedience we will find prosperity and success in his will.
Notice that I did not say that we are promised prosperity and success in everything. We will find prosperity and success in his will. Meaning, when we obey because we are constantly meditating on God’s Word, he brings to fruition the success of his desired will for your life.
So, though we are not promised the specific success of Joshua, there is a principle here that applies to all of us. Meditation on God’s word makes his truths the background noise to all things in our lives, thus increasing our obedience, which is likely to cause us the joy of success and prosperity in God’s desired will for your life.
And who doesn’t want God’s will fulfilled in their lives? So to achieve this joyful success, we must meditate on God’s word day and night. Is that a commitment you are willing to make?