Joshua 1:2
Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.
The commission is spoken by God Himself as the unseen Commander of Israel's armies, who veiled His glory by appearing as a man so that Israel would not be destroyed. After the death of Moses the government of Israel was placed in Joshua's hands, and as God's servant he was given a special work carrying great honor and responsibility. The verse transfers to Joshua in a marked manner the instruction first given to Moses, sending him with all the people to cross the Jordan into the land God gives to the children of Israel.
The verse ends Moses' leadership and appoints Joshua as the acknowledged, divinely chosen leader to arise with all the people, go over the Jordan, and conduct Israel's armies into the promised land. That promised land is God's gift to Israel, and Joshua's commission was to bring them into it and to lead them across the Jordan into it. At the time Israel was still encamped on the east side of the Jordan, and the river stood as the first barrier to occupying Canaan. The command gave no instruction about how the crossing was to be made. Joshua knew that whatever God commands, God will make a way for His people to perform, and in that faith he at once began arrangements for the advance.
Joshua was prepared for this leadership because he had served Moses, witnessed God's works, understood the people, and as one of the faithful spies, with Caleb, had urged Israel to enter the land in reliance on God and on God's strength. His fitness to succeed Moses had been shown in the wilderness by quiet, unpretending fidelity, steadfastness when others wavered, and firmness to maintain the truth in danger. His character fitted this stage of his people's history, known chiefly as a warrior, courageous, resolute, persevering, prompt, incorruptible, unmindful of selfish interests in caring for those committed to his charge, and above all inspired by living faith in God.
God promised to be with Joshua as He had been with Moses and to make the conquest easy and give him Canaan if he faithfully kept God's commandments and obeyed the divine requirements. This assurance of guidance and support quieted his fear about carrying out the commission. The passage shows God's appointment of Moses to lead and of Joshua to connect with Moses in the work for God's people, and the work of acting as Joshua for God's people can only be given by God Himself with instruction and light, and cannot be taken by a man's own claim. The words do not put one living person in the place of Moses and another living person in the place of Joshua to carry the work forward together and proclaim the truth with power, and to join them with other strong Scriptures to claim that succession, to denounce persons and things, and to declare that to refuse the claim is to reject God and fix destiny for eternity is to wrest and misapply Scripture.