Joshua 1:6
Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.
The verse is God's charge to Joshua to succeed Moses, to lead Israel into Canaan, the promised land, and to divide it among the people for their inheritance in fulfillment of the oath sworn to their fathers. It was spoken when he looked ahead to his work with great anxiety and self-distrust, and it removed his fears. The call to be strong and of good courage was given in light of that responsibility and promise. It was joined to the assurance that God would be with him as He had been with Moses, that He would not fail him nor forsake him, and that every place the soles of their feet should tread was given to them.
The inheritance so promised embraced all the promised territory, from the heights of Lebanon to the shores of the Great Sea and eastward to the banks of the Euphrates. Strength and courage in the command meant relying on God as guide rather than on human wisdom. It meant leading the people in faithful obedience to God's commandments as they prepared to enter the land, and with such obedience Canaan would be an easy conquest.
Such courage was needed amid dangers and powerful influences against righteousness. Courage and strength are needed to fight successfully. Although people are weak and feeble, those who wait on the Lord receive renewed strength. The verse gives a message of strength and courage to workers facing perplexity and heavy burdens, who are to be encouraged through words of interest, sympathy, and prayer.
Such an appointment as Joshua's comes only by God's own instruction to those He appoints. It has not given H. T. Nelson the work of acting as Joshua in connection with His people alongside one acting as Moses, and that application is impossible. It does not place one present-day leader in the position of Moses and another present-day man in the position of Joshua to carry the work forward united together and to proclaim the truth with power to Seventh-day Adventists. Taking this command with other Scriptures of great force and arranging them to apply to the people of God, to denounce persons and things, and to require reception as the message of God on pain of deciding destiny for eternity, is wresting the Scriptures, making them mean what they do not mean, and misinterpreting and misapplying God's Word according to human ideas.