JOSHUA 1: PROSPERITY AND SUCCESS, HOW TO…
If you have been following my Breadcrumbs since the beginning of the year, you will have noticed that in January and February I covered the unfolding drama in the first 5 books of the Creator God’s epic storyline in HIStory. 
After creating humankind as mortal images of Himself to operate in His Likeness, our Maker gave us Free Choice then wound us up and set us going. I praise Him already because it was an incredibly risky endeavour to make us the icing on His cake.[a] Not long into the storyline however, our choices were our downfall and the world’s longest-running drama went from bad to worse until we ended up with one nation singled out and given the Maker’s Guidebook for LIFE.
In March and April, I skipped over 15 centuries of HIStory that proved how no-one managed to succeed in accomplishing ALL that was required of us for being anywhere near a good image of our Maker.[b] Jumping ahead, I covered 4 books in this epic saga that showed the life of One Person who managed to operate completely in the Likeness of our Creator…
…”being the Shechinah (Hebrew word meaning “dwelling” or “settling” and denotes the presence of God in a place) zohar (a Hebrew name meaning “splendor”, “glow” or “radiance”) of Hashem (literal translation: “The Name”, but only ever in connection with the Creator God) and the exact impress (impression, imprint, image) and demut (descendant of the same bloodline) of Hashem’s essential nature, being, and reality, and sustaining everything by his Dvar HaKo’ach (word-song)...[c]
With this really great Good News still in mind, we’ll now turn back again and slowly work our way through HIStory to the end of August. Through these months we’ll see the deterioration of humanity unfolding through the demise of one nation. You’ll also see for yourself how the Creator God was intimately involved in every generation and that a number of the Creator God’s good-guys (judges, prophets, kings) had been sent[d] yet all failed in seeing lasting change to the continual downhill trajectory.[e] Finally, it became 
absolutely necessary for Father God to map our a new agreement with humankind such that all people everywhere can finally live by our original design, ruling appropriately over our environment in the image of our Maker.[f]
In today’s chapter, the Children of Israel have just finished 40 years of wandering in the wilderness north and east of Egypt until “the sin of the Amorites had reached its full measure”.[g] In other words, everything you read in the coming Breadcrumbs is NOT about an invasion of ruthless people upon someone else’s land. It’s about an ancient ‘oath’ that the Creator God had made to a man named Abraham not just about the plight of his descendants, the Children of Israel, but a clear disciplinary mandate involving whole populations of images of Himself who were acting increasingly wickedly until it reached its ‘full measure’. By the time that Father God finally gave the go-ahead to move forward in today’s chapter, His family of people that He was using had themselves been through a good discipline season via 400 years in a foreign land that deteriorated into eventual slavery, followed by 40 years of “training in righteousness” in a desert.[h]
Moses (a name meaning “Draw Out”), the leader of Father God’s people is dead. [v1] His job of drawing out a people for God’s own possession[i] was now over and his right-hand-man, Joshua, takes his place as leader-shepherd. The Hebrew name Yehoshua means: “God is Deliverance”. And, in addition to this being a huge clue to give peace over the protection of 2+ million people who were about to cross over the Jordan River into what is now Modern Day Israel, Joshua came from the tribe of Ephraim[j], 
the tribe who had the right-hand of blessing on their head and told that they would become a “multitude of nations”.[k] That so, you can be sure that this isn’t an irrelevant story about a homeless people group in humanity’s distant past. With our understanding of DNA now, any one of us could have root-connectors that belong to this one named “God is Deliverance”, and therefore part of the complex tapestry in our Maker’s Global Masterplan set in motion in the very first book. The very fact that we still have this book today, 3,500+ years later, is a literary miracle that deserves our attention, at least to ask why?
This population in question have been following a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night for 40 years[l] and the land that they are now being given is handed to them by divine intervention. [v2-6] This is regardless of whether of not we agree or understand using the grid inherited from a 21st century moral compass and framework of thinking. 
HOWEVER, this relationship between humans and the Creator God along with any help, deliverance, or blessing we expect from Him, is fully connected to a high moral standard of operating. [v7-9] So great is the bar set for us that no other nation on earth has receive such a divine download for community and spiritual life that is so complex, so all-encompassing, so water-tight, as what this group (and all Father God’s people) are set to attain.[m]
One of the first things that Followers of Creator God notice is that His timing is perfect. [v11] From so-called coincidences to finding ourselves “quite amazingly” in the right place at the right time, our Maker is in the business of doing 100% of things properly and 100% perfectly.
“‘For My machshevot (thoughts/worry/considerations/philosophe) are not your machshevot, neither are the darkhei (ways or paths of peace) of you the darkhei (ways or paths of peace) of Me,’ saith Hashem (The Name – The LORD). ‘For as Shomayim (the heavens/the dwelling place of God) is higher than ha’aretz (the earth), so are the darkhei (ways or paths of peace) of Me higher than the darkhei of you, and My machshevot (thoughts/worry/considerations/philosophe) than your machshevot.’” [Isaiah 55:8-9]
But what does it mean to me while cocooned in 21st Century life? Well, today’s chapter ends with a commission for valiant men (from the tribes who were to inherit the land and settle on the east side of the Jordan River) to go ahead of their brothers (the remaining 9 tribes) until the full country of Israel were transferred in. [v12-15] Again, it sounds awful given our modern understanding of national boundaries. But this season in HIStory after the global flood was a very important groundsheet upon which humanity could certainly have deteriorated swifter, had Father God not got involved and employed divine intervention. Proper understanding of who these ancient people groups were and exactly what their abhorrent practices included, can only fully be understood when you journey through these Breadcrumbs to see just how far this fledgling holy nation fell, with the full weight of punishment on them in the next millennium.
Suffice to say, they needed a good leader as each Act in the epic Play unfolded. [v16-18] The buck stops at the leadership and many a group has crumbled in the absence of a God-fearing leader who bases all his wisdom on Father God’s Operating Manual. As we follow, we MUST judge whether our leader is worth following and after travelling to more than 85 countries in 40 years I can honestly say that Father God’s Guidebook for LIFE is really the only way of measuring what’s ‘good’. 
That said, we’re ALL created in our Maker’s precise image specifically to rule in His Likeness.[n] So if we find ourselves ruling over our own life while sitting on a rubbish tip, or ruling a multinational outfit with thousands of employees, Father God equipped us ALL “according to our ability”.[o] When we’re prosperous and successful, we’re not to assume credit for our own strength and forget who Created it all.[p] And when He next intervenes in human history to draw HIStory to its conclusion, how we lived and how much of His Book of Law influences our behaviour, choices, and lifestyle, will determine how “prosperous and successful” our life stories were/are on the Day when the books are opened.[q]
CLICK to return to today’s “Daily Breadcrumbs”
[a] Genesis c1-c2
[b] Isaiah 53:6
[c] Hebrews 1:3
[d] Mark 12:1-11
[e] Isaiah 64:6
[f] Jeremiah 31:27-34
[g] Genesis 15:12-16
[h] Deuteronomy c1-c6
[i] Exodus 19:3-6
[j] Numbers 13:8
[k] Genesis 48:1-20 (ref. v19)
[l] Exodus 13:21-22 and Numbers 14:14
[m] Deuteronomy 3:24; 4:5-9
[n] Genesis 1:26-28
[o] Matthew 25:14-30
[p] Deuteronomy 8:10-18
[q] Daniel 7:9-10 and Revelation 20:11-13