Moses is dead. The Israelites find themselves entering the promised land, a land fraught with enemies and dangers, without the only leader they have ever known. Yet, God demonstrate that his promises do not rest on the back of Moses’ leadership, but that he is able to raise up another to take the people into the promised land. As the book of Joshua begins, it is this void in leadership that is focused upon. And it is here that we see precisely what God wants out of the one who will take his people into the land.
