In our chapter, we have two qualified votes of confidence: First, God says to Yehoshua: I am with you, so long as you follow the Torah. Then, the people say: We'll follow you, Yehoshua, so long as God is with you like He was with Moshe.
What a vote of confidence! How can they doubt that Moshe's main disciple could even have the possibility of falling away from God and the Torah?
This is actually a fundamental principle of Torah, as we learn in Pirkei Avot: "Do not believe in yourself until the day you die."
The Talmud in Berachot 29a illustrates the teaching of Pirkei Avot with the example of Yochanan the Kohen Gadol. He served as Kohen Gadol for 80 years, but in the end became a Saduccee. Even he could slip.
Righteousness and holiness are not attained and put in the bank; they are lived constantly, and require constant attention.
The first time I remember seeing this principle in action in my own life was about 15 years ago. By nature, I have quite a temper. When I was in my early twenties, it reached its peak, and I exerted great efforts to bring my anger under control. And I succeeded. Things that would have set me off previously would not even bother me. Things that did bother me, I responded to with calm and self-control. I finally had conquered my anger!
So, like a dieter whose diet was successful, I let down my guard. I stopped working on my anger, and many months, or even a year later, I discovered that I was more easily angered, more easily frustrated.
Moshe's great disciple, Joshua, needed the lesson. So, it seems, do we:
רַק חֲזַק וֶאֱמַץ מְאֹד, לִשְׁמֹר לַעֲשׂוֹת כְּכָל-הַתּוֹרָה--אֲשֶׁר צִוְּךָ מֹשֶׁה עַבְדִּי, אַל-תָּסוּר מִמֶּנּוּ יָמִין וּשְׂמֹאול: לְמַעַן תַּשְׂכִּיל, בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר תֵּלֵךְ.
"Only be strong and extremely courageous, to keep and do according to the Torah that Moshe My servant enjoined you-- do not turn aside from it to the right or left, in order that you will succeed wherever you go." (Joshua 1:7, Hebrew text from Mechon Mamre, translation mine).
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