Introduction - The Joshua Code
Introduction
Recently, while listening to our seven-year-old grand-child quote from memory an entire chapter of the book of Psalms, I realized how few adults give thought, much less are intentional, to the discipline of Scripture memorization. Do they know, for instance, what the Joshua Code is? It is found in Joshua 1:8: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” The Joshua Code is a challenge to keep God’s Word in our mouths through memorization and to keep it in our hearts through meditation “day and night.”
Many consistent Bible readers today seem to think it is the volume of Scripture they can devour daily that is most important. The fifty-two chapters in this volume are designed to lead readers on a year-long journey, spending a week on one particular Scripture, memorizing it, and meditating on it so that it is incarnated within and becomes a living part of our very being. The outlines in each chapter can also be used by the busy pastor or Bible teacher as a guide to challenge their hearers to a year of Scripture memorization and meditation on these fifty-two verses every believer should know.
My own life was dramatically transformed when, as a seventeen-year-old man, I came to know Christ as my own personal Savior and Lord. I could count on one hand the number of times I could recall being in a church service, and I did not even know Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John were books of the Bible. The first week of my Christian experience, someone handed me a slip of paper with 1 Corinthians 10:13 written on it and then, looking me squarely in the face, said, “You better memorize this because you will need it!” Thus began a journey of Scripture memorization that has served to lead me every day since. That verse says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” Only God knows how many times across the years I have arrived at temptation’s corner and this verse, hidden in my heart and mind, came out of my mouth and kept me on the right path.
Scripture memorization enables us to take God’s Word with us anywhere and everywhere without carrying our Bibles. It enables us to receive the Word into our hearts, retain it in our minds, and recite it with our mouths that we might speak it with power. This is exactly what our Lord did during His days of temptation in the wilderness of Judea. With each temptation Satan brought Jesus’ way in Matthew 4, Jesus answered with, “It is written . . .” The Word received and retained in our hearts and minds overcomes temptations when recited with our mouths.
Scripture memorization begins when we seek to understand the passage we are about to memorize. This is why there is an outline of the passage’s meaning accompanying every chapter in this volume. When memorizing Scripture, I have found it helpful to write it out in my own handwriting, phrase by phrase, on a small note card. I keep the card in my pocket throughout the week, and numerous times during each day—while at my desk, at a stoplight in the car, or on other such occasions—I simply review it until the first phrase is memorized, then the second, and so on. It is helpful for me to quote the entire verse from memory up to a hundred times in order to “seal it” in my heart and mind before going to another verse. Periodic review over the next few weeks is also essential.
Another important aspect of the Joshua Code is to “meditate in [Scripture] day and night.” I sometimes wonder if fears of Eastern mysticism have robbed some Christians of the art of meditation. Webster’s defines meditate as “to engage in contemplation or reflection, to focus one’s thoughts on: to reflect or ponder over.” Or, as the Bible says, “Meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8). This is exactly what Mary, the young teenage virgin girl from Nazareth, did when she received the word that she was pregnant and when her child was born. She “kept all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). She meditated, “pondered,” upon “them.” The Greek word here for them is a compound word meaning “to stir together,” just as a cook would put different ingredients into a pot, stir them, and simmer them together. This was the essence of the psalmist’s plea in Psalm 19:14 when he said, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.” One of the disciplines I have found helpful in meditation is to repeat the verse again and again, putting the inflection on a different word each time. It is amazing how much insight comes from this simple practice for the young and the seasoned believer alike. The early church father Augustine said, “God’s Word is shallow enough not to drown the young, but deep enough that the greatest theologian will never touch the bottom.”
Thus we begin on our journey to make the Joshua Code a daily part of our lives as we recover the beauty of Scripture memorization and meditation. Yes, “this Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” I believe there are fifty-two verses every believer should know by memory. Let’s begin this journey with the first verse of the Bible.
