Deuteronomy 31:6 Meaning and Explanation

Moses does not pretend the road ahead is easy. There are real enemies and real reasons to be afraid, and the people know it. So he gives a command and then gives the reason underneath it. Be strong, take courage, do not be afraid, because the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. The strength comes from beyond themselves, resting on a Person who walks beside them into the danger. He will not fail them when their own resolve runs thin, and He will not forsake them when the way grows long.

This is the same promise that carries through the whole of Scripture and finds its fullest face in Jesus. He came as Immanuel, God with us, and His parting words to His friends were these: I am with you always, even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). The presence Moses promised Israel at one border is the presence Christ gives to all who follow Him at every border. We are never sent forward alone.

These words fall from a man of a hundred and twenty who will not cross the river with them; Moses is dying, and Israel's fear is not only of enemies but of being left leaderless. Into that double dread he speaks a promise so durable that the letter to the Hebrews lifts it whole for us: he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee (Hebrews 13:5). The leader changes; the Presence does not. What steadied a nation at the loss of Moses steadies the believer at every loss, for the One who goes with us cannot Himself be taken away. Be strong, then, not because the danger is small, but because the Companion is faithful, and He does not turn back.