Null Pointer Exception on array

Question

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException{

    String[] token = null;
    int i, n = 0;
    int lineCounter = 0;

    Scanner file1 = new Scanner(new File(args[0]));

    int[] lineNumber = new int[lineCounter];

    for(i=0; i<lineCounter; i++) {
        lineNumber[i] = n++;
    }

    String[] word = new String[lineCounter];
    file1 = new Scanner(new File(args[0]));

    while(file1.hasNextLine()) {
        i++;
        token[i] = file1.nextLine();

I keep trying to run the code, but it keeps giving me a null pointer exception. Any suggestions to fix this?

The token is referencing random words in a file called file1.