In the history of Israel the period between leaving the slavery of Egypt and entry into the Promised Land was a time of great turbulence. After forty years of wandering in the wilderness when they were to cross the Jordan River and go in, Moses was called to Mount Nebo by God and died. Their new leader Joshua or Yehoshua was told first by Moses, then God Himself and also by the Israelite leaders to not fear but be strong and courageous. Faced with such a daunting task of leading a people who perpetually complained, how can one be fearless and confident?
Lessons from Joshua’s life for a believer – Moses was chosen by God from before his birth and God planned every aspect of his life to train him to fit the role of an effective leader and representative of God before Pharaoh and his people. Due to his close relationship and submission to the LORD God, only Moses could be the true intercessor that Israel needed both before God and Pharaoh (Deuteronomy 34:10). After the Israelites committed the sin of making and worshipping the Golden Calf, when God was ready to destroy them and start a new community from Moses, only he could dare to speak before Him the words, ‘these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold. Yet now, if You will forgive their sin – if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written’ (Exodus 32:3i-32).
After Moses’ death, it is written, ‘since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face’ (Deuteronomy 34:10). Moses prophetically spoke about the Messiah, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you will believe’ (Deuteronomy 18:15). Moses chose twelve men, one each from every tribe of Israel ‘every man a leader among them’ (Numbers 13:8 & 16). From the tribe of Ephraim ‘Hoshea son of Nun’ was chosen and Moses changed his name to Yehoshua, for Hoshea means ‘salvation’ which was changed to ‘Lord is salvation’. He was assistant to Moses and led the chosen warriors of Israel to fight the Amalekites in Rephidim.
Moses was blessed and a chosen person by God to be in His presence for any issue at any time and ‘the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle’ (Exodus 33:11). God chose both leaders for their absolute commitment to Him and even Joshua was equally submitted to his role. He led his people into the Promised Land after Moses was denied this by the LORD God died on Mount Nebo. From his changed name and his life we learn that the help for salvation of Israel or of all of mankind is from God and it is more clear in our Saviour, the Son of God. In both cases tough battles were fought with miraculous happenings from God.
The move of the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, was through the waters, first at Red Sea and then at the Jordan River. Apostle Paul connected the move through the waters as, ‘all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ’ (1Corinthians 10:2-4). Baptism is submission to a new way of life following the one you have surrendered to. The Israelites submitted to the authority of Moses but since Moses represented the God who spoke to him from the Burning Bush, they surrendered to Him and were thus made dependent on Him. Moses was unsure of going for the mission of leading the Israelites out of Egypt and was assured by God, ‘I will certainly be with you’ (Exodus 3:12). Moses could, in God’s power, use his shepherd’s staff to perform great miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness.
To reassure Joshua about the success of his mission to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, God told him, ‘No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you’ (Joshua 1:5). Since he fully believed God, when faced with a flooded Jordan River, he could calm the fears of the people and say, ‘Behold, the ark of the covenant of the LORD of all the earth is crossing before you into the Jordan’ (Joshua 3:11 & 16). God proved true to His promise and the ‘waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam’. Our Lord appeared to Joshua as ‘Commander of the Lord’s army’ and provided him with the victory formula to conquer the most formidable city of Canaan (Joshua 5:13-15). The way to victory for Joshua as well to all believers is the same, ‘Put God first’ always and everywhere and follow Him. Joshua and his army did so by worshipping God for seven days to see the huge walls of Jericho falling inwards to assure them victory.
All that was in that city was dedicated to the LORD God and required to be completely destroyed. However, because of the sin of Achan of keeping some gold, silver and a beautiful garment and not destroying these, the comparatively weaker town of Ai routed the Israelites, when they attacked and 36 men died. We have greater promise than Joshua for we have our Lord’s promise, ‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you’ (John 14:18). God was with Joshua but God is in us as the ‘Spirit of power, and of love and of a sound mind’ (2 Timothy 1:7). Apostle Paul the great warrior evangelist faced extreme odds in his life as ‘servant of our Lord’ but could still declare, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ (Philippians 4:13).
At the Transfiguration of Jesus, the command to all believers directly from God the Father in heaven is, ‘Hear Him’ (Matthew 17:5). It is like the great ‘Shema’ command to the Israelites (Deuteronomy 6:4) and the Greek word ‘akuo’ means ‘to hear, understand, perceive the sense of what is said and obey’. Joshua put God first in every sphere of his life and could tell the Israelites, ‘if it seems evil to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve….. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD’ (Joshua 24:15). God desires the same commitment from each of His children to bless them and make them a blessing for others.
Why do we remain stuck in problems? The initial command to Moses and all along the LORD told Moses the same message, to lead the people to ‘a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey’ (Exodus 3:8). The mission of the ten spies was the same, ‘to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel’ (Numbers 13:2). The Great Commission command first confirms the most important aspect that Lord Jesus has all authority ‘in heaven and on earth’ and ends with His promise, ‘I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:18-20). It is a commitment for the present and not for some distant future. Since the baptism is in the ‘name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’, the submission also has to be the Holy Trinity only and none else.
Joshua believed the promise of God and could confidently command the sun and the moon and they obeyed him, ‘so the sun stood still, and the moon stopped’ (Joshua 10:12-13). Lord Jesus has blessed all those ‘who believe in My name’ to cast out demons and speak with new tongues’ with the assurance of protection (Mark 16:17-18). The LORD God promised to lead them from victory to victory but with a caution, ‘I will not drive them (the Canaanites) from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land’ (Exodus 23:29-30). The Israelites, under the leadership of Joshua captured all the big fortified towns but the small pockets remained and were to be captured by each individual tribe. But they suffered from fatigue and fear and did not fully occupy the whole land. The Canaanites later united and troubled the Israelites continually till David’s time.
We record great victories over our spiritual enemies concerning various aspects of our life, but after Jericho has fallen, we either fail to dedicate ourselves to Him and suffer defeat against a minor enemy or rest in that. The enemy reorganizes and comes to defeat us through small sinful activities, finally turning us away from the Lord. The battle that we are involved in is a continuous one and with each victory God expects us to be strengthened in faith and move forward to overcome the perceived small sins from our life. Many simply accept some sins as too small and irrelevant; sins like envy, gluttony, anger, laziness, pride, lust and greed. These are the wild beasts or thorns that come and finally choke our faith. Like the Israelites we start waiting for God to defeat all the enemies and give us the conquered land to dwell in and expect God to purify our hearts and holiness of life without any effort on our part.
Christian life is a life of daily battle first against self, for our transformation starts from within under the power of the Holy Spirit and only then are we conquerors over the forces of darkness. The way from Egypt to Canaan was just eleven days but God took them on a longer route to firstly, to give them His laws to make them understand the expected way of living for them; secondly, to change their inner mentality of slaves to a chosen generation of people of God. And finally, to train and equip them to face greater and mightier enemies, in faith and emerge victorious.
Glorifying God in a leadership role – Lord Jesus trained the chosen disciples for three years and during that time also sent them on independent preaching assignment after giving ‘them power and authority over all demons, and to heal the sick’ (Luke 9:1-2). After that He sent another seventy with the same task, with the aim of building their confidence and training them for ministry after His ascension (Luke 10:1&17). They returned with great joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name’. Any leader must always remember that the work is the Lord’s and can only be performed in His name and authority and for His glory alone.
While giving the future role to Apostle Peter after assuring him about his love for Him, Lord Jesus commanded him, first, ‘feed My lambs;’ second time, ‘tend My sheep;’ and finally, ‘feed My sheep’ (John 21:15-17). The message given in all the three times was that the lambs or the new disciples or the sheep, the mature disciples are all His and do not belong to any leader. Also that promotion to do His work is gradual from caring onwards to feeding the sheep, with teaching them His Words. The LORD first ‘planted a garden eastward in Eden’ and then He ‘took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it’ (Genesis 2:8&15). The Church or the resources provided by the Lord are His and a leader is only a manager representing the Master. To claim that they are mine is the first step towards misuse and abuse.
Secondly, Moses took Joshua as his assistant very early in his work of leading the Israelites out of Egypt and trained him in everything. Moses’ most important assignment was to be with the LORD on Mount Sinai, to receive the Law and he ‘arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God’ (Exodus 24:13-14). Joshua stopped at some point and waited while Moses moved on and the Jewish elders were told by him, ‘wait here for us until we come back to you’. A leader must prayerfully choose and train the next generation of leaders so that the work does not get hindered after him. Apostle Paul trained a number of leaders in every church that he established and continued to encourage and guide them through various messages.
Third, leaders learn by reading and meditating on the Scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Apostle Peter’s teaching is for all believers but is more specific to the leaders, ‘add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love’ (2 Peter 1:5-8). He then assures that when ‘these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful’. The knowledge we acquire is then further imparted to the next generation in a loving and caring manner.
Fourth, leaders serve and not lord over others. Lord Jesus, whom we are to imitate, being God submitted to the plan of God the Father to become Man ‘taking the form of a bondservant’ (Philippians 2:6-7). Lord Jesus clearly commanded us not to be like others to lord over them but that ‘whoever desires to be great among you, let him be your servant’ (Matthew 20:25-28). He then gave His own example, ‘The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve’.
Fifth, leadership is stressful and demanding. Moses cried out to the LORD God on various occasions to even say, ‘Why have You afflicted Your servant?’ (Numbers 11:11-12). He even complained about being burdened by the work of leading them saying, ‘Did I conceive all these people?’ No good leader has ever fulfilled his mission without total submission to and dependence on God and that is the basic requirement for us also to bring glory to the Lord who places us in such roles of responsibility.
Joshua firmly believed in the truth of the Word of God and then led his people like a good and able leader from victory to victory. The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is given to us but if the sword remains sheathed, how can we be victorious? We also need to walk by faith and in obedience to His Word to be successful in all that we do and be a blessing to others!
