Leadership - Drew Boswell

Principles From Joshua’s Appointment as Israel’s Leader

Principles From Joshua’s Appointment as Israel’s Leader

Moses became the leader of the Israelite people when he was eighty-years-old and then led the people for another forty years until he was 120 years-old. He died right before they entered into the Promised, bringing about the inauguration of Joshua’s leadership of the people. The Promised Land still needed to be conquered and served as punishment from the Lord for the sins of the Amorite people who inhabited the land.

Upon Moses’ death Joshua is made the leader by God, where is told to “be strong and courageous.” But when he assumes command it is not the first time he has held important responsibilities; we first see him leading in battle in Exodus 17:8-16. The Israelites are making their way through the wilderness and the Amalekites come out against them. Moses goes up on a mountain and holds up his arms and staff – and Joshua is sent to lead the troops in the valley below. As long as Moses kept his hands up, God’ s people would be winning, but as Moses grew tired his hands would drop and the Amalekites would be winning. And once they had won the victory,

Exodus17:13-14 “And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. 14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” As Joshua was studying, and meditating, and talking about, and doing God Word – he would have come across this battle and remembered – the battle was won by prayer, teamwork, and God’s presence working on the battlefield – not his military talent. His success, to do what God has called him to do, is bigger than him – there are bigger things going on than you even know about. You are a part of a much bigger plan.

The second time we see Joshua is on Mt. Sinai. There is a moment when Moses, Aaron, and seventy elders saw God and ate and drank in God’s presence. When Moses went up onto the mountain to receive the law on the stone tablets, Joshua went with him. Exodus 24:13 “So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God.” He came back down with Moses to deal with the situation of these same leaders, who had sat in the presence of God, now had made golden calves and were worshipping them. Joshua would have leared many leadership principles over the years, like – God is holy and will not tolerate His people worshipping other gods.

The third time we see Joshua is when he is sent into the promised land as a spy. When the spies returned all their stories were the same, “the land is flowing with milk and honey.” But only Joshua and Caleb had faith that God would give them the land. As a spy Joshua would have learned – yes there were giants in the land, but God was much bigger than they were.

Numbers 14:6-9 “And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. As a young leader he tried to convince a hard hearted people that God was able to win the day. He watched as God taught his people a very important lesson — God requires that His people have faith (a forty year-long and death to a million people lesson).

So when it was time for Joshua to lead the nation, forty years has passed, he had seen God do mighty things, he knew that God was holy, and he knew, from experience, that God’s people had to trust Him and follow His Word.

The greater the responsibility and the larger the scope of the influence and its’ impact upon the lives of others, then it mandates the preparation of the leader for the task. For Joshua he did not just become the leader; he has been prepared, and he has shown himself to be faithful for forty years before he is made by God to be Israelite’s leader.

Principles From Joshua’s Leadership Transition

1) Leaders need a time of preparation before becoming the main leader. This includes opportunities to succeed and to fail. Both success and failure are instructional in the leadership process. Youth bring exuberance, new insight, their presence forces the established order to explain and justify why it does things a particular way, but wisdom cannot be rushed.

Youthful exuberance allowed Moa to usher in the Red Guard, a political movement where young people ushered in a season of violence and fascist methods of establishing their ideas. Many college aged young people became so radicalized that Moa’s own party had to tell them to tone it down some.

Unbridled youthful exuberance leads to destruction – godly wisdom takes time to learn. Young leaders need older leaders to walk with them – or a better way to think of it is that younger leaders need to be invited to walk in leadership with an older leader. Youthful leaders untethered from the wisdom of a mature leader is dangerous.

2) Leadership roles change over time. Deuteronomy 31:14-15 “And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. 15 And the Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud. And the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance of the tent.” This is actually the picture of a scene that had taken place many times over the years. Moses and Joshua entering into the tent of meeting to talk and receive instructions from the Lord. The leader is in the presence of the Lord, and to interact and hear from God was not something new.

At Joshua’s ordination, Moses and Joshua kneel before the Lord as they had done for decades. It becomes a picture of one generation passing on leadership, but the position before the Lord is the same. Each has different responsibilities, yet serving the same God. Their responsibilities may change, yet they serve a God that never changes. So, the principle is; Our roles as leaders will change over time, but God never changes. Every leader serves the same God.

3) Along with opportunities must stand a mentor. Successes are celebrated, failures are dissected for ways of improvement. The main leader must see the importance of giving meaningful opportunities, new initiatives, and strategically important tasks to a younger leader for the purpose of furthering the kingdom work today and preparing the leader for the future – and opportunities for the younger leader to learn from the experience of the older leader.

The better you become at equipping younger leaders, the more secure what you are building becomes. Some kingdom work is only one leader’s mistake or an illness away from failure and collapse (because it has no depth). Moses did not try to lead the troops into battle against the Amalekites, he sent Joshua as a general. He did not go up the Mountain of God alone, he took Joshua as a helper. And Moses did not lead the spy trip into the Promised Land, he sent Joshua, Caleb, and ten others and then awaited their report. Moses knew that he was the leader, but he also knew his true value to the organization. He allowed others to do what he could not, and the process of doing this over years developed a new leader. But both men enter into the tent of meeting to hear and learn from God, both men are learning and growing, and both will eventually change their roles (one into eternity, and the other to become a national leader).

If you are a younger leader, reach out to a more mature leader and ask them to guide you. If you are an older leader, then look around for a young person to mentor — they may not even think of themselves as a leader but you see the potential that comes form years of service. When you are working together the kingdom becomes stronger and the future becomes brighter.

Drew’s Top Ten For 2024

During the winter months there is the inevitable weather closing, seasonal slowdown, or the purposeful taking of time to reflect on the previous year. The following are my top ten items for a leader as they are beginning a new year. These are not in order of importance, only the order that they fell out of the sky and landed on my subconscious.

The time you spend quitting is time away from moving forward. Don’t quit.

Don’t listen to people who haven’t done anything. Be careful who you allow to influence you.

Trust yourself – your first instinct is probably right.

Surround yourself with people who will help you move the needle in the right direction. The team is important.

Your character is the most important determining factor of your long-term success. Guard rails are important.

Deal with the problem – stop putting it off.

It doesn’t have to be perfect – keep pushing forward. Do the best you can with what you have. Do something. Try.

Get organized – the more tasks you can handle the further your reach goes. Planning is important.

Take care of yourself, be disciplined in the right areas.

Set a goal that seems impossible. People who try hard things occasionally become people who have done hard things. What seems hard to other people becomes easier for you.

Leaders Who Hold On Too Tight For Too Long

In Mark 12 we find Jesus teaching in the temple during the week leading up to Passover. This is the week that the Jewish believers would remember how God had passed over the homes who had marked their doorpost with blood (see Exodus 12) and it involved a special symbolic meal that represented various things around that historical event. During this week Jesus would teach in the temple during the day, and it was during this time that he overturned the tables of moneychangers, drove out livestock traders, and kept people from cutting through the Gentile court (Mark 11).

Trying to trap Jesus various religious groups came up to him with scenarios, theological and political questions, and each time Jesus skillfully escaped their word games. By Mark 14 and in other gospels we are told that they were trying to develop a plan to kill him. So what was the disconnect between Jesus and these Jewish religious groups – didn’t they have the same law of Moses?

At the end of the day you can boil it all down to one word – influence. Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah – the promised king who would bring salvation to His people. He proved this by teaching “as one who had authority,” and performing miracles (casting out demons, raising the dead, healing the blind and sick, controlling weather, multiplying bread and fish to feed thousands, etc.).

These religious leaders were trying to kill Jesus because he threatened their influence over the people. When John the Baptist faced this same situation early in Jesus’ ministry he came to the conclusion, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Understanding who Jesus was and John’s role as preparing the way for Jesus, when it was time for him to step aside and let Jesus take the spotlight, John stepped aside. So from a leadership perspective . . .

How do you know if you are being like the Pharisees or John the Baptist?

We all know of leaders who held on too long – they may have been the founder, planter, original leader, or just in the same position for a long time, but their ability to take the ministry, church, organization has been overshadowed by the job itself (it has grown past their ability or skillset).

(1) Have You Clearly Heard From the Lord? Ministry is hard, and there will always be tough issues to work through. So, the spiritual leader must understand their role in the organization and execute that to their fullest. In ministry, I have experienced the Lord telling me to hang on and keep going, and there have been times when He has said, “Drew, your time here is over.” Keep praying until you clearly hear one or the other.

(2) Are You Afraid to Surround Yourself With Great Leaders? Bad leaders feel threatened by new leaders who seek excellence, are growing and developing – while they decline and are becoming obsolete. Good leaders try to sure up where they are weak, and put people where they have blind spots. If you feel so threatened by people who are better at things than you are, then it may be time to step aside. Part of this concept is raising up new leaders, to eventually replace you or to multiply the work. If a person is so threatened to mentor another, then they are keeping the organization stagnant on purpose.

(3) Why Do You Do What You Do? When John the Baptist would preach and baptize people Mark tells us that, “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” This would have been thousands of people traveling out to the wilderness just to see, hear, and be baptized by John. If John had been a prideful man, then all that popularity and influence would have been very difficult to let it go.

For the Pharisees, Sadducees, high priests, scribes, etc. this influence was intoxicating to them – they loved it. Jesus even said, Matthew 23:5-7 “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.” This is something about leadership that is hard to identify when you are in the moment – you may not see how people’s response to you drives your reason for serving in a particular position.

(4) Are You In Touch With Reality? The Pharisees, Sadducees, High Priests, and Scribes had to ignore all the miracles, fulfilled prophecies, and clear signs that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. Even at the testimony of the guards who saw Jesus rise from the dead, they paid them off to say the disciples came and moved the body. They ignored reality because they wanted to hang on to power and influence.

Take a good hard look at your current situation – are you having to overlook constant and clear signs that it is time for you to go, or do you see how God is using you to move the needle, and push the organization forward? Don’t ignore what is right in front of your face, so that you can hold on to power and influence. Ups and Downs are a part of any organization, so don’t be discouraged if you are “down.” If you are called to be there, surrounding yourself with good leaders, taking solid steps forward then hang on, and learning as-you-go then it will get better.

Remember, you are in between the last leader, and the one that will come after you. Therefore, you are a steward of the organization now, but you will not be there forever. So, leave it better than you found it.

Not Quite A Craftsman

My grandfather first introduced me to what it means to be a craftsman. When a person exercises a trade, whether it be carpentry, plumbing, farming – whatever; it is an expression of that person. When the work is done well and in accordance to the accepted standards of the day then that person is a proficient tradesman. But when they exceed expectations and go beyond the accepted standards, to the point of amazement and beauty then they are expressing craftsmanship.

My grandfather was an example of such a person. He would toll away in the extreme southern sun, with its humidity and scorching heat to build or repair something for his family or loved ones. His picnic tables required multiple men to move them, and his decks and houses still stand today even though they are several decades old.

As I approach the fifth decade of my life, I have come to realize that I am a builder at the core of who I am – an echo of my grandfather. But like any builder I can go about my trade according to the acceptable standards or I can seek to bring true beauty into the world through an expression of craftsmanship.

Men in their youth want to be known and recognized for their contributions – older men want to leave something behind, to leave an expression of beauty. Having tipped the scales toward the eternal, I am seeking to build something with a craftsman’s touch, that will stand the test-of-time and demands of life.

The thing about craftsmanship is that what is produced will not fall into the categories of trends, fads, and niches’ – the craftsman’s creations are beautiful in their own way. There are some things, because they are so well made, people will always understand their worth.

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As I was writing this post, I stopped to finish a project that went unfinished since my last opportunity to work on projects. As I was screwing in a brass screw the head snapped off because the pilot hole was too small. Not only did I not know how to fix this, I knew it would not end up with a “beautiful” (see above) outcome.

I ended up drilling out the remains of the brass screw and fixed the repair by adding a brass washer to hide my attempts to get the brass screw out. As I went through the process I was once again reminded that I am not a craftsman. I build things, but they never go as planned and rarely do they end up beautiful. My creations may be functional, just as crocs are functional shoes – but never beautiful.

So there I am standing at a workbench between novice and master craftsman trying to build something with my life, looking to people like my grandfather for inspiration and to be some kind of an example for those that follow. Come and build something with me, but don’t stress it probably won’t end up like you think – and that’s ok.

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