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.
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.
