DO NOT embalm the past and escape the future.
JUST FOR YOUR THOUGHT:
AN ADVICE TO THE EMERGING LEADERS
DO NOT embalm the past and escape the future.
Leaders don’t lead forever, even godly leaders like Moses.
There comes a time in every ministry when God calls for a new beginning with a new generation and new leadership.
Except for Joshua and Caleb, the old generation of Jews had perished during the nation’s wanderings in the wilderness, and Joshua was commissioned to lead the new generation into a new challenge: entering and conquering the Promised Land.
“God buries His workmen, but His work goes on.”
It was God who had chosen Joshua, and everybody in Israel knew that he was their new leader.
Over the years I’ve seen churches and parachurch ministries flounder and almost destroy themselves in futile attempts to embalm the past and escape the future.
Their theme song was, “As it was in the beginning, so shall it ever be, world without end.” Often I’ve prayed with and for godly Christian leaders who were criticized, persecuted, and attacked simply because, like Joshua, they had a divine commission to lead a ministry into new fields of conquest, but the people would not follow. More than one pastor has been offered as a sacrificial lamb because he dared to suggest that the church make some changes.
J. Oswald Sanders writes: “A work originated by God and conducted on spiritual principles will surmount the shock of a change of leadership and indeed will probably thrive better as a result” (Spiritual Leadership, 132).
A wise leader doesn’t completely abandon the past but builds on it as he or she moves toward the future. Moses is mentioned fifty-seven times in the book of Joshua, evidence that Joshua respected Moses and what he had done for Israel.
Joshua worshipped the same God that Moses had worshipped, and he obeyed the same Word that Moses had given to the nation.
There was continuity from one leader to the next, but there wasn’t always conformity, for each leader is different and must maintain his or her individuality.
Twice in these verses Moses is called God’s servant, but Joshua was also the servant of God (24:29).
The important thing is not the servant but the Master. Joshua is called “Moses’ minister” (1:1), a word that described workers in the tabernacle as well as servants of a leader. (See Ex. 24:13; 33:11; Num. 11:28; Deut. 1:38.)
Joshua learned how to obey as a servant before he commanded as a general; he was first a servant and then a ruler (Matt. 25:21). “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander,” wrote Aristotle in his Politics. God commissioned Joshua to achieve three things: lead the people into the land, defeat the enemy, and claim the inheritance.
God could have sent an angel to do this, but He chose to use a man and give him the power he needed to get the job done. As we have already seen, Joshua is a type of Jesus Christ, the Captain of our salvation (Heb. 2:10), who has won the victory and now shares His spiritual inheritance with us.
W.W..WIERSBE
COMPILED BY EZEKIEL SHANMUGAVEL