Leadership Qualities of Moses and Joshua

Truly, the Hand of God was upon Joshua from the start. Everything that God had Joshua put his hand to brought success for the people of Israel. Joshua not only led and fought successful battles (Ex 17:9-14) for God, but was also chosen to be the one to lead the people into the Promised Land (Deut 3:28/3:21-22). Of the ten spies (Num 13:16) that went to scout out the land of Canaan only Joshua and Caleb agreed that they could take the land for God has already given it over to them (Num 14:6-9). God even wanted Joshua in on the meetings that Moses would have with God (Ex 33:11), and wanted Joshua to be told what should have been for Moses' ears only (Ex 17:14). When all was said and done and it was time for the people to claim the land God had promised them, it was to Joshua whom God gave the authority to lead them in (Num 27:18-20). 

Joshua was fit to lead because he believed God every step of the way from out from Egypt and into the Promised Land. His faith in God never wavered, not even when the courage his own people did (Num 14:1-3). Only a man with the faith to know that God can do all things in and through him can lead people, even when they are fearful of the future. Joshua was such a man. His great belief in what God had already done gave him great courage that God would accomplish all that He said He would. Joshua never backed down from a fight of any kind and knew that God would care for the nation of Israel as He made it the great nation it would soon become. With a leader like Joshua on God's side, every promise would come to pass.

Comment: "This verse is telling the Israelites that they must choose life, which means keeping the Lord's commandments, and pass that on to the next generation so that they can experience the power and holiness of God, just as the generations before did."

Author Response: Something just popped into my mind while reading your post Ethan and it is something I've never thought of before when it came to all of the rules that God finally gave His people years and years after Abraham was first called to become the Father of the nation. For years Israel had obeyed and then disobeyed God over and over again because of the sin nature they adopted from Adam and Eve. It was as if they had no clue how to stay pure before God and then decided to follow the gods of other nations. It's almost as God said "What do I have to do, spell it out for you?" and then He did. In order to get His people to behave God had to tell them in detail what He expected from them to keep themselves separate from the other nations around them. 

Did the rules help? For the most part they did because we humans don't really remember a lot of rules if you give us too many at one time. At least they put a stop to the overwhelming disobedience of Israel and the nation began to prosper under certain kings who made sure the people kept to the rules, since they were to read the rules once a year to the entire nation to make sure the nation stayed pure so that God could bless them so that the other nations around them could continue to see that their God was the one, true God of the universe.

Comment: "Joshua showed great courage trusting in the Lord, He and Caleb were the only two survivors of the generation that came out of Egypt"

Author Response: When we read that only Joshua and Caleb were the only two out of possibly millions to live from their generation, it boggles the mind. I can't imagine what it had to have been like to watch relatives die off one by one in front of me. I would also imagine that it did take a village for all of those children of the deceased to be taken care of. If we believe that all the oldest people had died off in the wilderness (old meaning maybe 60 years in those days) then the median age entering the Promised Land had to have been no more than 40 years old, since the oldest would have died off during those forty years of walking. If we go by the Ten Commandments movie, even 90 year olds made it into paradise with everyone else and Joshua was about sixty since he had some gray hair on the sides of his head. Thank God for the book of Numbers that let us know just how many made it from the wilderness into the paradise that God had set aside for them. From millions of slaves to approximately 603,000 free people. If only the people would have known just how much their complaining was going to cast them? Just how much does our complaining to God cost us in the long run in missed blessings and such?

Scripture References

Exodus 17:9-14 (GW) -- 9 Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men. Then fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill. I will hold in my hand the staff God told me to take along." 10 Joshua did as Moses told him and fought the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel would win, but as soon as he put his hands down, the Amalekites would start to win. 12 Eventually, Moses' hands felt heavy. So Aaron and Hur took a rock, put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron held up one hand, and Hur held up the other. His hands remained steady until sunset. 13 So Joshua defeated the Amalekite army in battle. 14 The LORD said to Moses, "Write this reminder on a scroll, and make sure that Joshua hears it, too: I will completely erase any memory of the Amalekites from the earth."

Deuteronomy 3:28 (MSG) -- "Then command Joshua: Give him courage. Give him strength. Single-handed he will lead this people across the river. Single-handed he'll cause them to inherit the land at which you can only look."

Deuteronomy 3:21-22 (AMP) -- And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Your own eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings [Sihon and Og]; so shall the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are going over [the Jordan]. 22 You shall not fear them, for the Lord your God shall fight for you.

Numbers 13:16 (MSG) -- These are the names of the men Moses sent to scout out the land. Moses gave Hoshea (Salvation) son of Nun a new name Joshua (GOD-Saves).

Numbers 14:6-9 (MSG) -- Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, members of the scouting party, ripped their clothes 7 and addressed the assembled People of Israel: "The land we walked through and scouted out is a very good landvery good indeed. 8 If GOD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land that flows, as they say, with milk and honey. And he'll give it to us. 9 Just don't rebel against GOD! And don't be afraid of those people. Why, we'll have them for lunch! They have no protection and GOD is on our side. Don't be afraid of them!"

Exodus 33:11 (GW) -- The LORD would speak to Moses personally, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would come back to the camp, but his assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, stayed inside the tent.

Exodus 17:14 (GW) -- The LORD said to Moses, "Write this reminder on a scroll, and make sure that Joshua hears it, too: I will completely erase any memory of the Amalekites from the earth."

Numbers 27:18-20 (GW) -- So the LORD said to Moses, "Take Joshua, son of Nun, a man who has the Spirit, and place your hand on him. 19 Make him stand in front of the priest Eleazar and the whole community, and give him his instructions in their presence. 20 Give him some of your authority so that the whole community of Israel will obey him.

Numbers 14:1-3 (GW) -- Then all the people in the Israelite community raised their voices and cried out loud all that night. 2 They complained to Moses and Aaron, "If only we had died in Egypt or this desert! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this landjust to have us die in battle? Our wives and children will be taken as prisoners of war! Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?

Remembering God

Remembering God

"I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life or death, blessings or curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants will live."

Deuteronomy 30:19

Fourteen times Moses told the Israelite to remember all that God had done for them during and since they had been set free from their capture in Egypt. For example: Deuteronomy 5:15 "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God used his mighty hand and powerful arm to bring you out of there. This is why the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the day of worship". Also: Deuteronomy 7:18 "Don't be afraid of them. Remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt" Whether to remember to worship the Lord for what He had already done for them, or to remember that God will defeat Israel's enemies for them as He had done to Pharaoh and Egypt, the people were to remember God for everything. 

Why did Moses command the Israelite to remember all that God had done? Simply because of the golden calf episode at the base of Mt. Sinai that angered God greatly. Moses needed to remind the people constantly that they should never want to anger God for any reason again, especially since He has been so protective and loving of them all of their lives. By remembering all God had done the people will continue to choose life and to receive the blessings of God. But, if they decided to choose anything other than God, they would be choosing death, evil, and will have to endure the curses of God that He may set upon them for turning away from His love and protection.

For the churches of the 21st century, the impetus to remember all the ways God has lead them should be even greater since we have had more years with God in the world than the early Israelites had when they were here. Plus, we have had Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to save us and guide us as we go along day to day. Still, there are some churches who preach Jesus to their people, but do not either preach Him in the correct way (using their own form of the Gospel), or they preach Jesus but have their own rules and regulations the people have to follow just as the Pharisees had done in Jesus' time. Today, too many people are choosing death because they are hearing a message that sounds safe to them. Many churches are not speaking about Hell, or the end times, at all. They paint a rosy picture of a Heaven that does not exist; a picture that says everyone is going to Heaven regardless of what you believe since all roads lead to Heaven. 

Some say there is a place called Purgatory where a person goes after death, where they need to stay until their future entrance into Heaven comes about of which no one really knows how long one needs to stay there for this to happen. These churches are dead with no life coming out of the church doors or even out of the people who have been there for some amount of time. But then there are the churches that have chosen life. The singing of worship songs can be heard on the street outside the church doors. People come out of the church smiling and talking in joyful words. The difference between a dead church and a church that has chosen life is remembering that Jesus Christ paid it all to secure our debt from sin. Dead churches speak of Jesus Christ while live, Spirit-filled churches proclaim Him to the heavens and to all those with ears to hear. We who are in the Spirit-filled churches need to take our dead churches by the hand and show them just who they have been missing the Spirit of the living God who is worthy of joyful worship and being remembered in everything we do.

Comment: "God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called."

Author Response: I believe that God doesn't called the qualified because 1) they may be very prideful of their accomplishments, 2) they may be bored with the job they are doing even if they were in the beginning, and 3) they may over-qualified and know much more than they need to successfully accomplish what God wants them to do. It's like we as students are at the beginning of our studies, a time excite our hearts as well as our minds because we hope to use all of this information for God someday. But, even if we are continuing in our studies after this, we know that God has already called us, but we may not know where that where or when is right now. 

Right at this moment, we may not yet be qualified as far as the information God wants us to speak to people, but we know that being saved by Jesus has already qualified us for the future. Whatever that future may be for us after school, we know that Jesus WILL use everything He has taught us here. I look forward to the time when Jesus unleashes me to make a difference in the lives of those He places in front of me. By His stripes I have been healed and qualified for the work of the Lord! As we see in Joshua, he was qualified even before the day he was born. God knew that He was going to save us even before WE were born, which means that we were qualified before birth too. How exciting is that?

Comment: "If you obey His words there were blessings if you disobey cursing. It is still the same thing today; God is constantly dealing with His people to be obedient and live."

Author Response: These days, God is dealing with the evil and sin of the whole world. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, and mudslides are happening more and more. Abortions are up and the news is full of killings every day. The earth is not just groaning anymore as it was in Jesus' day, it is now screaming to be released from the curse God placed on it so long ago, and so is humanity. Those of us who know God get the picture; those who don't are still seeing in black and white. It's amazing how much God has to do to get our attention. How many people do we hear each day that wonders what in the world is going on with the world and everybody in it? 

This world needs Jesus Christ more than it ever did and we need to get the word out. Write an article and post it; tell your Facebook friends all about Jesus, if they defriend you, then they were never true friends; write your congressman burn his/her ears with the truth until they tell you to leave them alone; call the local news station and bend their ear until they start telling the truth in their stories. We must help humanity remember Jesus. Not the rule-giving, angry-so--you're-going-to-Hell kind of Jesus the world thinks He is. It's good for us to remember Jesus everyday as Christians, but we are to help humanity know and desire the loving, merciful Jesus we know. To all of us, He is our Savior, and His love is forever unlike the love of the world. We know Jesus; now let the world know too!

What Is Your Motive for Reading the Bible?

What Is Your Motive for Reading the Bible?

For many Christians, reading the Bible is critical. We call it our "Quiet Time" and we go to great lengths to make sure we have it. We want to read, study and meditate on the Word, for it is our daily bread. Did not Jesus himself say that "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word the comes from the mouth of God?" (Matthew 4:4).

There is a danger to avoid, however, when we read the Bible -- treating Bible time as an end in itself rather than the longing of a seeking heart to experience and enjoy intimacy with God.

Psalm 119:2 speaks to this issue "Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart".

And so we must regularly examine ourselves and our motives. I'm writing this article to challenge you and me to ask ourselves the question, "Why do I read the Bible? Do I read the Bible merely to acquire knowledge that becomes a badge of pride, a way to impress my Christian friends, a means to receive praise from others?"

If that is the case, Bible time has little to do with seeking God. Rather, it has everything to do with me my self-seeking, self-absorbed agenda of impressing others so I can be viewed as spiritually mature, when in fact I may be anything but that.

If this is an area you struggle with, I'd like to encourage you to spend time in prayer about it. Confess the pride of Bible knowledge as an end in itself and ask God to instill in you a greater desire to spend time in the Word because you want to spend time with Him.

Focus on the simple fact that being a Christian is first and foremost an intimate relationship with your Maker. And this relationship, like any good relationship, is characterized by communication between two people you and your God. This communication must be a two-way street. We communicate to God through prayer, and He communicates to us through the Bible.

God wants to speak to us through His Word. When we read the Bible, we have the wonderful privilege of hearing what He has to say. And when we listen, with an open heart and a humble mind, there is a communion that takes place that satisfies the soul and brings us into the very presence of King Jesus.

Oh that this would be the cry of our hearts every time we open the Word and read it: "I seek you with all my heart . . . Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain" (Psalm 119: 10, 36).


 

What Does It Mean to Believe the Gospel?

What Does It Mean to Believe the Gospel? (Mark 1:15)

According to Mark 1:14-15, Jesus Christ spent much time preaching the gospel the good news of God and his kingdom. And what did he tell people to do in response to this message? "Repent and believe the good news".

Jesus also made amazing claims about himself. From a purely human perspective, these claims are incredible, things that a sane person would not say, unless he was God.

He claimed to be the bread of the life, the light of the world, the resurrection and the life, and the way and the truth and the life (see John 6:35, 8:12, 11:25, 14:6).

There they are - spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment, eternal life, the answer to the dilemma of death, absolute truth. It's all there everything people have been seeking since the beginning of time for the one who believes in Jesus. John 3:16 says it so clearly whoever believes in Jesus will not perish in hell but instead has eternal life.

So we see that the word "believe" is used repeatedly in the New Testament to describe what a person must do in response to the claims of Christ.

But what does it mean to believe the gospel or to believe in Jesus?

The New Testament sheds much light on this all-important question, and makes it clear that there are different kinds of faith. There is true saving faith and there is a useless dead faith. Let me explain.

Here's an example of "useless dead faith": "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder" (James 2:19).

The above verse was written by James, the half-brother of Jesus, someone who knew first-hand the meaning of faith. James did not believe in Jesus at first (see John 7:5). But eventually he came to faith in Jesus because one of his letters ended up in the Bible (the book of James, quoted above), where he identifies himself as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ (James 1:1).

James is saying that there is a type of faith that merely acknowledges the existence of God even demons believe in God to that extent. But is that the kind of faith Jesus was talking about when he offered eternal life to those who believe in Him? Obviously not.

Biblical saving faith is more than mere intellectual assent to certain facts about Jesus.

Yes, it must certainly include that inward conviction that says "I accept as true that Jesus is God in a human body; I accept as true that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin, was raised from the dead three days later, and ascended into heaven."

But mere intellectual assent to historical and theological facts is not enough. Even the demons believe that!

The Biblical definition of saving faith must also include total commitment of one's life to the claims and causes of Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus said that the road to heaven is traveled via the walk of faith. And he described that walk as one of self-denial and obedience: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:34-36).

Self-denial, cross-bearing, and losing your life. Could there be a more unpopular topic? This is not the kind of stuff you hear about much in our "do you own thing" society. But that's what he said.

And I sympathize with those who struggle with this part of Christ's message. It's much easier to look at the Gospel from the standpoint of what I get out of it a purpose in life, inner peace, salvation from sin, eternal life. Many benefits, right?

But it's not a one-sided deal. Why should it be? In fact, Jesus said the decision to believe is just like the analysis one does when preparing a business plan: "For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' . . . In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:28-30, 33)

Whoa! Those are tough words. But words we can easily understand we know what it means to calculate the cost of something. Jesus is saying that being a Christian requires the same type of careful, deliberate planning that any businessman would undertake when determining the feasibility of his next business venture.

In other words, it's not a decision to be taken lightly, and it's not something you can do just to get something out of it. Eternal life is a free gift that God grants to those who believe (Ephesians 2:8-9), and true belief will demonstrate itself in a life of obedience to the Word of God and good works for the glory of God (Ephesians 2:10).