the second parent) or when a parent is largely disabled by age or illness. Changes of leadership can be a painful affair, sometimes even disastrous.
But they can also go well—especially if the predecessor is happy about the successor and if the successor feels no need to discredit the predecessor. Israel went through a change of leadership at a time when that could have been fatal. The nation, after forty years of wilderness living and wandering, was now at the door of the land they sought. But their leader, Moses, couldn’t make the trip with them. It wasn’t a matter of age, though he was indeed old, because the writer says “his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated” (Deuteronomy 34:7). God had ordained, however, that Moses should not enter the promised land. It might have been an exciting time to succeed him, but it was also a hazardous time.
Joshua had two things going for him. One is that he had been trained by Moses. Second, and much more important, Joshua was called of God to his role. The call did not come to him as dramatically as it came to Moses, by a burning bush, but it was altogether as authentic. And it was reinforced when Joshua needed it most, just after the death of Moses: “As I was with Moses,” the Lord said, “so I will be with you” (Joshua 1:5). It was important for the people to know that Joshua was now their appointed leader, but it was even more important for Joshua himself to know it. Because if Joshua weren’t sure, in time the people would doubt it too.
Moses had been primarily the liberator, the guide, and the lawgiver. Joshua is to be a general, a man of war. That role may not appeal to our modern sensitivities, but the hard fact is, it was a job that had to be done. Joshua didn’t live in a perfect world (nor do we). It was his job to lead his nation into what was seen to be an area that was morally depraved, whose evil had become an abomination to God. So much so, the writer of Leviticus said, that “the land vomited out its inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:25).
This comes around to what I perceive to be a basic conviction of the Scriptures that ours is a moral universe, and as such it cannot forever endure immoral behavior. When the Scriptures say the land vomited out its inhabitants, the language is symbolic; but in some profound sense it is also factual. Everything about our universe, including nature itself, is meant to run on a pattern of goodness and purity. If that ultimate fact is violated over a period of time, something will happen. With nature, it may be the depletion of the soil, destroyed by human greed. With humankind, it may be the plagues we set lose. And also, with humankind, it is our wars, our economic depressions, our systems of self-destruction. I believe Joshua was an instrument in this process. In a perfect world Joshua’s invasion and its violence wouldn’t have been necessary. But this isn’t a perfect world.
Seeing Life Through Scripture
I wonder how many times in our lives you and I will be parties to a change in leadership? Not too many of us will play a strategic role at a governmental level, though some will. But all of us will be involved at other, often highly personal, levels. It happens, as I indicated earlier, in the circle of family. It also happens in churches and in church school classes and groups. Sometimes we are lead characters in the change; more often we are among those who respond, and who by our response determine whether or not the change will be successful.
We give power to leaders. At best, it is by our conscious support; but at other times, by our acquiescence. Often poor leadership is sustained simply because the body goes along with it. And sometimes good leaders are frustrated by persons who carp and complain without really knowing what issues are involved.
A Christian ought to be the best of followers as well as the most significant of leaders. Leaders come and go, removed in some cases by vote, sometimes by death, sometimes by weariness. Then new leaders arise, sometimes again by vote, and sometimes by little more than because life abhors a vacuum. How does a Christian fit into the political process, if one truly believes that all of life is lived under God? I speak not only of the larger body politic, but of all the groups to which we belong; how do we belong effectively when a Moses must be followed by some Joshua?
The Sum of It All
“As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5).
| JOSHUA 13–15 | Week 12, Day 1 |
In the midst of what might seem a rather tedious geography lesson, we are re-introduced to that doughty man of faith, Caleb. As he looks back on the events forty-five years before, he sees the report that was then controversial as nothing other than good sense: “I brought him an honest report” (14:7). When one views life with faith, one sees a logic in the data that another might miss.
His zeal has not been diminished by the years. He has grown old victoriously. “I am still as strong today as I was on the day that Moses sent me” (14:11). So much so that he wants to take on another challenge: Show me the Anakim and their fortified cities “and I shall drive them out, as the LORD said” (14:12). Faith gives a zest for life. For Caleb life has always been a matter of advancing, not retreating.
It seems his daughter Achsah was made of the same stuff. When he gave her to the man who would attack a certain city (it seems Caleb wanted a son-in-law of his own kind!) and Othniel claimed her, Achsah dared to ask for more. What good is land in the Negeb without a spring of water? she asks. So Caleb gave her upper and lower springs—more, I think, than she sought. Himself a person of vigor, he was proud to see his daughter take hold of what life proffered and reach out for still more. And that, too, is the style of faith.
PRAYER: Sometimes I sell you short, O Lord, by selling myself short. Give me a grand zest for life, I pray; in Jesus’ name. Amen.
What significance do you see in the fact that the Levites owned no land and had no inheritance?
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