God said, “Moses my servant is dead…” and when we think of Moses we think of leadership. The word servant means one who is devoted (fervent, zealous, committed) to a person, or cause, and gives themselves faithfully (loyally, staunchly, dependably) to the person, or cause. It has always been interesting to me that the Bible makes us see that real leadership begins with a servant’s heart. So we see that when Moses died, after 40 years of leadership, God declared Moses to be His servant. I can’t think of a more successful life to live than to live our lives as servants to the Lord.
With the death of such a great leader, servant, as Moses what were the children of God to do for leadership? God had already chosen one to follow Moses and his name was Joshua which means ‘God is salvation’. We find out something really important about Joshua in the book of Exodus chapter 24:15 when Joshua is described as Moses minister. Now the word translated ‘minister’ is a word that tells us that Joshua was a servant to Moses. It meant that Joshua was attending to the needs of Moses by giving Moses aid, support and comfort. Little did Joshua realize that he was in training to be the leader when the Hebrew nation would enter the promise land.
There was something else that qualified Joshua to be a leader and that was that he was a man who believed God’s Word. We know that from Genesis chapter 12 that God called Abram to leave the land of Ur and follow Him and that God would bless him and he would become the father of a great nation. God promised the descendants of Abram the land that He would show to Abram as he followed God by faith. After hundreds of years God was about to fulfill that promise to the delivered children of the Hebrew nation. It was by the power of God that the children had been delivered from Egyptian bondage and they were delivered to enter, and claim, what God had promised!
When the 12 spies enter the land to look upon what God had promised 10 came back with a report that basically said, “We can’t do it the enemy is to strong!” There were two spies that believed God and said “Let’s Go In and Take What God Has Already Given Us!” Those two men were Joshua, and Caleb, and they were the only survivors of that generation to enter the land 40 years later. If the majority report doesn’t believe God, and the minority report does, we should go with the minority report!
Joshua, what a servant, and what a leader! Joshua stands out in the Word because he was a man who ‘believed God’ and his life proved it. I would challenge you to read about the life of Joshua and when you come to the end of his life listen to some of his final words. Joshua told the nation to reverence God, and serve