Transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua

“Transfer of Leadership from Moses to Joshua”

Prayer: Dear Lord,

Today, fortify us with the grace of Your Holy Spirit and give Your peace to our soul that we may be free from all needless anxiety, solicitude and worry. Help us to desire always that which is pleasing and acceptable to You, so that Your will may be our will. Amen.

Numbers 27:18-23

18 So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. 19 Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. 20 Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. 21 He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the Lord. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in.”

22 Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. 23 Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the Lord instructed through Moses.

Introduction

With utmost gravity, Moses appeals to “the Lord, the God of the spirits of all mankind,”to appoint a good “shepherd” in his place (Num. 27:15–17). The Lord responds by identifying Joshua as “a man in whom is the spirit” and instructing Moses to commission this worthy successor (27:18–21; cf. Deut. 3:28). It is not necessary for God to transfer his Spirit to Joshua as he had to the seventy elders (Num. 11:16–17, 24–26), because Joshua already has the Spirit. This kind of nonhereditary Spirit-qualified leadership makes Israel distinct from the time of Moses until that of Samuel, when establishment of the monarchy makes Israel like other nations.

Joshua cannot talk with the Lord face-to-face as Moses has (cf. Ex. 33:11; Num. 12:8; Deut. 34:10). However, he is to ascertain God’s will through the Urim (and Thummim, understood) worn by the high priest. In accordance with this guidance he will command the Israelites what to do (Num. 27:21; cf. Ex. 28:30).

Transfer of power requires only a simple, straightforward, but elegant ceremony in which Moses leans his hand on Joshua and then commissions (lit., “commanded/charged”) him while he stands before Eleazar the high priest and the whole assembly (Num. 27:18–23). By commissioning Joshua to take some of his majesty/authority (hod; 27:20), Moses shares leadership while he is still alive in order to ensure a smooth transition when he dies.

Dedicating a new leader (Numbers 27:18-23)

Moses and Joshua

Though he was about to die, Moses didn’t think about himself but about the future of the nation. His great concern was that God provide a spiritual leader for the people, for they were sheep (Num. 27:17; see Pss. 74:1; 79:13; 95:7; 100:3; 2 Sam. 24:7), and sheep must have a shepherd (1 Kings 22:17; Zech. 10:2; Matt. 9:36; Mark 6:34).

It was certainly no surprise that Joshua was the man God chose to take Moses’ place, for Joshua had worked closely with Moses since the nation left Egypt. He led the Jewish army in defeating the Amalekites (Ex. 17:8–16), and he ministered as Moses’ servant (24:13; 33:11; Num. 11:28), even going up Sinai with Moses when God gave the law (v. 13; 32:17). As one of the twelve spies, he joined with Caleb in encouraging the people to enter the land (Num. 14:6–9). He was filled with the Spirit (27:18; Deut. 34:9) and had been disciplined in the rigors of Egyptian slavery and the wilderness march. In every way, he was a perfect successor to Moses.

Moses had received his call and commission in the loneliness of the Midianite wilderness (Ex. 3), but Joshua was commissioned publicly by Moses and Eleazar the high priest. Moses laid his hand on his successor and bestowed on him the authority God had given him, and Eleazar would use the Urim and Thummin to help Joshua determine the will of God (28:30). In the weeks that followed, Moses gradually gave more responsibility to Joshua so that the people learned to respect him and obey him as God’s chosen leader.

During his years of service with Moses, Joshua learned some valuable principles of spiritual life and service, principles that still apply today. When you read the Book of Joshua, you see that he was concerned for the glory of God and the welfare of the people, and that he was careful to obey the orders God gave him. The two times Joshua didn’t seek God’s will, he brought the nation into shameful defeat (Josh. 7 and 9), but to his credit, he trusted God to make his mistakes work out successfully in the end.

Under Joshua’s leadership, the nation worked together to defeat the pagan nations in Canaan and then establish the nation of Israel. Before he died, he called the leaders and the people together and led them in dedicating themselves and their families to the Lord, affirming to them, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (24:15).

One of the responsibilities of Christian leaders today is to see to it that the next generation is equipped to carry on the work (2 Tim. 2:2). Each local church is just one generation short of extinction, and unless we teach and train new leaders, we jeopardize the future of our homes, churches, and nation.

1.Moses and Joshua

2.Leaders of Spirit

As Moses’ longtime servant and assistant, Joshua is intimately acquainted with his work (11:28). Centuries later, Elisha serves a similar apprenticeship with Elijah (1 Kings 19:21). However, there is more to equipping a person for greatness than working for a great man, as shown by the example of Gehazi, Elisha’s greedy and dishonest servant (2 Kings 5:20–27). For the Lord, the crucial qualification is to be a person “in whom is the spirit” (Num. 27:18). Pharaoh recognized in Joseph the same factor, which uniquely qualified him for one of the most breathtaking promotions in history: from slave and prisoner to prime minister (Gen. 41:38–44).

The simple procedure by which Moses commissions Joshua is to acknowledge and proclaim God’s choice of a new leader so that the Israelites will know to follow him (27:18–20). But no amount of pomp and ceremony can substitute for what Joshua already has as “a man in whom is the spirit.”

When the early Christian community needed administrative leaders (deacons), they sought people who were “known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3). With such qualifications from God, human ceremony could be simple, as in the case of Joshua: “They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them” (6:6). Only with the Spirit of God internalized can a person be a good “shepherd,” an unselfish servant leader. This is because the love that motivates such devoted service is only available to human beings as a gift from God through his Holy Spirit (cf. Rom. 5:5).

In Conclusion

1.Moses and Joshua

2.Leaders of Spirit

The story of Arab boys on the hills by Bethlehem make it look easy, but it is not so easy for people who are more accustomed to obedient machines than to living creatures with minds of their own. Having heard that it doesn’t work to drive sheep, I learned my lesson the hard way when I accidentally left a sheep pen open and was horrified to see that one adventurous animal had gotten out and the rest had followed it with remarkable speed. Panicking, I tried to drive them back in. Rather than going where they were supposed to, they scattered in every other direction. Defeated, I was forced to find the owner, sheepishly admit my negligence, and watch as he called them back to their pen.

People are a lot like sheep. The founders of Alcoholics Anonymous discovered that drinkers

would not take pressure in any form.… They always had to be led, not pushed.… In other respects, too, we found we had to make haste slowly. When first contacted, most alcoholics just wanted to find sobriety, nothing else. They clung to their other defects, letting go only little by little. They simply did not want to get “too good too soon.”7

Like sheep, people need someone they trust to lead them rather than to drive them. In short, they need a “shepherd.” If they are “like sheep without a shepherd” (27:17), they scatter and are defenseless (1 Kings 22:17; 2 Chron. 18:16; Isa. 13:14). When Jesus saw crowds, “he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36).

Not any shepherd will do. Sheep need a good shepherd who protects his sheep with his life, not a cowardly “hireling,” a “sheep in sheep’s clothing,”8 who cares primarily about protecting himself (John 10:11–13). Nor do they need a shepherd who exploits and scatters them (Jer. 23:1; Ezek. 34:1–8). One way to scatter sheep is the way I did—simply by attempting to drive them.

Being a good shepherd or herdsman can demand toughness and courage, involving exposure to all kinds of discomforts, irritations, and perils (Gen. 31:40; 1 Sam. 17:34–35). Being a good shepherd of human beings is no less challenging. It requires toughness and humility, courage and ability to lead rather than drive. Moses’ years with woolly flocks were peaceful compared to the four decades he spent shepherding Israelites through the desert toward the Promised Land. Had he not possessed a character of granite and at the same time a gentle humility surpassing that of all others (Num. 12:3), history would have been a lot different.

Despite the unprecedented exaltation of his role, Moses set a paradigm of restraint for later leaders by resisting the temptation to become so high and mighty that he ceased caring about each individual member of his people, no matter how lowly. He would have agreed with Dr. Seuss, whose delightful children’s story Horton Hears a Who! contains the gem of wisdom: “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” In Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories, Dr. Seuss expresses a similar idea:

I know, up on top

you are seeing great sights,

But down at the bottom

we, too, should have rights.

There is a fourth “shepherd” who joins them on the biblical Mount Rushmore. Although not a shepherd of literal sheep as they were, he said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

Like Moses, Christ offered to give up everything for his people (Ex. 32:32). But he went beyond Moses, becoming a “Lamb” and dying for them (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7; 1 Peter 1:19; Rev. 5:6; cf. Isa. 53:7). This is the ultimate leadership it takes to deliver our race of slaves to freedom from sin and all its evil consequences, including mortality. The least we can do is to follow him.