Good
Morning Friends,
Moses
was a great leader for the nation of Israel. Leaders like Moses don’t come
along very often. He led them for a long time -- 40 years. But men don’t live
forever and there came a time when Moses was no longer leader of Israel and there
was a new leader -- Joshua. God gives Joshua his charge in the first chapter of
the book of Joshua. It’s a good manual for leadership, especially leadership
among God’s people.
“Be
strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I
swore to their forefathers to give them.” (Joshua 1:6)
Strength
and courage would be needed by the new leader if he was to lead the people to
take possession of the land which had been promised to them by God.
“Be
strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses
gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be
successful wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:7
Strength and courage would be needed by the
new leader to be obedient to God’s direction. It would be easy to fall into the
temptation to take shortcuts that disobeyed God.
“Be
strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD
your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)
Strength
and courage would be needed by the new leader because there would be a great
deal to fear and discouragement could easily overtake him in the challenges he
faced.
“Whoever
rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command
them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!” (Joshua 1:18)
To
lead, Joshua would have to make hard decisions. There would be decisions that
the people would not like and decisions against which some would rebel. What
Joshua needed would be strength and courage.
Be
strong and courageous -- four times in the opening chapter of Joshua God gave
that charge to this new leader. That must tell us something about the character
needed for leadership in God’s kingdom.
Be
strong and courageous!
His,
by Grace,
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment