Like many great leaders we admire and respect, their lives provide an opportunity to learn from what they did well but also some of the mistakes we can avoid.
Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the Lord said to him, You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. Joshua 13.1
It’s one thing be old but to be reminded by the Lord that you are old should be a wakeup call for anyone who’s just coasting in life with neither purpose nor direction and is thinking they’ve got forever to serve the Lord. Life is short and none of us know when we will step out of time and into eternity. Joshua has done a great job, taking over from Moses and leading the Israelites into the promised land, every tribe had received their portion of land but the battle to take over the territories from those who lived there was ongoing.
The Bible is silent about how old Joshua was when God said these words to him but it must have been so disappointing to have get to this stage and phase of his life with so much accomplished but to be told there was still so much left to be done. When we get older, the window of opportunities are closing in on us, there almost feels like there is a sudden decline in time, energy and resources to do more for the kingdom. What a tragedy to get to the end of our lives and discover that we completed barely a fraction of the assignment God entrusted to us.
May I suggest a few reasons why this may have happened. Joshua was trying to do everything, and there’s nothing with doing all we can as long as we can, the problem is we’ve not got the time, hence the need to hear clearly from the Lord on the specifics of our assignment. Just because we can do something isn’t proof that God wants us to do it. Joshua may have struggled to delegate certain tasks to others, some people don’t trust others and prefer to do everything on their own but we end up not doing as much, but with a team, we can achieve much more.
Joshua may have invested his time and effort doing what other people wanted him to do. And many are driven by comparison and competition, they end up in places and spaces God hasn’t approved, they may appear busy to us but as far as God’s concerned, they are not fruitful. There were many places Jesus could have visited and many more he could have healed but he did only what the Father had commanded him to do. If God were to assess your life up to this stage, what would he say? Have I discovered God’s purpose and am I pursuing it with full focus or am I doing everything and being everywhere, not quite doing what God’s asked me to do. Someone has said, ‘beware of the barrenness of a busy life’.
another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel. Judges 2.10
As we toil and labour for God’s kingdom, our prayer is that the fruits from all these will outlive us. Long after we have departed from this world, many will continue to be impacted by the seeds that have been sown. It’s great to be engaged in the present doing all we can to please the Lord and walk in his ways but are we planning and preparing for the next generation? Our work is never fully complete if we fail to handover the baton to those coming behind us. And unlike Moses, we don’t read about anyone Joshua was mentoring or coaching to take over from him.
Sadly, many families, churches and communities are bereft of focus and direction because of the unstable transfer of leadership that happened when certain people moved on. As we serve the Lord in whatever capacity, let’s never think we’ll be in that position forever. It’s time we identified others who will step into our shoes when our time on earth draws near. They may not be perfect at the moment and none of us is or will be but with God’s help and our humble support, we can prepare them to continue where and when we end. Other times, mentoring some people can be challenging when they don’t have a humble or teachable spirit, making such a handover impossible.
After all the mighty works God did in Egypt and for forty years in the wilderness, how could there have been a generation that did not know the Lord? The spiritual decline in our lives will not happen overnight, it’s often a little compromise here, a little neglect here and before we know it, we’re so far away from God. How is your relationship with the Lord, are you intentional about spending time with Jesus, learning about him to become more like him? God’s counting on parents and spiritual leaders to handover the baton to the next gen, there are now children and teenagers who don’t own a bible, who have never read one from cover to cover and think that following the Lord must be another option. They have been pampered with life’s comfort and trained to the best standards of education but they have no personal nor functional relationship with the Lord.
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 21.25
It’s easy to blame the Israelites for the cycle of sin and destruction they found themselves in but what if Joshua was intentional about handing the baton to another leader just like Moses did. What if Joshua’s life wasn’t quite an example to follow? We might preach and teach several sermons but we lose the opportunity to influence and leave an impact when our lives are such poor examples. The Israelites didn’t just wake up one morning doing what was right in their own eyes, there was a condoning of certain behaviours and lifestyles which once were unusual and abnormal but soon became the new normal.
When we refuse to speak out against evil but choose to remain as secret disciples, we are inadvertently allowing evil to thrive. When parents choose to overlook strange occurrences in their children and heads of families allow certain behaviours to go unchallenged, when church leaders condone immoral and ungodly lifestyles among their congregation, it won’t be long before everyone begins to do what is right in their own eyes. We all need to surround ourselves with people who not only encourage and challenge us to follow the Lord wholeheartedly but also those who will rebuke, correct and instruct us in righteousness so we can be fully equipped for the Master’s use.
Today, it seems everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes, the dial on integrity and holiness is determined by individuals and no longer by God’s standards. Any opportunity to speak out against evil is seen as an extreme posture as we’re told to tolerate all and sundry. Let’s ask God for a humble and teachable spirit willing to respond to the prompts of His Spirit to adjust our lives to please him in all that we do. As leaders, in whatever capacity God has entrusted to us, let’s not turn a blind eye to the evil around us instead let’s ask God for courage to reroute many who have gone astray and those on the brink of spiritual apathy and lethargy back to the cross.
Churches who continue to preach inspiring and motivational sermons ‘sprinkled with Bible verses’ will find out too late that many have long abandoned the ways of God in pursuit of another way of life. Many are dressed to the nines on Sundays but are bringing shame and disgrace to the name of Christ for the rest of the week. Am I doing what is right in my eyes or what is right in the eyes of the Lord? Is my priority pleasing the Lord or impressing those who care less about God’s plans for me? Have I drifted far from the Lord or am I abiding near the cross? Is my life an example of a disciple of Christ?