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"Between
Moses and Joshua, Part 2" October
20, 2003 The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower I have a quote for you, and you may want to write this down.
This is from John Maxwell. John
Maxwell is a student of leadership and an author who has written a lot on the
subject of what it takes to be a leader. John
Maxwell says this: "There are
leaders who produce followers, and there are leaders who produce leaders." "There are leaders who produce followers, and there are
leaders who produce leaders." Last
week we talked about Moses and how he was the leader that God had raised up for
the Israelites as they left Egypt and as they wandered through the wilderness
for 40 years. And that then the
mantle was passed--the mantle of leadership was passed from Moses to Joshua
right at the point where the Israelites crossed over into the promised land, and
that Joshua was the heir-apparent. Joshua
was the assistant. Joshua was the
vice-regent, as it were, or the vice-chancellor--the person who was groomed to
take over. Now we want to leap over the book of Joshua, and our text
this morning, as we look again at the subject of leadership, is in the book of
Judges. It's very interesting--many
of the books of the Bible are organically connected one to the other, and the
end of Joshua's life is not summarized for us at the end of the book of Joshua.
It's summarized in the second chapter of the following book, the book of
Judges. So we're going to look at what the author of Judges tells us
in summary about Joshua and about what followed after Joshua's days.
So you may want to turn in your Bibles with me to Judges.
The book of Judges, chapter 2, beginning with verse 6, where we read
this. Oh, and this was after a
final gathering of the 12 tribes while Joshua was still alive.
Verse 6: When Joshua dismissed the people, the Israelites all went to
their own inheritances to take possession of the land.
The people worshipped the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days
of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord
had done for Israel. Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the
age of 110 years. So they buried
him within the bounds of his inheritance at Timnath-heres, in the hill country
of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. Moreover,
that whole generation was gathered to their ancestors [now watch this:], and
another generation grew up after them, who did not know the Lord or the work
that he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the
Lord and worshipped the Baals; and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their
ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other
gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them and bowed down
to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and worshipped Baal and the Astartes.
So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them
over to plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the power of their
enemies all around, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.
Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them, to
bring misfortune, as the Lord had warned them and sworn to them; and they were
in great distress. Then the Lord raised up judges. . . And that word is always translated "judges," and
the name of the book is "Judges," but actually what's being talked
about here are leaders. Called in
the Hebrew culture "judges, " but national leaders, national
statespersons. And the book of
Judges tells us about several. Among
the several--and we're not going to look at those--but among the several in this
book, the main six are Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and of course
Samson. These are the judges, the
leaders that God raises up. Then God raised up judges, who delivered them out of the
power of those who plundered them. Yet
they did not listen even to their judges; for they lusted after other gods and
bowed down to them. They soon
turned aside from the way in which their ancestors had walked, who had obeyed
the commandments of the Lord; they
did not follow their example. Whenever
the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and he delivered
them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord
would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who persecuted and
oppressed them. But whenever the
judge died, they would relapse and behave worse than their ancestors, following
other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them.
They would not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.
So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel; and he said,
"Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their
ancestors, and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them
any of the nations that Joshua left when he died."
In order to test Israel, whether or not they would take care to walk in
the way of the Lord as their ancestors did, the Lord had left those nations, not
driving them out at once, and had not handed them over to Joshua.
Well, this is a reflection backwards onto how the nation of
Israel fared under the leadership of Joshua and a summary, a preview, of what
the book of Judges is about. Because
it is the case that under Joshua's leadership, the nation was fairly successful
in coming in and possessing the promised land.
But that was because there was a generation with Joshua who still knew
the Lord, who still remembered the things, who still had first-hand experiences
of deliverance at the hand of the Lord, so there was a faithfulness during the
generation in which Joshua was the person at the helm, the person in leadership.
In verse 7 we're told the people worshipped the Lord all the days of
Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua--even after Joshua
passed from the scene, but nevertheless there were others who still remembered,
the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord
had done for Israel. The problem is--and it's stated for us down here in verse 14:
"So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he gave
them over to plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them" because of
their faithlessness--the later generation's faithlessness after Joshua was gone
and after the other elders that were of his generation were gone--"he sold
them" [and that's such a dramatic term.
A frightening term, in a way. God
sold the Israelites into the power of their enemies.
And we want to pause and consider that term, actually because it sets the
stage for its counterpart, for the positive response.
God sold them because of their faithlessness.
There's going to be another term that's going to correspond that's going
to be much more important as the Bible progresses, and that is, He redeemed
them. At this point we're told God sold them into the hands of
their enemies. But what the Bible
is going to emphasize more from here on out is not God selling (although still
in Romans we're told that God gave them up because of their sins), but the
bigger word, He redeemed them, He bought them back, He brought them back,
He paid the price. And the New
Testament is about God paying the price through His Son Jesus Christ to redeem
those who were under the spell of their enemies, those who were powerless to
save themselves. But now an earlier point:
What we're being told is that there was a generation who remembered, and
that was the generation of Joshua. Unfortunately,
a new generation comes up--verse 10: Moreover, that whole generation was gathered to their
ancestors, and [watch this:] another generation grew up after them, who did not
know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. What this tells us is knowing about God's faithfulness to
your parents is not sufficient. You
and I have to know about God's faithfulness to us for it to be deeply
influential, for it to be sufficiently motivational.
Louis Evans Sr. preached a famous, famous sermon a long time
ago, and the title of that sermon is, "God Has No Grandchildren."
And in that sermon what he said was you cannot be a grandchild of God
because of your parents' relationship with God.
You have to have your own personal relationship with God.
And so you can be a child of God or not. A grandchild of God? No,
I'm sorry. You cannot be. What is that other than a restatement of what we're told
right here: A new generation
comes along that does not have a fresh awareness of God's power to save, does
not have personal experience of God's influence in their life, and it's summed
up for us this way: "A new
generation, who did not know the Lord or the work he had done for Israel."
What happens now? Well,
each person in Israel begins to behave according to his or her own instincts.
Everyone starts to become a law unto himself or herself, and there's no
cohesive obedience any more. Instead,
all of the energies of the nation are dissipated.
And as a consequence, when the attacks come, the nation is not able to
protect itself. Now, I'm asking us to notice that something that appears
lacking at this point (chapter 2 in Judges) is any sense that there is someone
who has been groomed by Joshua to step up into the leadership mold the way that
Joshua had been. Everyone knew that
Joshua was Moses' "right-hand man."
Everyone knew that whenever it would be that God would take Moses away,
there was one who was ready to step up in, who had just sort of been in on all
of the councils where all of the decisions had been made.
Which is to say, there was a "leader in waiting" prepared to
step into that role. We look in
vain for anything like that at the end of Joshua and at the beginning of Judges.
A few people are mentioned. Caleb
is mentioned, of course, but Caleb was in the same generation that Joshua was
in. You know, Caleb would be
passing away right about the same time that Joshua would be, so no one in the
nation was looking to Caleb for leadership.
Phineas, is mentioned, but we don't have the books of Moses, and then
Joshua, and then the book of Phineas. So
for whatever reason (and the Bible doesn't tell us), not Phineas, none of the
others who were around, were seen as leaders who are going to continue to lead. Now, I want us to ask ourselves, "Why would it be that
Joshua failed to have some system by which a new leader can be recognized?"
"Why would that be, and how important is it?"
Let's answer the second question first.
It appears (at least from our text here) that this is terribly important,
because what we're told is that all during Joshua's generation, the people were
faithful to the Lord. The people
walked in the way that God wanted them to. All during that generation and even after Joshua died, but as
long as there were still elders who all knew, and remembered, and were able to
exert influence. But once the
influence of that generation passed from the scene, we have rampant
disobedience. We have no
cohesiveness whatsoever, and therefore no ability within the nation to protect
itself. How important is it?
Well, it's terribly important, though we want to notice it does not mean
(the fact that disaster comes now at this later point in the post-Joshua era.
I like that--"in the post-Joshua era,")-- now there is disaster
after disaster, but it does not mean that God is not sovereign.
It does not mean that God is not in control.
It does not mean that God is not involved.
What it means is (the Bible is wonderful at giving us terms like this) it
tells us that God is testing Israel. Let's
look at verse 22: In order to test Israel, whether or not they
would take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their ancestors did, the Lord
had left those nations . . . . . . those
enemies, able to rise up and attack, able to rise up and come in and plunder.
And so, it is not the case that God is gone and is no longer doing
anything in the life of Israel. It's
just that God, in response to their waywardness, in response to their sin, God
is allowing these challenges to occur to test them, to see.
So it's very, very important, though not in a way that would mean there
is no relationship between the nation and God anymore. And that's a useful thing to consider.
I'm just going to leave it like this for now:
If there has ever been a relationship between America and God.
(And I'm going to let you decide whether you think that's true or not.)
But if there ever has been a relationship between America and God, and if
America decides to turn its back on God, does that mean that there will no
longer be any relationship? Maybe
not. Maybe it will be that God will continue His influence, but it
will be a very, very different kind of influence.
It will not be an influence of blessing; it will be an influence (as
here) of testing. What we're saying is that at least in Israel at this
particular time, the belief was that God was still very much involved in the
life of the nation, though the nation rejected God, followed the gods of the
indigenous peoples, did not serve God any more.
Though that was true, there still was an oversight that God exerts, but
it's an oversight of testing to see, "If challenged, will they come back to
me?" Now, how does God respond?
And how are these challenges carried out? Well, there's an affliction, there's an attack, and then in
the middle of the attack, God will spontaneously raise up--sovereignly
acting--will raise up one who has the plan of what we're supposed to do.
And these are the judges the book of Judges is all about.
Deborah, Gideon, Samson, and the others are the mighty men and women of
God that Judges is all about, and so the testing is, "OK--when you are
afflicted, and when I raise up someone for you to follow, will you?
And then how long will you continue to follow after the enemy has been
defeated?" The book of
Judges is all about the answer to that. And
the answer is, "Not very long." Not
very long after the danger has passed will people's hearts be true.
But we're asking the question, "How important is this issue?"
And we're asking, "Why would it be that Joshua did not train up
someone to be a leader the way that he had been trained up?" Well, let me suggest a couple of things that are not
helpful answers. One reason that
you would not want to train someone to replace you is if you thought you were
going to live forever, right? We
have no reason to think that Joshua was under the illusion that he was going to
be the eternal leader of Israel, but it's worth saying just because some of us
behave that way in our businesses, in our spheres of influence.
Some of us fail to bring along successors because we think we're going to
be around forever. It's a useful thing to point out, but I don't think that it
helps us with Joshua. Another reason a person would fail is that if you don't think
anyone has leadership potential around you, then you would not be training them
to be leaders, would you? ("Why
should I train the clunkheads that are crowding around me right now?"--you
know.) That one's a little more
helpful. But we're going to look now at two reasons that are very,
very germane to this. One is, if
you think you've arrived. If you
think that you are now in the place that you always meant to be, then the idea
of training up leaders for future challenges and future opportunities will
become less pressing, will seem less important to you.
And I submit to you that Joshua and the leadership council around him are
in a position to be tempted simply by the fact that they are now in the holy
land. They are now in the promised
land. They are now in the land
flowing with milk and honey. Moses was under no illusion, as he wandered through the
wilderness for 40 years, that this was going to be the fate of Israel forever.
So Moses knew for a new situation and for a new day, we need to have new
leaders prepared to go. Joshua--I'm
speculating, but I believe it is worth speculating like this--now arrives in the
holy land. "This is where we
were headed. We now are in the
place that God promised that we would be. That
means no more new challenges, no more new opportunities.
Let's just coast from now on."
So leaders for tomorrow are really not that important.
Why aren't they? Because we are here! If you in your situation, if you think you've arrived, if you
think you're done, if you think that in whatever your sphere of influence--if
it's school, if it's business, if it's family, if it's in the home, whatever
that is--if you think "This is it! This
is it! This is perfection!
This is the ultimate! All we
have to do from now on is just coast along on exactly what we've got right now
and everything will be fine!"--there will be no reason for you to try to
prepare leaders for a future generation. Do
you understand? Let me tell you about something. I went to a church (First Presbyterian Church in Hollister,
California). My second Sunday on
the job (it's very ironic--you know, this is my second Sunday here with you on
the job). But this was my second
Sunday on the job and I had just finished shaking hands after the second service
and everybody was sort of heading out to the parking lot, you know.
And our childcare person came up and she was furious!
She was very upset. She was
very, very agitated and kept talking to me about the trouble that she was
having. You know--when she was
holding one baby and needed to change the other one.
I said, "Just--the one that you're holding--just put
that one in the crib." She said, "That's what I'm telling you:
We don't have any cribs." "Well, then, put him in the playpen." "I've been telling you: We don't have any playpens." I said, "Wait a minute. We have a crib room?" "Yes, we do." "And in our crib room, there are no cribs." "That's right." "And in our crib room, there are no playpens." "That's right." I said, "Did we ever have cribs and playpens?" "Yes, we did." "Well, what happened to them?" "They gave them away." "They gave them away?
Why did we give away our cribs and our playpens?" "They decided that their kids had all grown up and that
we weren't going to have any kids in our church ever again, so they gave the
cribs . . . They were in the way.
("Think how we can use this crib room if we just get rid of the
cribs and the playpens!") That was one of those things that kind of make you go, "Hmmmm."
You know, those things that make you go, "Hmmmm," because I
realized this was a church that said, "Hey.
Our kids are all grown up. We're
all too old to have any more children. We
don't want any younger families to come in here because, you know, their kids
are just going to yell and scream and, you know, cause trouble and everything,
so we've arrived. Let's give away
the cribs, let's give away the playpens, and we'll just coast."
That's a church planning to die, amen?
That's a church planning to die, but that's not how it's perceived.
What you assume is, "Oh, yes, those Moses-days of
hardship and difficulty, those are all behind us now. We're in the promised land and we don't need leaders any
more. And I submit to you that it's
very, very interesting in that Moses, in his times of difficulty, knew to
produce leaders for a future day. It's
something that Joshua, though he had that wonderful example, did not know.
It's fascinating. You know the Bible says that Joshua and his generation--they
did everything right. They did
everything right except prepare the generation that was to follow to also
know how to be faithful. And if we do everything right, but give away our cribs and
our playpens, then I say, "I'm sorry.
All of the things that we did right count for zilch-o compared with the
fact that we did everything right and we didn't care about the generation that
was to come after us." And if
you care about the generation that is to come after, then you know some work has
to be done in the here and in the now to train up those who are going to step up
into positions of responsibility. If
you think you've arrived, you don't have to do that. "Naw, that's too much work.
Those cribs and those playpens, they just get in the way.
Don't worry about that." I love the Presbyterian women's organizations, and I won't
tell you which church this was. But
recently I was at a church where the Presbyterian Women organization would
invite me in for the ordination and installation of the new Presbyterian Women's
organization officers. So I asked
them who it was and they said, "It's the same people that did it last
year." (Interesting!) "So
we're not recycling out of office and into office?"
"No, it's just the ones that did it last year did such a
good job we're just letting them stay in place."
(Things that make you go, "Hmmmm.")
Now that's one that I think we're not speculating too much to say,
"That's the problem with Joshua and the generation that followed
Joshua." There was no leader.
There were not leaders set in place.
And as a consequence, once the influence of the elders who had known the
Lord and who had seen the mighty things that God had done, once that influence
began to wane, there was nobody to stand up and say, "You know what?
We need to encounter God afresh and anew right now."
There was no one to play that role, and as a consequence, it didn't
happen. And a new generation came
along that did not know the Lord and had not seen the wonderful things that He
had done previously. And so, the
influence of God is gone as far as the people are concerned, though God is still
in control. It's just that now
God's sovereignty is expressed in a different way.
But there's something else here, and I think we want to look
at the end of Joshua. If you want
to turn just a page or two earlier, in Joshua chapter 24.
Joshua chapter 24. This is Joshua talking to the people. In chapter 24, verse 19: Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve
the Lord, for he is a holy God. He
is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins."
[and he goes on, "If you forsake the Lord, then He's really going to
sock it to you, and I don't think you guys have what it takes."] Joshua, at the end of his life, really had given up hope on
the people. For my first one I
said, "If you think you're going to be eternal," well, no, I don't
think Joshua thought he was going to be eternal.
My second one was, "If you don't think there's anyone with
leadership abilities around you," and that's not quite it for Joshua.
The older that Joshua lived, the more soured he became on the
potential of the tribes of Israel, so that by the end, he's telling them flat
out (if you read Joshua chapter 24 this afternoon--just read through the entire
thing) it's one of the most condemnation-filled chapters in the Bible as Joshua
says, "You can't do it! You
don't have what it takes. God is a
jealous God, and He's a God of wrath, and (trust me) you don't have what it
takes!" Well, that puts a damper on things!
Especially the enthusiasm that the person in Joshua's shoes would have
regarding training up someone to lead. You
have to believe that there's some potential there in order to train up a future
leader to be able to lead. If you
think it's useless, if you think there's no hope whatsoever, then the only
people you would want to train up to be leaders would be people you don't like!
And that can happen, too. But I submit to you that another reason for a church failing
to train up leaders for another generation is when we figure, "What's the
use? Oh my gosh, it doesn't do any
good. We try our best, but it never
works." Now, is there a contradiction? It seems like there sort of is between Joshua saying,
"We've arrived! We're in the
holy land!"--he's very satisfied with the situation--and with Joshua
saying, "You can't do it. You're
not good enough. I've been watching
you guys. You don't have what it
takes to obey the Lord." That
seems sort of contradictory, but I submit to you that when our expectations for
our situation are too high, our expectations for the people we're working with
are going to end up being too low, because they're going to disappoint us. And this is what we want in our leaders.
What we want is someone humble enough to say, "I don't think we've
fully arrived yet. We may have one foot in the promised land, but I don't think
we've got both feet in the promised land, and we've got a ways to go."
We want someone humble enough, realistic enough, to say, "We're not
perfect yet. We're not in the
perfect situation yet." And we want somebody to say, "And because we're not in
the perfect situation yet, we need imperfect people to help us move forward a
little bit. So let's look and see
who are, among the imperfect people in this imperfect situation that we've got,
who are the people that God might want to use in a future generation to move
things forward?" Now can we apply this to ourselves today?
Presbyterians who think that the Presbyterian system is the ultimate,
best thing that we've ever seen--I mean, we are so cool we've got a committee
for absolutely everything! If we
think that, then as we get disappointing returns from our efforts, we're going
to fall into despair. We're going
to say, "It doesn't do any good. We
keep sending representatives off to presbytery, and look what happens.
Why should we even try any more?"
But if we're willing to take a little bit more modest stance
towards the Presbyterian Church at the present time and say, "You know,
there's an awful lot of strengths in the Presbyterian way of doing things, but
it's not perfect. There are some
serious flaws in our church and how we organize things, in our presbytery (and
we might even go way out on a limb and say there are some serious flaws in our
denomination nationally . . .) (Though
don't quote me!). And what we want
is to be training up leaders who, like us, are able to make a realistic
assessment of the strengths, but also the liabilities, in order to help move us
forward in the future when a new set of challenges arises, and when a new set of
opportunities arise. If we think that our situation is too good, we're going to
neglect that responsibility. If we
think that the people around us are too bad, then we're going to neglect that
responsibility. What we want as leaders in the present are those who are
going to say, "Yeah, we're kind of bad.
But you know what? We do
have some potential. We do have
some strengths that we can build on."
And leaders who are going to say, "We've arrived, to an extent.
We've got one foot in the promised land, but we don't have both feet in
the promised land, and there are aspects of our potential that are as yet
unrealized." And leaders like
that in the present will be the ones able to say, "And you know what?
We're going to need a new generation to help carry some of this
forward." So let's start right
now doing it not the way Joshua did it, but the way Moses did it. Let's pray. Dear
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word which is our light in darkness.
Lord, we thank you that in the midst of our imperfections, Lord, you send
us leaders who nevertheless see our potential and call us to attend to great
things for you. Lord, we ask that
that would be true for us today. And
it's in the strong name of Jesus that we pray.
Amen. The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower Interim Pastor Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the
worship service on October 20, 2002.] |
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