Joshua: The Servant Made Leader

Saturday 18 April
READ: Exo 33: 11
MORE LESSON: Exo 24: 9 - 18

Moses was a man of God in a class of his own. The kinds of divine encounter and miracle that Moses experienced are rare in any other man on earth. When Moses died, God had to bury him by Himself so that no man knows his tomb. That was necessary because men would have turned his tomb to an object of worship (Deut 34:5-6). Indeed, Moses was an exceptional man of God. After Moses died, God needed a replacement for Him. God could have chosen any of the leaders and princes of Israel to step into Moses shoes but He chose the young man, Joshua whom the people didn't see as a leader but as simply 'Moses' servant (Num 11:28). There was a secret that took Joshua to greatness, and that secret is service.

Service gives a man the opportunity to encounter the greatness that he could not have encountered by himself. All the while when Moses was experiencing divine encounters with God, there was a silent figure that enjoyed these encounters with him – Joshua was present as a servant, experiencing the supernatural with Moses. Even in the legendary encounter when God spoke to Moses face to face, Joshua was there.

So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he (Moses) would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle: Exo. 33:11-12 (NKJV) Everybody talks about how Moses saw God but we forget that there was a silent servant that humbly followed him about and so was with him when he saw God.

Also, when Moses went up the mountain for forty days and was enveloped by the glory of God to receive the tablets of the law, his servant Joshua was there with him (Ex 24: 13 – 18). Even though Aaron and his sons were the priests and there were seventy elders that were ordained by Moses, it was Joshua, who didn't have any title, that had the opportunity to go up the mountain to encounter God. He didn't deserve to be there; he entered as a servant. He saw it all silently as he followed Moses around so he knew the ‘in and out’ of the work of the Lord. No wonder he later became a miracle worker too and when it was time for someone to lead Israel into the Promised Land, God told Moses to lay hands on him. Joshua went ahead to record great exploits and even succeeded where Moses had failed. Joshua was an ordinary servant who became an extraordinary leader. That is the benefit of service. You can decide to serve today and you will see God take you to the extraordinary place.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to help you never to turn away from any God-given assignment.
* Pray that whatever God has done for others by service He will do also for you.
* Pray that you will not be slothful in business, but fervent in the spirit serving the Lord.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today is the day of my advance in grace and glory.