Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Word of the Day (10-26-11)


Good Morning Everyone

Today is Wednesday October 26, 2011

The word of the day comes from Joshua 1:1-2

Joshua Installed as Leader
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.[1]

My Interpretation

Taken from my Bible commentary section of my Logos software…

The Book of
Joshua
Commentary by Robert Jamieson
CHAPTER 1
Joshua 1:1–18. The Lord Appoints Joshua to Succeed Moses.
1. Now after the death of Moses—Joshua, having been already appointed and designated leader of Israel (Nu 27:18–23), in all probability assumed the reins of government immediately “after the death of Moses.”
the servant of the Lord—This was the official title of Moses as invested with a special mission to make known the will of God; and it conferred great honor and authority.
the Lord spake unto Joshua—probably during the period of public mourning, and either by a direct revelation to the mind of Joshua, or by means of Urim and Thummim (Nu 27:21). This first communication gave a pledge that the divine instructions which, according to the provisions of the theocracy, had been imparted to Moses, would be continued to the new leader, though God might not perhaps speak to him “mouth to mouth” (Nu 12:8).
Joshua—The original name, Oshea, (Nu 13:8), which had been, according to Eastern usage, changed like those of Abram and Sarai (Ge 17:5–15) into Jehoshua or Joshua (that is, “God’s salvation”) was significant of the services he was to render, and typified those of a greater Saviour (Heb 4:8).
Moses’ minister—that is, his official attendant, who, from being constantly employed in important services and early initiated into the principles of the government, would be well trained for undertaking the leadership of Israel.
2. now therefore arise, go over this Jordan—Joshua’s mission was that of a military leader. This passage records his call to begin the work, and the address contains a literal repetition of the promise made to Moses (De 11:24, 25).[2]

Now as I saw this text what jumped out to me was that in these first 2 verses, what we witness is the calling that is made upon Joshua’s life.

***You are taking over as the leader***

What does this mean? You are now becoming the successor to your Moses. You are being placed in a position of leadership where you are now the person that people look to for answers, for motivation, for help, for encouragement, for wisdom, for understanding, for blessing, for reassurance, for comfort, for love, for friendship, for leadership, for spiritual maturity.

This becomes important to realize in our own way, we are leading people to the promise land, to be more specific, to their promise land. We have been entrusted as leaders to help get people to the place that God has for them that flows with milk and honey. This place is a place where in order for them to get there, there has to be trust in God, reliance in God, spiritual maturity and a belief/trust in the leadership. This means that our life has to reflect one of integrity, dependability, commitment, accountability, passion, knowledge, and maturity in the things of God. If we are on the same plain with those who follow us then there may not be reason to follow us.

Taken from the book, “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” written by: John C. Maxwell, “People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves…When people respect you as a person, they admire you. When they respect you as a friend, they love you. When they respect you as a leader, they follow you.” That is a very key statement because we can’t take lightly that part of responsibility in taking over as leadership, is getting those who you are in charge of, to follow you. No one is following you if they feel they are equal with you as John C. Maxwell stated. There has to be something in you that they see and recognize that they realize they don’t have and want to have. Whether it’s your dedication, determination, work ethic, integrity, generosity, etc I really believe that this stretches beyond just your natural talent. There has to be something developed within the talent that makes the talent/gifting seem more inspirational and motivational.   

We cannot undermine nor devalue the importance of leadership.

In Joshua’s case, he was leading millions. You may only be leading ten. Don’t let or allow the numbers of how many people you have following you to discourage or keep you from putting forth the same effort that would for millions. You may never have the audience of millions but the individual that you instill in may be the very individual to reach millions. If you instilled proper principles you will by default have a very heavy influence in how the millions end up. Whether my parents, Bishop or close friends ever reach millions, if I am blessed to one day influence millions, there influence in me will be influencing millions. The fact that I was never treated as less for being a part of a bigger number never affected how great their desire to pour into me was. That can’t be understated. Allow God to use you to be the best leader you can be and as a result let that desire to pour into and set up influence for God catapult your ministry to new heights.



[1] The New International Version. 2011 (Jos 1:1–2). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[2] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., Fausset, A. R., Brown, D., & Brown, D. (1997). A commentary, critical and explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments (Jos 1:1–2). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.


Have a wonderful, blessed, productive, stress free day!

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