Today's Scripture Reading (December 22, 2021): Numbers 27
Business management practices author, Tom Peters,
teaches that "Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership
is about nurturing and enhancing." Management is about the running of the organization.
Leadership goes beyond running the organization and is more concerned with preparing others to lead.
The first instinct of a manager is to gather power for themselves and make sure
that every aspect of the organization is running smoothly. A leader, especially
a good one, is continually giving portions of their power away to those around
them, lifting them up,
and creating in them the ability to act as leaders as well.
It is a process that must be passed down from leader to leader while the first
leader is still in place. Those who follow must see the trust that the leader places in
the leaders around him. If that happens, then trust will be given a chance to
grow. If the leader doesn't trust those around him, neither will anyone else.
God instructs Moses to give some of his authority to
Joshua, son of Nun. It was the start of a process of handing over the
leadership reigns of the nation from Moses to the next leader. And God
understood that it needed to happen now, while Moses was still alive and able
to lead. It was a privilege that Moses was never given. When God came to Moses
in the wilderness, Moses was a shepherd in the wilderness. It had been forty
years since Moses had walked with Israel, and most had no idea who he was. It
was a concern that Moses himself had about the position that God was asking him
to take. "What if they do not believe me or listen to me"
(Exodus 4:1).
History
proved that Moses was right, and the people struggled with listening to them.
As Israel wandered in the wilderness, it seemed that Moses was constantly
trying to prove that he was the rightful leader against the rebels that always
seemed to rise up against him. The hope was that by showing the people of
Israel that Moses believed in Joshua, Joshua might have an easier time as the leader
of the nation as the people entered into the Promised Land.
Joshua would rise to be the next leader of Israel, the one who would follow Moses. But he would also
forget both the lesson and the gift that God instructed Moses to give to him. One
of the failings of Joshua's time at the helm of Israel was that Joshua did not nurture or encourage a leader out of the next generation. He never appeared to give some of
his authority to a leader that might follow him. When Joshua stepped back from leadership, no obvious candidate was ready to take his place. Israel would exist for the next
four hundred years
without a national leader guiding their steps. Judges would rise and lead in
times of trouble and strife, but no one would further national priorities as a whole. The next real national leader, one who followed in the footsteps
of Moses and Joshua, would possibly be Samuel, the last judge,
who would pass off his authority to Saul, the first King of Israel. For the time between the leadership of Joshua and that
of Samuel and
Saul, the Book of Judges
offers this assessment. "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw
fit" (Judges 21:25).
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 28
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