Lead Like a Joshua

Do you remember the leader who is famous for fighting the battle of Jericho? Yes, that’s right, Joshua. Can you hear the children’s song playing in your head? “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down.”

We are wrapping up our series on leadership by taking a brief look at, what I believe is, Joshua’s most notable and imitation-worthy leadership characteristic.

Let’s start with just a little historical context. The time came for Moses’ life on earth to end and after it did, the Lord told Joshua he was the guy to now fill the leadership role for the Israelites.

If you read the book of Joshua, you might notice a repeated phrase that goes something like this, “do not be afraid, be strong and courageous and I will be with you.”

When you think about the number of battles into which Joshua was going to lead his men, you can understand why the Lord told him to be strong and courageous. God was going to give His people the promised land, but much of it had to be conquered first.

As I was reading through the book of Joshua, I noticed another repeated phrase. It usually came immediately after the Lord told Joshua to do something. The sentence would start out, “so Joshua…”.

What I observed is that the “so Joshua,” was the beginning of a sentence whereby the author is telling the reader that Joshua did what the Lord wanted him to do. In other words, “so Joshua” meant he obeyed.

Obedience is what I believe is the most notable and imitation-worthy leadership characteristic that Joshua possessed and faithfully exercised.

Every time God told him to do something, he did it. I believe that’s one reason he was so successful in his leadership journey and with all of the battles he had to endure. The other reason he was so successful, the Bible tells us, is because God was with him.

Whether you’re in a positional leadership role, an influential leadership role, or any other kind of role, being obedient to God and doing what He tells you to do, will inevitably be life-changing for you.

Can you imagine what our life would be like if we did everything God told us to do? What would our churches be like? Our communities?

What if we said, “no matter how crazy or costly the ask, I will obey the Lord”?

Think about the strategic plan for taking down Jericho. Now, I’m no expert by any means when it comes to battles or war, but I would think that marching around a city and blowing trumpets would not be my first choice. In fact, I don’t think it would ever even occur to me that a plan like that would work.

Alas, God told Joshua what the plan was (a crazy ask, humanly speaking), and Joshua obeyed. And it worked!

I’m sure that every time Joshua had success after obeying God, it motivated him to always be obedient.

In our lives, sometimes it seems difficult to discern what God wants for us, even if we have a heart to obey. Maybe we’ve even said, “just tell me what you want me to do God, and I’ll do it.”

However, other times, it’s very clear what God wants us to do and yet we struggle to obey. Have you ever felt an inner nudge to share your faith with someone and not done it? Or maybe you had a strong sense that you should pray for someone, but you ignored it? I have.

The Holy Spirit is at work and if we pay attention and obey, I really believe our relationship with God would be so much stronger and we would see so much more fruit.

So that’s the challenge for me and for you this week and on-going – that we would be more obedient. I honestly believe it will help us to be more radiant in our every day lives.

Let us go be radiant this week!