Passing on the Lessons of Leadership...

Today, I would like to begin by having us consider two questions. First, if you could only have one more conversation with those who were closest to you, what would you tell them? If you could have only one more conversation with your family, your closest friends, with those whom you have shared life together during your life, what would be the content of that conversation?

Now that you have thought about that first question, here is a second question to consider. If, on your final day on earth, you were given the opportunity to speak to the next generation for fifteen minutes about your life and share what you believed to be the single piece of advice that would lead them to have the very best for their life, what would you say? What would you tell them about your story? Where would direct them to invest their life as a result of what you have learned in your story? You have one opportunity. What would you say in that one conversation?

This week, I would like for us to look at one such conversation. And it is in this man’s final conversation with those closest to him; and it is in this one man’s final conversation with the nation that he led, that we discover a timeless and powerful principle that is necessary in order to restart our lives so that we would be living in the relationship with God and one another that we were created and called to live. Let’s look at this one final conversation together, beginning in Joshua 23:1:

Now it came about after many days, when the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side, and Joshua was old, advanced in years, that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers,

As we enter into the final chapters of the Jewish nation’s attempt at restarting their lives as individuals and as a nation, we read that their leader, Joshua, was old and advanced in years. At the end of this story we discover that Joshua was 110 years old. After ten years of dividing, occupying, and settling that land that God had led the Jewish people to occupy and conquer, the Jewish people were experiencing the blessings that come from faithfully living in the relationship with God and one another that they were created and called to live. The Jewish people were free from conflict from without and conflict from within. And as Joshua looked in the rear view mirror of his life and recognized that his time on earth was coming to an end, he called for his leadership team to come to his side for one final conversation. We see the content of this conversation revealed for us, beginning in the second half of Joshua 23:2:

and said to them, "I am old, advanced in years. "And you have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations because of you, for the LORD your God is He who has been fighting for you. "See, I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off, from the Jordan even to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun. "The LORD your God, He will thrust them out from before you and drive them from before you; and you will possess their land, just as the LORD your God promised you.

Joshua begins his final conversation with those on his leadership team by reminding them about all that they had experienced together during their journey to restart their lives. Joshua affirms his leadership team for their faithful focus on following God’s commands and plans. And as a result of their faithfulness and persistence, they experienced the opportunity to be a part of God’s activity that led the Jewish people to restart their lives in the Promised Land.

After affirming their faithfulness and persistence, Joshua reminds them of his role and of God’s promise to continue to guide and lead the Jewish people. At Joshua’s leadership the land had been conquered, controlled, divided and distributed. And even after he is gone, Joshua explains that God’s presence and power will continue to accompany the Jewish people in future battles from those who would try to oppose the Jewish people as the continued to occupy and settle the land. Joshua, in telling his story, reminds the Jewish people of the reality that God is a promise maker and a promise keeper. Joshua then continues his final conversation by challenging his leadership team when it came to their responsibilities once he was gone. We see this challenge in Joshua 23:6:

"Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you will not associate with these nations, these which remain among you, or mention the name of their gods, or make anyone swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them. "But you are to cling to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day. "For the LORD has driven out great and strong nations from before you; and as for you, no man has stood before you to this day. "One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, just as He promised you. "So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the LORD your God. "For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know with certainty that the LORD your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the LORD your God has given you.

Here we see Joshua charge his leadership with the responsibility to be strong, steadfast, and singularly focused in their leadership on following God’s word that is recorded for us in the first five books of the Bible, which the Jewish people referred to as the Law or the Torah. The reason that they were to remain strong, steadfast, and singularly focused was so that they may not turn aside to the right hand or the left. In other words, the leadership was charged with the responsibility of keeping God’s word so the Jewish people would not get off track when it came to living in the relationship with God and one another that they were created and called to live. And just like the Jewish people, God’s word is divinely designed to keep us on track and moving forward in our lives when it comes to our relationship with God and one another.

Joshua then explains to his leadership team the specific dangers that the Jewish people still faced that would cause them to get off track. When Joshua states that the Jewish people were not to associate with these nations, this phrase refers to the Jewish people assimilating into the culture of the nations and societies that were once inhabited the Promised Land. Joshua explains that the Jewish people were to remove from their memory and not even speak of the false, wicked, and evil religious systems of those nations and societies. When Joshua states that the Jewish people were not to make anyone swear by them, he is revealing for us the reality that the Jewish people were not to involve themselves in any act of worship and allegiance to false religious systems.

The Jewish people were not to be a Jesus plus people, where faith is viewed like a buffet line where we can pick and choose from what we like from various faith systems in the world and choose to ignore the parts of the faith systems of the world that we do not like. This attitude toward religion, which is called syncretism, is idolatry as you are worshipping something other than god as God. Instead, the Jewish people were to remain faithfully devoted to God and find their identity in God and God alone. They were to cling closely to God. They were to remain in an intimate and personal relationship with the Lord. You see, the Jewish people were experiencing the blessings that come from faithfully living in the relationship with God and one another that they were created and called to live as a result of God’s activity in their lives.

And because of that reality, Joshua challenges the leadership team in verse 11 to take diligent heed to love the Lord your God. If this letter was being written in the language and culture we use today this phrase would sound something like this: take care, for you very soul’s sake, to love the Lord your God. Joshua then proceeds to explain why they were to be so very diligent to take care of their souls by painting three word pictures for us as to the consequences that would occur if the Jewish people turned to worship the religious systems that previously were a part of the Promised Land. First, Joshua paints the picture of a bird trap filled with bait that was used to lure a bird to explain that, in the same way, these false religious systems would attempt to lure the Jewish people.

Second, Joshua paints a picture of a person enduring the pain that comes from a whipping to describe the pain that the Jewish people would experience if the turned to such idolatry. Third, Joshua paints a picture of a thorn in your eyes to describe the reality that becoming involved in a Jesus plus worship system would blind the Jewish people from following God. Joshua then reminds his leadership team of the consequences that awaited the Jewish people as a result of the choices that were before them:

"Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the LORD your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed. "It shall come about that just as all the good words which the LORD your God spoke to you have come upon you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the threats, until He has destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God has given you. "When you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which He has given you."

Here we see Joshua remind his leadership team that God had repeatedly demonstrated to the Jewish people that He says what He means and He means what He says. And because of that reality, just as God meant what He said by bringing the Jewish people into the Promised Land as a result of their faithful obedience, God also meant what He said about what His response would be toward rebellion and disobedience.

Any future disobedience that flowed from a failure to love and serve the Lord and only the Lord would result in damaging and devastating consequences for the Jewish people. Joshua wanted his leadership team to be mindful of God’s activity and their responsibility when it came to leading the Jewish people into the future. After affirming, challenging, and reminding his leadership team of their responsibilities, Joshua then turns to have his final conversation with the Jewish people that he had led over the years. We will look at that conversation tomorrow.

So this week, what would you say if you could have only one conversation with those closest to you?