Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan,
you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the
children of Israel. Joshua 1:2
No matter how outstandingly prominent a person may be in the program
of God, no one can be indispensable. God always has a man for the next
phase of whatever He does. The status of Moses and his pedigree would
have made it, humanly speaking, impossible to think of a suitable
replacement for Him. But not so with God. What is impossible with man is
possible with God. What man does in the face of a vacuum is to look for
a replacement, and in wanting to do this, he looks for a person with
similar credentials as the leader to be replaced. But not so for God. In
response to the death of Moses, God didn't attempt to find a man with
the pedigree of Moses, He took a servant, not necessarily to replace
Moses, but to bring Israel into the next phase of His plan and purpose
for the nation.
There are always different phases in the single project of God, and
for each phase, a different leadership is needed, and God chooses
leaders based on what the new phase of His project is. And so to
continue the project He began with Moses, he chose a servant, even
though there may have been men who were more qualified than Joshua to
replace Moses. Moses was commissioned to bring the children of Israel
out of the land of bondage, but Joshua was commissioned to bring the
people into the promise land.
To Moses, God said, I have made you
like God to Pharaoh, but to Joshua, He said, every every place that the
sole of your feet will tread upon I have given you. Two commissions,
two different promises. One thing however was common for the two men,
God was with them.
When the time comes to change leadership, it is important that we
consider what the next phase of the project is, rather than choose a
replacement who will continue in the same direction. The passing on of a
leader may be an indication of the need to chart a new course for the
next level of the organization.
Toni
