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Prayer Time

Make a list of groups, small or large, where transitions are occurring, and pray daily for them.

How the Drama Develops DEUTERONOMY 27—JOSHUA 12

I have seen several notable changes of leadership in my lifetime. Presidents, for example, even in times of economic depression, war, and assassination. The papacy has had as big a transition in our time as perhaps in any single century, in the reigns of John XXIII and John Paul II. Each of us knows such a transition at a highly personal level, when a parent dies (especially the second parent) or when a parent is largely disabled by age or illness. Changes of leadership can be a painful affair, sometimes even disastrous.

But they can also go well—especially if the predecessor is happy about the successor and if the successor feels no need to discredit the predecessor. Israel went through a change of leadership at a time when that could have been fatal. The nation, after forty years of wilderness living and wandering, was now at the door of the land they sought. But their leader, Moses, couldn’t make the trip with them. It wasn’t a matter of age, though he was indeed old, because the writer says “his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated” (Deuteronomy 34:7). God had ordained, however, that Moses should not enter the promised land. It might have been an exciting time to succeed him, but it was also a hazardous time.

Joshua had two things going for him. One is that he had been trained by Moses. Second, and much more important, Joshua was called of God to his role. The call did not come to him as dramatically as it came to Moses, by a burning bush, but it was altogether as authentic. And it was reinforced when Joshua needed it most, just after the death of Moses: “As I was with Moses,” the Lord said, “so I will be with you” (Joshua 1:5). It was important for the people to know that Joshua was now their appointed leader, but it was even more important for Joshua himself to know it. Because if Joshua weren’t sure, in time the people would doubt it too.

Moses had been primarily the liberator, the guide, and the lawgiver. Joshua is to be a general, a man of war. That role may not appeal to our modern sensitivities, but the hard fact is, it was a job that had to be done. Joshua didn’t live in a perfect world (nor do we). It was his job to lead his nation into what was seen to be an area that was morally depraved, whose evil had become an abomination to God. So much so, the writer of Leviticus said, that “the land vomited out its inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:25).

This comes around to what I perceive to be a basic conviction of the Scriptures that ours is a moral universe, and as such it cannot forever endure immoral behavior. When the Scriptures say the land vomited out its inhabitants, the language is symbolic; but in some profound sense it is also factual. Everything about our universe, including nature itself, is meant to run on a pattern of goodness and purity. If that ultimate fact is violated over a period of time, something will happen. With nature, it may be the depletion of the soil, destroyed by human greed. With humankind, it may be the plagues we set lose. And also, with humankind, it is our wars, our economic depressions, our systems of self-destruction. I believe Joshua was an instrument in this process. In a perfect world Joshua’s invasion and its violence wouldn’t have been necessary. But this isn’t a perfect world.