It must have been a frightful thing for the Israelites when they lost their leader, Moses. This strong man of faith had done miracles in their presence. He acted as their collective father in forming and shaping them. He was their priest who pleaded with God on their behalf. Now Moses is dead. 

As is always the case God does not leave the Israelites, either in spirit or leadership. God knew that they needed someone to lead them the rest of the way to the Promised Land because they had not grown to maturity. They were still infants. So God placed Joshua as the new leader. Joshua had been faithful to Moses and saw firsthand the faithfulness of God to Moses, so when God visits Joshua and calls him as leader of the Israelites, we do not see the same struggle we saw with Moses when God called him. I love the first part of verse 10…”Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people.” He seemingly took God’s call to heart, he had no fear, and he was strong and courageous. 

My prayer for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church is that we have pastors that are led by God and those pastors are sensitive to modeling that to the younger generation. There are people in the pews that will be the next leaders. By the way we live, we interact, and the seriousness we take in our ministry, someone will hear that same call to leadership, but they will have witnessed firsthand how God has been faithful and they will step up “Be strong and very courageous” leading us to new ministries and a deeper relationship with God and one another.