Joshua: Allegiance

Joshua next makes an appearance in Numbers 11  – I’ll be using the Message paraphrase:

“So Moses went out and told the people what God had said.  He called together seventy of the leaders and had them stand around the Tent.  God came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy leaders.  When the Spirit rested on them they prophesied.  But they didn’t continue; it was a onetime event.  Meanwhile two men, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp.  They were listed as leaders but they didn’t leave camp to go to the Tent.  Still, the Spirit also rested on them and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”  Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ right-hand man since his youth, said, “Moses, master!  Stop them!” But Moses said, “Are you jealous for me?  Would that all God’s people were prophets.  Would that God would put his Spirit on all of them.” [v. 24-29]

Once again we come to a moment when Joshua speaks up and is wrong.  Only this time Moses corrects him in front of 68 leaders of the tribe – not just leaders, but recently Spirit endowed men.  The scene must have been electrifying as these men were all gathered together prophesying, speaking the things of God aloud.  I would imagine it to be one of the great spiritual moments of the Israelite’s journey.

Yet, here is Joshua, opening his mouth again.  It’s seems clear that Joshua is telling Moses what to do, which probably comes from the place that he had in Moses’ life.  I would imagine that Moses asked Joshua’s thoughts quite often as he raised Joshua up as a leader.  They had been together for quite awhile at this point, and Moses, therefore, knew that Joshua’s intentions weren’t to push him around or tell him what to do.  Rather, this statement was a reflection of Joshua’s desire to protect his leader, his mentor, and his spiritual father.  Though he might have been wrong in what he thought should happen, the more important thing here is his dedication to Moses.

Authority is something to which our current generations do not adhere very well.  We value independent thinking, personal autonomy, and the right to free speech, to bear arms, etc.  But there is a distinct difference between the value of independence and the value of dependence on someone who has been appointed by God.  For whatever reason, though all men are created equal, not all men can handle the same spiritual weight.  I am not sure this is simply a God-given trait, so much as an issue of the heart.  The leaders who have been placed in our lives as authority, more often than not, have a great reverence for God and an enormous desire to honor him.  True, men fall, women fail, and no human is perfect.  But God is faithful.  There is always something to learn from every situation, human failings or not.

That is why Joshua was willing to make a bold standard of, “They shouldn’t be prophesying outside the camp, they were being rebellious and staying home!”  His thought process was clearly that they should be punished.  But what he couldn’t see clearly was the strain it put on Moses to maintain the spiritual weight of the people.  Though he was dependent on God, fully reliant, and sold out to the glory of his God, he needed help – which was the purpose of the Lord passing his Spirit to the elders in the first place.

Once again, it was important for Joshua to speak up, even though he made a mistake, because he learned something.  Secondly, it is a vital part of our lives to honor the leaders placed in our lives and to protect them.