The author sings the praises of Joshua and of Caleb. These two men stood against the entire nation
in the episode of the spies who came back with a good report of the land itself
but who discouraged Israel from going up to take the land for fear of the
people there. Joshua had a difficult
task, to follow in the footsteps of Moses.
Not many men could do that as well as Joshua. All he had to do was follow in the footsteps
of God, to go where He led and to be bold in advancing into the land. He had to have faith. All those years at the right hand of Moses in
the wilderness taught Joshua the way to lead God’s people was to listen to God
and believe that what He had promised would be fulfilled, no matter the
obstacle. “He called upon the Most High,
the Mighty One, when enemies pressed him on every side, and the great Lord
answered him with hailstones of mighty power.”
The leaders are aware that they are not in step with the
people but sometimes the arrogance of leadership allows you to simply discount
the people. Sometimes it is the job of a
leader to discern in such a way as to be out of step with the people, to see
things in truth when all about you are being deceived, to not run after the
latest fad. Sometimes that causes you to
miss a movement of God. In the case of
Jesus, there was simply too much to overlook to discern the truth. The signs and wonders, the teaching with
authority noted in Capernaum from the beginning of His public ministry, the
prophetic words of Simeon and Anna in the temple, all the fulfillment of the
Messianic prophecy, all these things should have validated Jesus in their
eyes. Their issue all along was who had
given Jesus the authority to do what He was doing. Was that authority from God or
Beelzebul? In this case, had some priest
given permission for Jesus to teach in the temple or had He presumed to this
work?
Paul’s desire is to stir the people to repentance by his
letter that he may find a people prepared for his visit in such a way that they
greet him with gladness and he not have to judge them harshly. Does that message sound familiar? It should, it is the message of John the Baptist
and it is the message Jesus gave in many parables about His return. Paul believed that one of his jobs vis a vis
the church was to speak the truth about sin in the body, that it was important
for leaders to be clear about sin. His goal
was always plain, the sanctification of believers and the body itself. If we know we have cancer in our bodies the
only rational response is to deal with it or it will ultimately kill the body
by taking away its ability to produce healthy cells. When leaders fail to act on cancer, in the
form of sin or false doctrine, ultimately the body will die. By whose authority do we act in this way, by
God’s authority, not man’s. I have
certainly been asked this question in ministry by men who thought they were
ultimately the ones who can give such authority as leaders in the church. They were wrong, the pastor’s authority never
comes from man.
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