A Biblical Transition Story
From Moses to Joshua
The greatest human figure of the Old Testament was Moses. His greatness is attested to in several places but perhaps no more powerfully than by the fact that he was one of the two men appointed by Christ to stand with him at his transfiguration.[1]
But New Testament attestation to Moses’ unique place does not cease there. The author of Hebrews demonstrates that Christ was greater than even Moses, underlining the fact that many Jews, even those expressing affinity with the early Christian church, needed to be shown that there was indeed someone greater than Moses in order to develop the confidence for them to fully relinquish their hearts to the messiah, Jesus Christ.[2]
Though Moses was but a man, he was given extraordinary affirmations of his foundational leadership position by the hand of God himself. Even his birth came about as the result of God’s immediate and direct intervention in the preservation of his sovereign plan to establish his people.[3] Of this, the Old Testament commentator R. Alan Cole notes,
“As in the New Testament, God’s chosen agent is protected: neither Pharaoh nor Herod can stand in the way of God’s plan.”[4]
Preceding Moses’ birth, Pharaoh had issued an edict commanding the Hebrew midwives to put to death all the Hebrew boys born in his realm.[5] However, as Cole observes,
“No eastern mother could bring herself to abandon a sturdy boy-baby like this. We may suspect that a girl-baby might not have fared so well, but they did not come under the Pharaoh’s decree of execution. In all of this, God’s providence was at work.”[6]
The baby-boy, Moses, was discovered by none other than one of Pharaoh’s own daughters, thus affirming God’s special purpose for him.[7]
Moses’ subsequent escape from the Egyptian authorities and his later sojourn in the wilderness stand as further evidence that God was doing something extraordinarily purposeful in his life.[8] That said, as the late J.A. Motyer notes, “How could Moses, no matter how ‘great’ he was in Egypt, singlehandedly tackle and overthrow all the power of Pharaoh upon his throne?” He then adds, “Moses, who humanly speaking, had ‘messed the whole thing up,’ found safety, home, and family awaiting him, made ready by a gracious but yet undeclared providence.”[9]
After many years of exile, Moses’ call to ministry at the burning bush highlights once again God’s unique design for this man.[10] “It was,” as Motyer observes, “during the encounter with the awesome and holy angel of the Lord that Moses learned what his life mission was to be. The task set before him by God was ‘to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’”[11]
Moving beyond his early years, he gradually developed an intimate relationship with God that continued to the end of his life when, in Exodus 33, God spoke “face to face” with Moses.[12] Cole comments that God’s speaking “face to face” with Moses indicates that “God will speak to Moses ‘mouth to mouth,’ that is to say, not in dreams and visions, but clearly and directly.”[13] J.I. Durham adds:
“As the second of these narratives makes clear, ‘face to face’ is here to be understood as an idiom of intimacy.”[14]
So great was God’s affection for Moses that he blessed him with a profoundly intimate companionship throughout his life, as well as the utterly unique honor of a burial ceremony undertaken by his own divine hand![15]
Throughout his ministry, Moses was used by God in a way different than any other leader of the nation before or since.[16] And all this in spite of the fact that he was not a perfect man as demonstrated not only by his ill-advised murder of the Egyptian taskmaster but also by his direct disobedience of God at Meribah, a transgression that would cost him the blessing of entering into the promised land.[17]
Despite this, the words of Deuteronomy 34:10-12 affirm that Moses was a man like no other:
And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
Concerning the juxtaposition of this affirmation and Moses’ being banned from entering the promised land, Christopher Wright, the International Director of the Langham Partnership and a noted Old Testament scholar, writes:
Centuries of Jewish reflection on Moses’ death outside the land have produced various explanations. One interesting view is that the scriptures had to emphasize the mortality of Moses in order to balance the emphasis through the Pentateuch (and especially through Deuteronomy) on his closeness to God. There was a danger that he (Moses)...might come to be unduly venerated.[18]
Based on the contents of the New Testament book of Hebrews, it seems that Wright’s concerns did indeed come to pass in the later history of the Jews.
Because of his relationship with God, one might think that Moses was a man puffed up with pride, thinking himself better and smarter than any of his peers. And yet, because of the regular frustrations he encountered in trying to lead the people, he repeatedly proved that he was humble and open to guidance. This is no better illustrated than in his gracious and affable response to his father-in-law Jethro’s critique of his model of leadership during Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness.[19]
Of this encounter, Cole says,
“Moses was humble enough and wise enough to learn from his father-in-law...meekness was the great distinguishing quality of Moses.”[20]
As Cole later underlines, as the original leader of the nation of Israel, Moses was specially called, highly gifted, and extraordinarily humble.
Moses’ meekness was instrumental in the challenging process of leadership transition soon to follow. The Lord understood the unique position he had called Moses to occupy as the liberator and first leader of the nation of Israel, and so, well before his tenure leading the people was to come to a close, the Lord entrusted Moses with the news that it would be Joshua who would succeed him.[21] Of this critical news, Wright notes,
“The mention of Joshua as his successor here at the beginning of the book (of Deuteronomy), linking up with the full description of it at the end, adds to the effect of the whole book standing as the ‘last will and testament’ of Moses.”[22]
However, even though Joshua was the one who was to succeed Moses, it is also clear that God had ordained an extended period of time between the revelation of Joshua’s successorship and Moses’ disclosure of God’s ultimate plan for that succession to the people.[23]
God’s revelation to Moses, accompanied with the great gift of humility he had been given, guided Moses throughout the journey of Israel in the wilderness since, on multiple occasions, he is giving opportunities to other godly men, often much younger than himself, to participate in the leadership of the nation, including his eventual successor Joshua.
Lorin Woolfe, who writes on the intersection of faith and business, observes,
“This was not an easy hand-off for Moses, but he handled it in a mature manner,” something that many original leaders have struggled to do.[24]
As Tichy, a frequent writer on transition in business, observes, real leaders understand that they must intentionally develop new leaders and therefore put people “in progressively more difficult situations where they have to make decisions, and then give them feedback and support.”[25] Thus, Moses gave Joshua the special military duty of leading the Israelites into battle against the Amalekites.[26]
Joshua, while becoming a capable military leader, was also entrusted with quasi-ecclesial duties such as tending to the tent of meeting.[27],[28] Woolfe explains, “In the Bible, anyone who wished to lead needed to be properly instructed, but the closest thing to a seminar room was the tent in which Moses mentored Joshua.”[29] He adds,
“Moses wasn’t just ‘teaching skills,’ he was grooming Joshua to lead the tribes of Israel.”[30]
Later, as the Israelites approached the promised land, Moses, with God’s guidance, gave opportunities to each of the nation’s tribal leaders to extend his own leadership and spy out the land. [31] Among them were his young protege Joshua and another young man named Caleb.
Woolfe makes note that
“Moses realized that if Joshua was to lead the nation of Israel, he needed a series of progressively responsible developmental assignments. One of these was to lead a reconnaissance mission to explore the promised land prior to invading it.”[32]
In this episode, both of these younger men (Joshua and Caleb) distinguished themselves as faithful servants of the Lord and their leader, Moses, when they returned to give their report of what they had seen.[33] Woolfe adds,
“(Joshua’s) leadership skills would be further developed as he tried to convince the majority of the people that this task could be accomplished and that they should not give up by returning to Egypt.”[34]
History records that Joshua was unsuccessful in this effort, yet his willingness to stand up in front of the nation to advocate for his convictions surely impacted his future development as a leader in waiting.[35]
The journey in the wilderness was long, but at each stage Moses, in obedience to his calling as the original leader of the nation of Israel, was grooming Joshua to succeed him. Tichy underlines this critical aspect of Moses’ calling:
“A person may have all the traits of a leader, but if he or she doesn’t personally see to the development of new leaders, the organization won’t be sustainable.”[36]
Eventually, when Moses finally did announce Joshua’s role to the nation, he made clear that the Lord would lead the people and not any one man.[37] As Wright observes,
“The first point Moses makes in his transfer speech is to reassure the people that the Lord your God Himself will cross over ahead of Israel into the land. Their survival and success depend on God’s leadership; their victories will be God’s.”[38]
Nevertheless, the Lord pressed Moses to publicly mark the transition of leadership from him, as their great founding leader, to his initial successor, so before he died the Lord commissioned and charged Joshua as the successor-leader of God’s people.[39] The Reformation Study Bible note on Deuteronomy 31:14 explains that:
“Joshua’s legitimacy and authority as Moses’ successor are underscored by his commission at the tent of meeting, accompanied by God’s appearance in the pillar of cloud.”[40]
Even as Moses’ life was drawing to a close, to further affirm Joshua’s leadership, he was given the honor of standing next to Moses as he recited his extraordinary song, thus providing an undeniable symbol of his leadership role among the people of God.[41]
Moses was inspired by the Lord to play an active part in the critical transition from his leadership to that of his successor, Joshua, and in large part, the tremendously complex leadership handoff between them went as smoothly as possible.
[1] Matthew 17:3.
[2] Hebrews 3:1-6.
[3] Exodus 1:15-2:4.
[4] R. Alan Cole, Exodus, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary (Leicester, England: Intervarsity Press, 1981), 56.
[5] Exodus 1:15-16.
[6] Cole, Exodus, 58.
[7] Exodus 2:5-10.
[8] Exodus 2:11-15.
[9] J. A. Motyer, The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2005), 40–41.
[10] Exodus 3:1-2.
[11] Motyer, The Message of Exodus, 54–55.
[12] Exodus 33:11.
[13] Cole, Exodus, 224.
[14] John I. Durham, Exodus, Word Biblical Commentary, (Waco, TX: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1987), 443.
[15] Deuteronomy 34:1-8.
[16] Exodus 3 through Deuteronomy.
[17] Numbers 20:10-13.
[18] Christopher, J.H. Wright, Deuteronomy, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: 1994, 312, Kindle.
[19] Exodus 18.
[20] Cole, Exodus, 142.
[21] Deuteronomy 1:38; 3:28.
[22] Wright, Deuteronomy, 32.
[23] From Deuteronomy 3 thru to Deuteronomy 31.
[24] Lorin Woolfe, The Bible on Leadership: From Moses to Matthew -- Management Lessons for Contemporary Leaders (New York: AMACOM, 2002), 214. Woolfe conveys stories of many founding corporate leaders who refused to hand over the baton of leadership when it was time (See Wolfe, 214-215).
[25] Noel M. Tichy, The Leadership Engine, 1st edition (New York: HarperBusiness, 2002), 85.
[26] Exodus 17:9ff Durham notes that the insertion of Joshua’s name in this passage is “abrupt” but that he is presented as “the military leader he came to be.” Durham, Exodus, 235.
[27] Durham indicates that the meaning of the term “tending” is closer to “guarding.” Durham, Exodus, 443.
[28] Exodus 33:11.
[29] Woolfe, The Bible on Leadership, 205.
[30] Woolfe, The Bible on Leadership, 201.
[31] Numbers 13.
[32] Woolfe, 206.
[33] Numbers 14:6-10.
[34] Woolfe, The Bible on Leadership, 206.
[35] Numbers 14:10.
[36] Tichy, The Leadership Engine, 43.
[37] Deuteronomy 31:3.
[38] Wright, Deuteronomy, 294.
[39] Deuteronomy 31:14ff.
[40] R. C. Sproul, The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version, Note on Deuteronomy 31:14, (Orlando, FL: P & R Publishing, 2005).
[41] Deuteronomy 32:44.
