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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Not just any man: Part 2

"Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness.  According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition.  I, the LORD, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me.  In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.  As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, even those men brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague by the LORD.  But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land."--Numbers 14:33-37.  I chose to type this out because one verse alone does not paint a big enough picture to cover what I want to cover.  This is part 2 of my blog dealing with leadership.  Some people may be leaders but we can have good leaders and bad leaders.  Twelve men went to spy out the land in Numbers 13 but only two had favorable reports.  The other ten had bad reports about the land and in turn caused the nation of Israel to rebel against Moses and against God.

Not just any man.  Here we see the impact the leadership can have on an entire group of people.  Here in Numbers 13-14, ten out of twelve gave a bad report and claimed the land could not be taken despite the fact that God promised that it would be taken.

Not just any man.  So what can we learn from this? Well something we need to keep in mind is that if we aspire to leadership, what are we going to do when the people we are leading want to follow the masses instead of the few who want to see God's will accomplished? The answer to this question is another reason leaders cannot be just any man.

Not just any man.  Leadership is a heavy responsibility no doubt.  Here in the events of Numbers 13-14, we find one reason why it is such a heavy responsibility.  In Numbers 13-14, the leadership had an impact on whether or not the congregation of Israel would even enter the Promised Land. The leadership cost the entire nation of Israel everything they had been working for and preparing for.  The Promised Land was only days away and because of a few men's disbelief and disobedience, they would now have to wait 40 years and for an entire generation of Israelites to die off before they could even go in. This is another reason why leaders cannot be just any man.

Not just any man.  I hate to admit that I have witnessed firsthand how just a small handful of men can lead an entire congregation of the Lord's church astray and cause that same congregation to risk losing their eternal salvation.  Again, this is why a leader cannot be just any man.

Not just any man.  Here in Numbers 13-14, we can also turn our attention to Joshua and Caleb. These two men would enter the Promised Land because of their faith in God and their willingness to stand up for what God had promised even when the majority was against them.  This is the sort of leaders God wants.  Those who will stand up for His will when everyone else is rebelling.  This is why leaders cannot be just any man.

Not just any man.  If you consider yourself to be a follower as opposed to a leader, there is application for you too.  My encouragement to you is to seek out leaders who are truly desiring to do God's will without compromising it in any way.  These are the leaders we need to follow and these are the leaders we need to be.  Leaders cannot be just any man.

Not just any man.  So my encouragement to you is this, do not be afraid to stand up for God's will even when you are the only one.  Realize that even if you are the only one standing up for God's will, your reward is great.  Out of an entire generation of Israelites that would die before seeing the Promised Land, Joshua and Caleb were the exceptions. Why? Because they stood up for God's will even when thousands were rebelling. So what would you do? Food for thought.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!

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