"Will Obey For Applause"
The Lord replied, "Take Joshua son of Nun, who has the Spirit in him, and lay your hands on him. Present him to Eleazar the priest before the whole community, and publicly commission him to lead the people. (Numbers 27:18, 19 NLT)
Moses is ending the time of his leadership of God's people. Aaron has already been "gathered to his ancestors." It's interesting to me how they die. God tells them, "The time of your death has come." Moses went up the mountain with Aaron and came down without him. No sickness, no tragic accident, just God told him his time was up and he was gone. Gives me great hope for seeing that our days are in the hand and heart of God.
Now it's Moses' turn to die. He has lead the people and served his God well and his leadership has come to an end. The Lord reveals that Joshua will be the next leader of his people. Joshua as you remember has been with Moses since the early days of the Exodus. He was with Moses in the tent of meeting when they met with the Lord on behalf of the people. When Moses would exit the presence of the Lord Joshua stayed behind. God has been preparing Joshua for this moment for some time. He has big shoes to fill to say the least. Joshua was also one of only two spies who gave a favorable report and felt like they should go and take the land the Lord had provided.
Do you remember the other spy?
It was only a few chapters ago. Here's the thing, this guys was not chosen as the next leader of God's people. He did not have a book of the Bible written about him. In fact, Caleb is mostly non-existent for the rest of the account of God's people. We see him again when it comes to the allotment of land but other than that he is relatively obscure in the grand scheme of things.
Sometimes faithfulness to God does not lead to notoriety. Sometimes God calls us to be faithful and he is the only one that notices. Sometimes we have been just as faithful to God as others but they get the promotion, the title, more speaking opportunities, a larger influence, a grander stage, or some other form of "blessing" that we don't get. This happens all the time in the lives of faithful people of God. I'm not sure if it ever crossed Caleb's mind. The Bible doesn't say. But if I were him, I would want a share of the limelight.
The call to follow the Lord & be faithful to his word is about simply that, not about the reward we get from it. Don't get me wrong, that life is immensely rewarding. The consequences of not following the Lord are clearly displayed here in the book of Numbers. But, obedience should be about honoring the Lord and not about what we get out of it. Reward, notoriety, fame, acknowledgement (really us) becomes our god, not God. We live for the applause and recognition of men rather than the applause of God. Many people who were unquestionably faithful to God were never applauded by men. In fact, the most pleasing man to God to ever walk the face of the earth was executed at 33 by religious followers of the same God.
I say all that to say, if our obedience is contingent on applause and recognition, our obedience will come and go with the applause. When others recognize us we will be glad to be faithful. As soon as it is not to our advantage to be obedient we will lack it in our lives. Our obedience should be based on the Word of God and not on our current circumstances. This what I believe both Joshua and Caleb would tell us if they could.
In the end, God is the reward, not stuff. He's much better anyway!
Jesus said something similar in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. He told us when we pray to go into our closet and the Lord who sees what is done in secret will reward you. If we fail to do this, the praise of people will be our reward, therefore, forfeiting any reward from the Lord.
This truth is sobering. How many things have I done in my life for the applause and therefore have my reward? How many rewards from God have I squandered because of my need for human approval? The measure of our lives, faithfulness, obedience, effectiveness, etc. should always be God not others. Not how many books we write, churches we lead, promotions we get, etc. He is the standard. He is the one we should seek to please. If he is pleased, what other applause would we need?
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