There’s a third thing I want to mention, and that is that a person who would be a leader must know, and have, and study, and meditate upon God’s objective revelation. It’s important to say that because that subjective and specific call must always be evaluated by, and at times, corrected by, the objective Word of God. This is very important because if you say to yourself, “Well, I think God wants me to do this,” when, in fact, what you think God wants you to do isn’t at all in conformity with the principles of Scripture, you’re simply wrong. God isn’t leading you to do that at all. What God leads you to do subjectively must always be in terms of Scripture’s objective commands. And the only way you’re ever going to be able to evaluate God’s call properly is by knowing the Word of God thoroughly.
There’s a great example of this here in this first chapter. Joshua had just been told that he was to be the commander of the people, and he was to lead them into the Promised Land. And he did. He took over. He said, “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your supplies ready. Three days from now, you’ll cross the Jordan and go in, and take possession of the land.’” He did all of that. And the next thing that follows is a reference to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh concerning their land and the fact that although they were to be given land on the east side of the Jordan, they were, nevertheless, to go with the people to conquer Palestine.
Why is that so important? It is important because those commands were given by Moses and recorded in the books of the Old Testament, which at that point Joshua already had and had already undoubtedly made it his business to study and obey. You see, once in the book of Numbers and a second time in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses, the commander at that time, had stipulated precisely what Joshua refers to here. But the point I’m making is that although he had received this personal call to be the commander of the people, Joshua began to exercise his obedience in that call by searching out the Word and reinforcing what God had already said. You and I must do that. There is nothing so important for a Christian leader than to know the Word of God, and to search it out, and to study it, and to meditate upon it, and to obey it, and then to communicate it to the people for whom you are given special responsibility.
