He was born into slavery and remained a slave through his early adulthood. He had known the whip of the Egyptian taskmaster, the cries of his people and a personal helplessness to defend the weary who collapsed under the weight of Pharaoh's demands. Like so many of his people, he cried unto Yahweh for deliverance and waited...
He had no formal education, no degrees or scholastic accomplishments. He had learned to read and write at his father's knee and to listen attentively to the stories of his people that were handed down from generation to generation. From Adam to Goshen they were told and retold, burned into the soul of each new generation, stories of one patriarch after another and their personal encounters with the Almighty God. Carefully they were preserved and carefully they were rehearsed into the ears of the children who grew up knowing the laws of God long before they were ever written down.
We first hear of Joshua in the 17th chapter of Exodus when Moses commissioned him to lead the army against the Amaleks. But if we can see him in the spirit, before Moses, before their deliverance, we can see a young man of strong spirit and strong spiritual faith. Joshua probably encouraged the people to trust Moses for he could see the anointing on him and he knew in his heart that Moses was sent to deliver them. Joshua himself was paying close attention. I can also envision Moses noticing Joshua who helped Aaron to rally these people and follow his lead without question.
Joshua was too young to remember Moses' glory years in Egypt, being about thirty-nine years of age at the time of the Exodus, but he had heard the stories and now, face to face, he would follow the man of God as he followed Yahweh himself. He could not know that he had been hand-picked to succeed Moses, neither of them knew at the beginning, but there was certainly the sense of divine connection and brotherhood and heart witnessing to heart.
He stuck to Moses like glue, made himself available and with all respect made himself a servant. As the journey progressed, the anointing of Moses began to overflow onto Joshua. Not only did Joshua have a pure heart toward Moses and toward God, but he had a vision of the divine placement of his people, this nation of refugees traveling toward a promised land that had been waiting for them since the days of Abraham.
Joshua was born Hoshea but was renamed Joshua by Moses, meaning "The Lord is Salvation." It is also another name for Jesus. He became a spiritual disciple of Moses, accompanying him halfway up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. He would in time become a leader possessing the Lord's spirit and prophetic sanction.
We talk with excitement about the days we are living in, this time of seeing the stage being set, the harvesting of the fields and the anticipated rapture of the church.
It is a fact, He is coming for those who are looking for Him, so watch faithfully, and listen carefully for the call to "come up here." It is an exciting time when prophecies are being fulfilled on a daily basis and in the face of it all, we who see, and hear and perceive in our spirit-filled hearts are lifted with the excitement of our anticipation.
With the same understanding, try to imagine the exhilaration Joshua experienced, living each prophecy come to pass and, like his patriarch fathers, seeing the mightiness of the Almighty in one miracle after another. How his own spirit must have soared - and trembled - as he heard the words of Moses that commissioned him to choose us out men to go out and fight Amalek.
Hear these words: choose us out men... Moses, speaking by the Spirit, chose out Joshua, and now Joshua, chosen to command the army, was to choose other men of valor.
He would choose those with the vision, those who would believe God and follow God's anointed. God has always, and always will, choose those with valiant hearts and the heart of a servant to go forth in His army.
Joshua already knew that victory was theirs, that God did not take them from Goshen and lead them with a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day, providing every need, only to have them slaughtered in the wilderness. Joshua rallied his officers for the battle and called out the chosen. Such lofty honor for men who had been bound in chains not so long ago...
You know the story - how the Israelites prevailed as long as Moses could hold the Rod of God over them, but when his arms tired and dropped, the Israelites suffered. Hur and Aaron held up the arms of a weary Moses and the Israelites were victorious.
The call of Joshua and the race set before him was now made clear, for following their victory, God said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. (Exodus 17:14).
"Rehearse it in the ears of Joshua,
rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, rehearse it in the ears of Joshua..." Oh, what a statement. What a command. What a divine confirmation of a Holy calling. Fathers and mothers had rehearsed the stories of their people into the ears of their children since the days of Adam, but now God was saying to Moses, write down in a book all that has happened and rehearse it into the ears of JOSHUA - not the people - not Aaron - not Hur, but JOSHUA!I can just see the face of Moses beaming with revelation as he understood God's command: "You see, Moses, I have chosen Joshua to succeed you as the leader of my people and I do not want him to forget my faithfulness. I want him to remember that I am The Lord God of all Israel, that my promises are yea and A-men and if he will trust me and obey me, I will be with him as I have been with you."
"So rehearse it in his ears, Moses, over and over and over again, and keep on rehearsing it until faith has consumed him and there is nothing left of him but the God kind of faith, faith that can command the sun to stand still..."
Oh, how we need to rehearse the Word of God into the ears of our children, our families, our neighbors, and the saints as well as the lost. And oh, how God's people need God-like faith today...
God gave Joshua wisdom and today he is still acclaimed as a military genius, a spiritual giant, who led the army by ceremony (Joshua 4:1-7), by Word (Joshua 10:25) and by example of his own life (Joshua 24:15. Moses ordained him with the laying on of his hands in the plains of Moab, and charged him before God and the people, and thirty days after the death of Moses, when mourning had ended, God spoke to Joshua in the first chapter of the Book of Joshua, charging him from the throne in his call as Prophet/Leader/Judge of Israel. It is a special covenant between God and Joshua and the study of it will encourage any heart that embraces it and seeks to enter into that covenant with like faith.
He who had served Moses well for forty years was now called forth to lead, reminding us that he who would lead well must first learn to serve well. He would still be a servant, serving the Most High God Of Israel with all of his strength, his mind, his might, and his heart, knowing that every conquest would be a spiritual experience, that only faithful obedience to God's direction would bring any conquest at all. Whatever the Lord said "DO", Joshua did, and the Lord was with him all the days of his life, as he had promised.
Joshua was 110 years of age when he called the people together and challenged them with his famous words, "choose this day whom ye will serve... as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." He died and was buried in the land of his inheritance. And all the people of Israel kept their covenant to follow God as long as the Elders who had served with Joshua lived. Soon however, they too passed away and new leaders arose and new gods with them. Israel would resurrect her troubled course of history, see-sawing back and forth between two options - Yahweh and Ba'al...
But, God's words are without repentance. Some six hundred years later He would say to Isaiah...(Chapter 6):
"Go, and tell this people...until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof."
He was telling Isaiah, "rehearse it in their ears, rehearse it in their ears - though they will not hear or see or perceive in their hearts, continue to rehearse it in their ears until the land is made desolate and they are carried away into Babylon. Yet will one tenth return, the remnant, to rebuild and reestablish. Rehearse it Isaiah - so they will remember"...
A few days ago the Lord ministered these things to my heart, showing me that in the days of the exodus and the carrying away into Babylon, there was need for only one Joshua and one Isaiah, but today, He is searching out the hearts of servants who will rise up as Joshuas and Isaiahs to rehearse it into the ears of the people. Although the Spirit of the Lord is poured out upon sons and daughters to prophesy, not all will walk in the spirit of Joshua who walked in the spirit of God. To be a Joshua one must be without doubt, without wavering, and without personal consideration. To be a Joshua, one cannot lay claim to self, personal rights or field of service.
God has discipled and prepared Joshuas for today but not all will hear His invitation to come forth, and of those who hear, even fewer will answer it. Many are busy with their own agendas, building ministries that are good and profitable for the body as it is today, but not necessarily in line with God's real call for them. He will not force you, rather you must bow to Him and enter into His covenant with Joshua which is ongoing with the Blood Covenant you have already entered into. Both are entered into by faith, but the Joshua covenant requires the prerequisite to surrender all, and trust Him as men and women of faith who will follow him regardless of the circumstances and regardless of the cost.
The Lord asks, "Who will go for us, whom shall we send?" The Lord always speaks in the plural when the creative and redemptive trinity is involved. What will your answer be? Will it be as Isaiah's, "Here am I, Lord, send me."
Do you want to be a Joshua? Do you? Or perhaps an Isaiah?
It won't be easy, and it won't be instant. It will be costly and it will be demanding. You must be Spirit-filled, totally trusting, and you must have the Servant's heart. Only you and God can determine if you are sincere. Read Gideon's account of the 300 chosen at the river. (Judges 7 - The true soldier considers battle conditions before gratification of personal needs. ) Then, if you still want to be numbered among the Joshuas, the Isaiahs, and the Gideons, just bow the knee and the heart and wait upon the Lord...
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