Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Joshua is dead, but the legend lives on, right? Well, yes and no.
Though we have the Biblical record of Joshua’s deeds in the Pentateuch and the book that bears his name, he is never mentioned in the New Testament. No one—not Jesus, not Paul, not Peter or John—holds him up as an example for believers. He never is heralded for his faith, his courage, his leadership skills, his zeal for God—or for anything else.
Does this curious absence somehow diminish Joshua’s importance? Not in the slightest. He is a worthy example for us in many ways, and all the more so because his qualities sometimes shine through amid frailties. He is exemplary in his zeal for God (3:5; 7:19; 24:15). He is a magnificent leader, perhaps because he is such a willing follower (4:15–17; 5:2–3; 6:2–8; 20:1–8). He is clearly courageous—and yet, he seems to have been a worrier (1:9; 8:1; 10:8; 11:6). And he is truly faithful, even though he apparently needs frequent reassurance (1:3; 6:2; 8:1; 10:8).
The fact is, Joshua would be just as exemplary even if God had decreed that he not be mentioned in the Bible at all. The true “greatness” of a person is not measured by prominence in history books or longevity in the memories of subsequent generations. Rather, it is defined by usefulness in the hands of Him who wields His vessels for His own ends. In this sense, Joshua was great indeed.
But we must step back another pace and remind ourselves that Joshua was useful because God made Him so. God created him, chose him, molded him, raised him up at the proper time, and guided him for the purpose of leading Israel into Canaan. He was able to carry out his task because God kept His promise: “ ‘As I was with Moses, so I will be with you’ ” (1:5b). He was God’s chosen instrument, His man for the hour.
Thus, in the final analysis, the book of Joshua is not intended to give us a record of the deeds of a great man. It records the deeds of a great God.
We’ll begin to see many more men and women of the hour as we study the book of Judges—people raised up by God for particular purposes at particular times. Such people fill the Scriptures and the pages of history. And there are such men and women in our midst today, for God remains at work, establishing His people, building His church. Most of them will be unremarked by history, but God will make a name for Himself through them, as He did through Joshua.
Do not worry, therefore, about your legacy. Content yourself to be God’s man or woman of the hour for whatever purpose He has decreed. Trust Him to be with you through it all—and to guide you over Jordan and into the sweet rest that awaits you. The legacy will be God’s. And that is as it should be.