Joshua had a weakness....?

Here's the short version of one part of a study I've been doing on my Biblical mentor, Joshua:

At our Minister’s meeting last Tuesday, Pastor wrote some Biblical names on the board and we had a discussion on them. Four of them were great leaders who reached their destiny because they had a mentor and then there were three who reached their fate because they chose to get from under covering. At the end of the conversation Pastor asked each of us how we were going to take that information and apply it to our lives. My answer was that I would not allow my mentor’s weaknesses to be my weaknesses. E has begun to refer to me as Joshua and I’ve always admired Joshua and I have deemed him my Biblical mentor. As I was studying him over the last few days, I was reminded of what I told Pastor, “not allow my mentor’s weaknesses to be my weaknesses”. In order for that to happen, I had to first discover what Joshua’s weakness was, because prior to that I didn’t see him having any. That journey lead to the discovery of his temporary weakness, he had trouble following the “system”. The system that Moses set in place was that nothing was done without God’s approval. Every time Moses did something, he inquired of God or God told him to do such and such.

Up until the battle of Ai, Joshua had never experienced defeat, then came that day. He sent up part of his army and was quickly defeated. Distraught, he went before God discouraged and ready to throw in the towel. God, with very little pity told him to get up and get right. Joshua did not seek God and God did not speak before that battle, Joshua took the advice of the people around him. Moses never did, he always went to the Lord. At the battle of Jericho, God told Joshua exactly what to do and he succeeded. After Joshua got right and followed the system, he easily defeated the Amorites.

The next instance was with the Gibeonites. They heard what happen to the Amorites and thought of a clever way to save themselves by deceiving Joshua and saying they came from a long way when they were actually neighboring cities. It says in 9:14 that Joshua and his men did not inquire of the Lord. Therefore, they made a peace treaty with them and once they found out they were a neighboring city they could do nothing. This lead to Joshua and his people having to fight a battle for the Gibeonites that I don’t think they were ever suppose to fight. I say that because (Joshua 10:11,13) 1) God wound up killing more of them with the hailstorm then the fighting men and 2) Joshua had to stop time in order to complete the battle; he caused the sun to stand still.

But, Joshua learned and got back on the system and went on a rampage defeating and destroying everyone and everything. (Joshua 10:40,42) The only exception was with Gibeon (Joshua 11:19).

So Joshua realized his weakness, it may have taken a couple of defeats, but when he learned the importance of the system he was able to turn it around and go on to greatness. Now I must look at this and not allow it to be my weakness. I must look at my successes and failures and see what the differences were, was it because I did not follow the system that lead to success in other cases? There is a system to everything. Learn from other's mistakes so they don't become your mistakes, too!!

God's grace