THE VISION BEARERS

Deuteronomy 31:1-13

Saturday, 04 October 2025

Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. -Deuteronomy 31:7

It is an accepted fact that a divine vision will never lack resources to accomplish it.

Passing on responsibility is equally important in ministry as that of doing the ministry. Unless there is proper leadership to carry on with the fulfillment of the vision; all the work of the previous generation will not avail much. Because Jesus said: … appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…(John 15:16)

Here in today's meditation we have a real example from which we can draw much for our understanding on how to raise up and transfer the leadership to godly leaders.

1. Raising up godly leaders:

Moses was a mighty leader chosen and used by the Lord—and now God Himself is going to replace him. But by the wisdom given by God, Moses all through the epic journey of Israel, kept Joshua by his side. He was in turn imparting the vision to Joshua. This impartation of vision needs a closer walk. We see similar examples in the case of: Elijah & Elisha; Jesus & the Apostles; Paul & Timothy etc. 

One of the important purposes of discipling is the impartation of the God-given vision to the discipled ones. The model Jesus showed through His earthly ministry was the same. In other words, He was showing us the heavenly vision through His life and ministry and trained others to follow the same.

Spiritual discipling includes impartation of life into others by supreme sacrifice of the self, a “dying of the self” in order to bring life to others. “.. unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” (John12:24) As one’s ministry comes to a close, others rise up. God’s work continues! Here Moses is going to wind up his ministry and before it happens, he commissions the next leader. 

2. Godly principles written down and taught:

Before the successor can be promoted to the platform of leadership, we need to make sure that the foundations are laid correctly. Others can build on top of it. That is what Paul says: “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it...” (1Cor. 3:10)

Moses had it written down and had it handed over to the Levites and instructed them to follow the same. So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, ...(Deut. 31:9).During the initial stages of church history (around AD 300) there arose lot of theological confusions. Hence the Christian leaders came together to finalize the canon of Scriptures and compiled it together and gave it to the church—today’s Bible. This was a complete revelation of God’s Word for all Christians everywhere to follow! 

Similarly it is very important to have the heavenly vision written down so that the next Generation can follow.

3. Ordaining the Leader:

For a leader to be accepted and approved in a given society, the present leadership needs to acknowledge him before others and has to lay hands on him in order to transfer the anointing. Both godly acceptance and the acceptance of the assembly isneeded in order to function fully. 

Encouragement to new leaders: And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."(Deuteronomy 31:8)