Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.
Numbers 13:2
Among the twelve spies that scouted out Canaan, only Joshua and Caleb believed that the Israelites could take the land. Joshua urged the people to move forward, but his influence could not sway them. Despite having the title and position of leadership, at this juncture of his life, Joshua had not matured into a place of great influence. Even though he was right, he couldn’t persuade the people to follow. They didn’t look to him; instead, they followed the other ten spies.
Joshua’s success would eventually grow in proportion to his leadership, but he needed time to deepen his influence. Moses personally mentored him, and eventually Joshua became the obvious leader to take the Israelites into the Promised Land.
There are five precepts of a leader’s influence to be learned from this passage: 1. True leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less. 2. Leaders do not possess the same amount of influence in every area. 3. Leaders’ influence can be either positive or negative. 4. Faithful leaders use their influence to add value. 5. With influence comes responsibility.
Leadership is influence. The true measure of leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less. Therefore, we are all leaders. Joshua came face-to-face with the true nature of leadership when he failed to influence the people to follow his lead. His leadership position and title as tribal leader did nothing to help him influence others.
Leaders do not possess influence in every area. Those selected to spy out the Promised Land were “every one a leader”. That means that Joshua was a leader with some influence, but his influence apparently didn’t outweigh that of the other ten leaders.
Our influence is either positive or negative. You will influence others - whether you want to or not – either positively or negatively. If all twelve spies had given a positive report of the Promised Land, the people of Israel would likely have obeyed God and crossed over into the land. But influence is a two-edged sword; it cuts both positively and negatively. The ten unfaithful tribal leaders used their influence to lead the people astray – a disaster for those leaders and for all of their followers.
Faithful leaders use their influence to add value. Influencers who lead out of a desire to advance their own agendas manipulate the people for their own gain. That’s what the other ten spies did. Their fear prompted them to use their influence to frighten Israel. They lied, claiming the land “devours its inhabitants”. On the other hand, Joshua and Caleb desired to motivate their countrymen to do what would benefit everyone – always the agenda of great leaders.
With influence comes responsibility. Maybe the ten unfaithful tribal leaders didn’t want to start a rebellion, yet that’s exactly what they did. Following their negative report, the people sought to depose Moses and Aaron and return to Egypt. As a result those ten leaders died of plague, and all of their followers also died in the desert.
To be continued in a subsequent blog…
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