Stewardship simply implies ministry or service. In other words, a steward is a minister, custodian or servant.

The Bible calls us servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1). Moreover, God has placed a demand on every kingdom oriented steward – faithfulness (1 Cor. 4:2; Heb. 3:1-2).

A man who sees himself as a true custodian of God’s resources will never seek his own glory, rather he seeks the glory and the praise of God (John 7:18). Such a person’s life will always command the presence and the glory of God.

Today’s anchor text gave us a brief introduction into the life of a young man called Joshua. Moses chose him to select some men and lead them to the battle against the Amalekites. What a great task!

Let’s quickly examine the pedigree (ancestry) of Joshua the son of Nun. He was a descendant of Ephraim, the second son of Joseph, who was the eleventh son of Jacob. He was formerly named Hoshea, but Moses renamed him Joshua (Num. 13:8, 16).

In Genesis 48:5-7, Jacob prophetically declared the two sons of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) as his own children. These two had to be engrafted into the commonwealth of Israel for specific assignments to be fulfilled in the future…

Known unto God are all His works from eternity (Acts 15:18).
I believe God deliberately allowed these two children of Joseph to be infused into the patriarchal order, so that they could partake of the suffering that would later be inflicted upon the Israelites. The suffering was indeed part of the syllabus (process) which God was taking them through… (2 Tim. 2:11-12).

Moses might have had a background information about Joshua before they left Egypt. Perhaps he received a divine instruction from God to start observing, encouraging and nurturing the young man.

On his own part, Joshua remained a truly committed man to this glorious mandate that seemed humanly impossible. He automatically signed on as ‘the servant of Moses’ while he was still in a ‘strange land’…
Are you still holding on faithfully to the Word of God even in the midst of your ‘strange land’ experiences?
All the words that were being professed as the promises of God seemed not to be forthcoming, yet, he held on to the master and his words jealously.

All this while, nobody knew or mentioned the name of Joshua. As a young man, he was spiritually sensitive enough the see the grace of God upon Moses. He was not in a hurry to come into limelight. As a descendant of Joseph, who was supposed to dwell in wealth and luxury, he was subjected to servitude alongside with other young men like Caleb and others… Yet, they still found a place in their hearts to serve the Lord with gladness. 

The time came for Joshua to be made known to Israel. However, this wasn’t going to come on a platter of gold. Israel had just been waylaid by their enemy – the Amalekites. Without prior experience of warfare, Moses told him to choose some men and lead them to battle against the Amalekites. In absolute obedience to divine instructions, Joshua led Israel to the battle against Amalek while Moses stood on the mountain, with his hands lifted up, interceding with the rod of God in his hand.

Moses in this scenario, represented Christ, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession (Heb. 3:1), while Joshua in this scenario, was a type of Christ, the Captain of our salvation, who was perfected through sufferings (Heb. 2:10).
And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword…

Hallmarks of Stewardship:
Service
Commitment
Loyalty/faithfulness to God