Thinking About a Legacy
In Joshua 4:4-7 we read “So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe: and Joshua said to them, Cross again to the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So, these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.”
We see Joshua was called to establish a memorial that would be a perpetual legacy to the faithfulness of God toward the nation of Israel. The term “legacy” is defined as “something transmitted or received from an ancestor or predecessor.”
A thought; as a Christian or faith-based business we want to build and leave a legacy that says to all who come behind us both within the walls of our corporation and at a minimum the industry we are a part of “we serve a mighty God.”
I challenged our staff to think on this statement for a moment. “None of us sitting in this room were a part of originally committing this business to the Lord. None of us here were around when the vision was cast to dedicate Newby Management to God. However, we have all (regardless of our own faith) been a recipient of that legacy and we are all a part of its future.”
All the way over at the end of the book of Joshua, he is dying. He gathers the nation together and he begins reviewing the legacy that has been theirs. He retells all that God has accomplished for and through them. One verse stood out to me as I prepared this devotion; Joshua 24:13 states “I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.”
How blessed we are to be a part of leaving a legacy for those who will come behind us, to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. More than this to share in the privilege of pointing others to faithfulness of our Heavenly Father.
Here is a final thought; Why build a faith legacy? Because everything else is wood, hay and stubble.