Deuteronomy 31:14
Deuteronomy 31:1414Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, the time of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting.
The Watchtower reads leadership continuity through a Moses-and- seventy-elders lens: a single central figure with a council of helpers, continuing across generations. The Moses-figure role is functionally mapped to "the faithful and discreet slave" (the Governing Body), with elders as its congregational deputies.
is where God directly names Moses's successor: "Call Joshua, and take your positions in the tent of meeting so that I may commission him." The pattern is precise — God names the successor by revelation, the people recognise him, and the torch passes by divine appointment, not internal selection. confirms: the Spirit is in Joshua, Moses lays hands on him publicly, and the transition is divinely initiated. then reveals who the ultimate Moses-successor is: Christ, "faithful over all God's house… as Son." The Moses seat in the new covenant is filled by Jesus, not by a council. The plural-eldership pattern for ordinary leadership appears at (elders in each congregation), (elders in every city), and (Peter calls himself "a fellow elder" — not a chief shepherd; that is Christ, verse 4). The Watchtower's hierarchy — one council above all congregations — does not match either the Joshua-by-divine-revelation pattern or the local plural-eldership pattern. It is a third pattern, without New Testament warrant.