Getting ready to teach my ‘Old Testament in 8 hours’ class, I’m reading the historical books from Joshua to the end of II Chronicles. I’ve taught flavors of this multiple times over the years and each one is different with a different focus. This time, I think the spirit is nudging me toward a focus on leadership.
While reading the seminal book of the Bible on Leadership, Joshua (Nehemiah is right there, as well), I am struck once more about the lessons of ‘Be, Know, Do’ from the book of Joshua. This was the core concept in the Army Leadership manual across the 80s when I was a young lieutenant, patrolled the Iron Curtain with 1st Armored Division, then commanded an 8-inch howitzer battery in the 72nd FA Brigade. As a Lieutenant Colonel in Iraq building data centers and laying fiber trunks in 2006, I spent most of my time out with my troopers doing the work around the Balad perimeter. We received rockets and mortars multiple times every week.
While reading my large block of Bible History, Stu Sheller’s book, Crises of Command, arrived on my doorstep. Stu calls military Generals and political leadership to task for their leadership failures. Their war fighting and Operational execution failures. For failing to hold Generals accountable for losing.
Reading Stu’s book, it struck me hard to realize that in his first 100 days in the position of Secretary of Defense, for all the rot, pathologies, education, and future peer adversary preparation ahead, Lloyd Austin said that the number one problem in the Department of Defense is COVID. That was foolishness. Now, soldiers are dropping dead from Vax aftereffects, fentanyl drug overdoses, and are being told to seek counseling over their despair at how the Afghanistan mission slid into the overflowing Out House hole in the ground. In this time period, perhaps a quarter million people in uniform were forced out for refusing the Vaxx.
In Joshua 5, Israel has crossed the Jordan and God told Joshua to circumcise their war fighting force and every male… In the face of the enemy.
Jos 5:3 So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins (emphasis mine)
Jos 5:4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt.
Skip forward a few verses and we discover the underlying reason
Jos 5:9 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.
Gilgal in Hebrew means ‘to roll away.’ Instead of wearing a mask, wringing his hands over the ridicule of the Egyptians, and fearing the baby sacrificing Canaanite nations that outnumbered them, Joshua personally made a flint knife and circumcised his leaders of 1,000s. They in turn circumcised their leaders of 100s. They circumcised their leaders of 50s, and so on down to the leaders of tens. The leaders of tens then circumcised their soldiers.
This is face to face leadership.
This rolled away the reproach and ridicule of Egypt.
From that day forward, Israel won most battles and every war until the land was at peace and Joshua died at great old age. Their operational excellence, self-examination before the next battle, and face to face leadership from Joshua down to leaders of tens was tenacious and victorious. Their troopers were daunting, even taking on the Anakin giants their fathers feared… That lack of faith destroying the previous generation in the wilderness, except Joshua and Caleb.
Stu Sheller describes a Department of Defense that is in serious need of a meeting on Foreskin Hill to roll away the woke shame and woke agendas that are destroying our nation’s ability to win wars and defend our people.
Jay Inman