Last post on this painful subject! :-)
So think about it for a second, you are an Israelite soldier, you are getting ready to take on the enemy in a new land that God has promised you and you are waiting on your leader (Joshua) to present the battle plan…and then you get Joshua 5:2-3
“At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.’ So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.”
Question…do you REALLY think ANYONE thought this was a good idea?
Did anyone give Joshua an “amen” when he preached this message?
Did anyone want to respond to the invitation after this church service?
Seriously…this was NOT a popular battle plan…but, nonetheless, over 600,000 men allowed this to happen to them.
THINK ABOUT THAT - over 600,000 men were willing to “expose” themselves to some INTENSE pain and discomfort. In fact, the Bible doesn’t record anyone rebelling against this idea.
So WHAT was it in Joshua’s presentation that made over 600,000 men do this?
I personally believe it was because each man knew that Joshua, their leader, was asking them to do something that he had already done.
He wasn’t asking them to take a journey he had never taken.
He wasn’t asking them to take a risk he had never taken.
He wasn’t asking them to go through an experience he had never been through.
He knew what it was like…he knew the pain and sacrifice associated with the vision he was casting…and yet he could ask this of his men with integrity because he was not asking them to do something that he himself had been unwilling to do at one point.
Translation…leaders cannot ask people to pay a price that they themselves have been unwilling to pay.
If they do so then people see right through it…and that type of leadership is hypocritical at best. Leaders cannot cast strong vision and ask for a radical commitment if they have a personal desire to remain as comfortable as possible.
We can’t preach about sacrifice if we haven’t lived it.
We can’t ask for something we’re not willing to give ourselves.
Joshua could ask his men to make this move with integrity because he knew what was associated with it…and, once again, over 600,000 men followed through, one of the main reasons being because they were following a leader with integrity!