The story of Deborah is one of courage, singleness of purpose and quiet confidence in God’s revealed will. As a prophetess, Deborah led Israel with the strength and wisdom that came from a deep relationship with God. Read Judges 4.

Israel faced an intimidating enemy. Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite army, had 900 iron chariots and other armaments heavy enough to crush any and all of Israel’s weapons. From a human point of view, Israel didn’t stand a chance. Read more »

Ultimately to be considered competent and effective a leader needs to get the job done. Joshua’s assignment from God was to conquer the land and divide it equitably among the tribes. Read Joshua 11:1-19:51.

In his seven-year military campaign to take the land, Joshua conquered 31 kings. His strategy was to first conquer the cities in the center of Canaan, thus driving a wedge between the northern and southern cities. Once Joshua had conquered the center cities he turned to the southern cities and then finally to the northern cities. This kind of extended military campaign took extraordinary planning to keep the military flanks and the home front protected, the supply lines open, the troop movements coordinated and the communication clear and concise. Read more »

Several leadership books talk about establishing momentum. Jim Collins’ book Good to Great helps us picture business momentum as a very heavy flywheel that is very difficult to move at all for the first few turns but as one success stacks on top of another the weight of the flywheel begins to assist the forward motion and the movement of the flywheel is almost self sustaining. In fact in the physical world, it now takes work to stop a flywheel that is in motion. Read Joshua 10:16-43.

As God gives Joshua one military success after another, the Israelite army begins to experience a momentum they could not have described just months before. In the notes in The Maxwell Leadership Bible, John Maxwell calls this The Law of the Big MO. Maxwell states: Read more »

The Lord gave Joshua a leadership lesson on vision early in his leadership of the Hebrew nation. This lesson helped Joshua to understand that an effective leader needs to find ways in the daily processes that take the successes of today and empower their team to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Read Joshua 4:1-9.

God did a wonderful miracle to allow the people to cross the Jordan River on dry ground while the river was at flood stage. He wanted the people to keep the memory of this miracle and His power and care for His people in their mind for generations so He instructed Joshua to take 12 “Stones of Remembrance”, one for each tribe, from the center of the dry riverbed. Read more »