Joshua's Military Principles and Leadership

JOSHUA'S MILITARY PRINCIPLES AND LEADERSHIP

On the Occasion of the Commissioning Ceremony of Lt. Jeffrey Turner, USMC

The British Tea Room, Statesboro, Georgia, 19 December, 1998

Copyright by Emerson Thomas McMullen

When Jeff invited me to be the Keynote Speaker at his commissioning ceremony, he said he was inspired by King David's example of leadership in the Bible. I replied that many people knew about David, but not many knew about Joshua's leadership, perhaps because he had lived in the shadow of Moses. But Joshua's story contains many examples of military principles, both strategic and tactical, as well as leadership and personal conduct.

In the area of grand strategy, Joshua invaded the land of Canaan from the east in order to stay away from the Via Maris, the main north-south trade route along the Mediterranean. In this way he avoided Egyptian interference with his planned conquest. He established a logistics base east of the Jordan River that also protected his rear during the invasion and provided a line of retreat, if necessary. From there he sent out spies to gather intelligence.

When he did invade Canaan, he drove straight into the middle of that narrow country in order to divide it in half. That way he could fight one half, and then turn to face the other half, (which is what he did). He strove to take the strategic high ground in the central highlands. By choosing to campaign in the mountains, he favored his troops' fighting abilities, and negated the chariot strength of his opponents. When he did win battles, he followed them up utilizing the principle of strategic pursuit.

In the tactical area, I will refer to a key battle, which involved a southern Canaanite coalition (The Book of Joshua, chapter 10). When Joshua heard this coalition was besieging an ally, he showed decisiveness by quickly going to their rescue. He demonstrated mobility by marching all night and thereby gained surprise in the battle the next morning. He used the battlefield's geography by attacking from the high ground, and he followed up his initial tactical success by pursuing as relentlessly as he could. He then exploited this victory by immediately going onto the strategic offensive in southern Canaan. When he subdued that region, he then turned to conquer northern Canaan.

Like Robert E. Lee, Joshua was a successful military leader who easily could have been proud and arrogant. Instead he was humble and considerate with his troops. For instance, when a traitor who had caused the deaths of 36 soldiers was identified, he gently called the man son and asked him to honor God by giving a full confession (7:19). It would have been tempting to at least shout at him and chew him out. Instead Joshua was considerate and the man did give a full and detailed confession.

As a spiritual leader, Joshua was careful to observe all religious duties, even when it appeared to be militarily disadvantageous to do so. (Stonewall Jackson was like this, in that he never wanted to fight on Sundays.) Additionally, Joshua was always concerned about the spiritual condition of his people. For example, after the campaign of national conquest was over, Joshua realized the people were in danger of falling away spiritually. Although he as old and near death, he first summoned the leaders (chapter 23) and charged them to remain faithful to God. Then he summoned all the people and did the same thing (chapter 24). He concluded with the challenge to choose which gods they would serve, and then he set the example by declaring: "But, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (vs. 15).

That is my charge today to you Jeff - to serve the Lord always - and I know you will.