One of my students in Personal Leadership Development once quoted Colin Powell as saying that Leadership is the ability to see around the next corner. What followed was an interesting discussion about planning for a future that is unknown.
I recently ran across a great quote from Patrick Henry. He said "I know of no other way of judging the future but by the past." Knowing history well helps us to see patterns in the affairs of men. Seeing the same patterns today can help us prepare for what is coming.
In the case of Joshua, we see the mistake at Ai and the deception of the Gibeonites and we ask how we could avoid similar mistakes. Both moves were made by using our own wisdom and not inquiring of God. Surely we can use our own wisdom in capturing a "dump" of a city or in making a treaty with a faraway people.
David leaves us another example. In his fight against the Philistines, God gives explicit instructions for victory. David follows them implicitly, and the battle is won. A short time after, the battle lines are arraigned in exactly the same way. For David, it is deja voux all over again (2 Samuel 5). Surely, God would have you use the same methods He outlined before to win another victory. But David is not taken in. He inquires of God and God outlines another battle strategy that brings about even greater victory. Lesson: Always inquire of God.
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