JOAB, KING DAVID'S TOP GENERAL

ESSENTIAL LESSONS ON CHARACTER

ADEYINKA ADEGBENLE

• Publisher: Ways of Excellence LLC
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781736220719
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Leadership

A strong character is necessary to sustain the weight of the responsibilities that come with great accomplishments. Can your character stand up to the test?

"With great power comes great responsibility."Most leaders and aspiring leaders are familiar with this saying. Yet many still fall victim to the pitfalls that come with having great success, power and influence.

The story of Joab is about Israel's top general and King David's right-hand man. He was a gifted warrior who led Israel's vast army to many victories. He remained undefeated throughout the tenure of his career. As a leader, he excelled at his work, and his ambition took him to great heights. However, this almost "Superhuman" failed to recognize his Kryptonite and nemesis.

From Joab's story and the eighteen fundamentals on character culled from the chapters of this book, you will learn:

·How to develop the resolution that will help to keep the integrity of your character intact in the face of temptation, great demands, and the many tests that leaders face.

·How to ensure your character can sustain the weight of the many accompaniments that come with power, success and great influence.

·When to draw the line when it comes to ambition so it does not become a destructive force.

The lessons and principles in this book are all very applicable and relevant to today's leader.

PREFACE

JOAB HAD IT ALL. Power, prestige, wealth and fame. He also happened to be very good at his job as the commanding general of the Nation of Israel’s army. Joab was world class! A thoroughbred one might even add. He was a magnificent and courageous warrior on the battlefield. He served his master and nation well, with a record of not losing a single battle during his 40-plus years as head of the army and second in command to King David.

He was also a master political strategist. In this book, I aim to help you–the reader, get to know the man–Joab. Not just to know him, but to learn from how he lived his life–both his triumphs and his tragedies–and apply those lessons to better your life. The accounts detailed in this book are from the 120-plus verses where Joab is mentioned in the Bible: The Old Testament sections of The New International Reader’s Version, or NIRV, specifically.

Joab played a major role in the history of Israelites, especially during the reign of David. He took command of the army and won several major victories for the Kingdom of Israel.

I hope the lessons from the story of Joab help you to grow in excellence on your journey toward becoming an even better version of yourself. I hope you get to see in Joab’s life story that there are several non-debatable character qualities that every person should possess, irrespective of how good or talented he/she is.

Happy reading,

Adeyinka Adegbenle.

CHAPTER 1

THE STORY OF JOAB is part of a bigger one concerning a nation: Israel, chosen by God himself. The Israelites had been in captivity in Egypt for 430 years. Through several mighty miraculous acts—the 10 plagues, detailed in Exodus 7–12, God delivered them from the hands of their oppressors and slave masters.

God then entered into a mutual covenant relationship based on love with this nation that he had chosen to be his own. The covenant called for the freed Israelites to abide by the terms of the agreement: They must be faithful to God and obey his laws. Doing so would ensure peace, prosperity and many other benefits for them and their descendants.

You are a holy nation. The Lord your God has set you apart for himself. He has chosen you to be his special treasure. He chose you out of all the nations on the face of the earth to be his people.

The Lord chose you because he loved you very much. He didn’t choose you because you had more people than other nations. In fact, you had the smallest number of all. The Lord chose you because he loved you. He wanted to keep the promise he had made to your people of long ago. That’s why he used his mighty hand to bring you out of Egypt. He bought you back from the land where you were slaves. He set you free from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. So I want you to realize that the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God. He keeps his covenant for all time to come. He keeps it with those who love him and obey his commandments. He shows them his love.

— Deuteronomy 7:6-9

The terms of the covenant with Israel are summarized in the Ten Commandments:

I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of Egypt. That is the land where you were slaves.

Do not put any other gods in place of me.

Do not make for yourself statues of gods that look like anything in the sky. They may not look like anything on the earth or in the waters either. Do not bow down to them or worship them. I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I cause the sins of the parents to affect their children. I will cause the sins of those who hate me to affect even their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But for all time to come I show love to all those who love me and keep my commandments.

Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will find guilty anyone who misuses his name.

Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy. Do all your work in six days. But the seventh day is a sabbath to honor the Lord your God. Do not do any work on that day. The same command applies to your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and your animals. It also applies to any outsiders who live in your towns. In six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea and everything in them. But he rested on the seventh day. So the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Do not murder.

Do not commit adultery.

Do not steal.

Do not be a false witness against your neighbor.

Do not want to have anything your neighbor owns.

Do not want to have your neighbor’s house, wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey.

— Exodus 20:1-17

Just like the laws of nature, the benefits and consequences of abiding by the given laws were pre-built into the covenant.

Despite all the blessings God offered them, the Israelites were not consistently loyal to him. Thus commencing cycles where the Israelites obeyed God for short periods of time. Doing so released the inherent blessings and benefits that the nation would enjoy, with great prosperity, peace and protection from all enemies. Then after a while, they would become complacent and half hearted in abiding by the terms of the covenant and drift toward breaking the terms. That led to unleashing the built-in negative consequences—defeat by enemy nations, famine, and being exiled to lands of their enemies, to name a few.

As time went on during the bad periods, they would cry out to God for help. Out of mercy and love for his chosen nation, God would respond positively. Help came in the form of leaders (judges and prophets) that God used to deliver the Israelites from their oppressors and restore peace to the land.

Once delivered out of the hands of their oppressors, and with peace restored, the Israelites would again forget all about their God and the covenant, repeating the cycle yet again.

We meet Joab at the point of the story of the Israelites where they had recently transitioned to a political system headed by King Saul, from the former system where God ruled over them via prophets and judges. But Saul failed miserably, and God was forced to look for a replacement. That replacement came in the person of David.

David was secretly anointed as the next king of Israel by the prophet Samuel at a very young age, not given exactly in the Bible. Biblical scholars believe it to be about fifteen. Saul was still the sitting king of Israel at the time.

The Lord said to Samuel “How long will you be filled with sorrow because of Saul? I have refused to have him as king over Israel. Fill your animal horn with olive oil and go on your way. I am sending you to Jesse in Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

But Samuel said, “How can I go? Suppose Saul hears about it. Then he’ll kill me.”

The L...