STRENGTH TO ZION

When You Take…

Exodus 30:11-34:35

I Kings 18:1-39 Ezekiel 36:16-38I Corinthians 8:4-13

The first thing that the military does when the new recruits pile off of the bus is to go over the rules. The officers go over the rules even before the luggage is unloaded; even before the uniforms are dispersed; even before the housing is assigned. The rules are given first because there is no point in getting the people in uniform if they can’t come to terms with the necessary agreement of the camp. The non-negotiable term that each recruit must adhere to, even before heads are shaved, is that the military now owns you.

Why the drama of it?

Why do the officers scream at the new recruits? Why do they challenge them? Why do they treat them like dirt, answer them abruptly, herd them like cattle? Why do they “strip” them of anything and everything they were before they entered the compound? Because it is necessary. The passion is necessary. The stripping process will reveal some things immediately, and other things over time. A military officer cannot be sensitive to correction. In fact, correction must be his new mode of communication. It will be sharp, to the point, and expected to be learned immediately. The military doesn’t do well with cry-babies.

If there was no drama, if there was no passion in breaking them, the new recruits wouldn’t be shaken out of the world they once knew and acquainted with the world they were entering. Entering this new world had to be brutal. It had to be cut-throat. It had to be intolerable. It had to be all that every single person hates because that is what they will face on the battlefield, and that is what they will encounter in war.

A Commander Knows How To Cut Because He/She Has Been Cut Before

The commanders are not there to make sure that the new recruits have a comfortable ride. They are not there to counsel the new recruits relative to their childhood. They are not even there to deal with their single personality disorders or illnesses. Do that on your own time. The commanders are there for one purpose only, to take whoever you were before and cause it to be washed away. There should be no detection of the old you by the time you graduate from the academy.

By the time you are standing in that uniform on that graduation field, you should be ready to act like you’ve been trained in armed forces. And armed forces require passion.

Moses was cut throat. He had to be. That is what a military commander does. He rattles the weak links. He surveys the line and sees who will not hold up under pressure. When Moses came down from the mountain, he didn’t counsel the people and try to understand how they felt about him being gone so long. He assessed who fell out of line in his absence and immediately cut them from the team.

We think that it was a violent act, but truthfully it was an act of mercy. It was better for them to be cut by their own people, right from the bus, than it was to be mutilated in the presence of their enemies in the common field, or the adversary’s camp.

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Weekly Reading for 3/13/10

And Assembled/Accounts…

(And Assembled)Exodus 35:1-38:20; I Kings 7:13-26 & 40-51; Ezekiel 45:16-46:18; II Corinthians 9:6-11 (Accounts) Exodus 38:21-40:38; I Kings 7:51-8:21; II Corinthians 3:7-18

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