In the first half of the book, Daniel idolizes Rosh, leader of the rebel band that took him in after he was orphaned. In Daniel, Rosh sees a potential champion for Israel, and Daniel comes to see Rosh as the ideal kind of leader. After Daniel meets Jesus, however, his view of what constitutes good leadership is challenged and finally overturned. The difference between Rosh and Jesus is their contrasting ways of seeing other people. In short, Jesus sees other people—even insignificant people—as inherently valuable. Rosh, on the other hand, sees people as valuable only as far as they benefit his cause. In other words, Jesus sees people as people, and Rosh sees people as tools to be used for his own ends. By contrasting Rosh’s and Jesus’s leadership in Daniel’s eyes, the book suggests that true leaders seek the good in others, especially the weak, instead of seeking to dominate them.
Daniel initially sees leadership as aggressive and dominating, as exemplified by Rosh. “He's like a lion!” Daniel tells a friend, “[T]he men obey him without question. […] Rosh would drive every cursed Roman back into the sea!” To Daniel, Rosh is an admirable leader because of the way he fearlessly commands obedience and dominates his enemies.
But Daniel’s first encounter with Jesus baffles him because Jesus’s leadership is different from anything he’s seen before. He hears Jesus say to a crowd of wretched, suffering people, “Do not be afraid […] For you are the children of God. And does not a father understand the sorrow of his children, and know their need? For I tell you, nor even a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father seeing, and you are of more value than many sparrows.” To himself, Daniel wonders, “What good would it do to speak of a kingdom to these miserable wretches […] when not one of them could lift a hand to fight for it?” Having served Rosh for years, Daniel thinks of leadership as something that makes demands of followers. In contrast, Jesus sees his followers as worthy of God’s attention and care, and he serves them accordingly.
Later, when Daniel tells his sister, Leah, about Jesus healing a little girl, he recalls that Jesus welcomed children; he even saw children as uniquely worth his time. He tells Leah, “He won’t even let them send the children away when they’re a nuisance. He insists on talking to them, and finding out their names, and listening to their foolishness. It makes some of the men furious—as though he thought children were important.” With this, Daniel implies that most people don’t regard children as important or even worthy of notice. Jesus stands out because, in spite of the huge crowds he attracts, he specifically takes time to focus on those whom the rest of society ignores.
After seeing Jesus’s caring example of leadership, Daniel recognizes that Rosh looks at people as objects to be used. At one point, Rosh criticizes Daniel for showing mercy to an old man whom Rosh had ordered him to rob. Daniel then realizes the difference between Rosh and Jesus: “Suddenly words were echoing in his mind. ‘For each one of you is precious in His sight.’ Not scripture, but the words of the carpenter. […] Rosh looked at a man and saw a thing to be used, like a tool or a weapon. Jesus looked and saw a child of God.” The two men, Daniel realizes, view human beings in totally different ways. While Jesus sees people as intrinsically precious because they belong to God, Rosh sees them as means to his own goals and therefore expendable.
When Rosh refuses to help Daniel, Daniel finally recognizes Rosh for who he is. Daniel’s friend Joel is captured by the Romans while doing an errand for Rosh, and Rosh refuses to spare any of his men to rescue Joel. When he confronts Rosh, however, Rosh sees something in Daniel as well: “‘I’ve warned you before,’ [Rosh] said, his voice ugly. ‘There’s a soft streak in you. Till you get rid of it you’re no good to the cause.’ The red mist of anger cleared suddenly from Daniel’s mind. […] He saw the hard mouth, the calculating little eyes. He saw a man he had never really looked at before.” Rosh sees Daniel’s concern for another person as “softness” that compromises Daniel’s loyalty to Rosh’s cause. At the same time, Daniel is confirmed in the belief that Rosh doesn’t see inherent value in people; he sees them as objects to be used. And anyone who values others—as Daniel now does—is useless to him.
By the end of the book, Daniel’s friend Simon sums up Daniel’s new view of leadership. Simon explains why he has accepted that Jesus will never lead Israel in rebellion against the Romans, as both he and Daniel once dreamed of: “you’ve seen [Jesus] caring for those people—the ones so low that no one […] cared what happened to them. When I see that, I know that the God of Israel has not forgotten us. […] I’m a poor man, and ignorant, but I know now that with a God like that I am safe.” A real leader, Simon recognizes, is not someone who charges into conflict no matter the cost to others, but someone who cares for those who have seemingly nothing to offer.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Leadership: Power vs. Service ThemeTracker
Leadership: Power vs. Service Quotes in The Bronze Bow
“I say to you, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe.”
Now! Daniel leaned forward. Tell us that the moment has come! Tell us what we are to do! Longing swelled unbearably in his throat.
But Jesus went on speaking quietly. A rippling murmur passed across the crowd. Others too waited for the word that was not spoken. What had the man meant?
Everywhere, the Jews went about their business, paying no attention. The boy who had lived for five years in the solitude of the mountain, nursing his hatred and keeping it ever fresh, could not credit his own eyes. How could these city people endure to be reminded on every hand of their own helplessness? More shameful still, he saw merchants joking with the soldiers. He could not understand. Where was their pride? Had they forgotten altogether? If Rosh were here he would open their eyes. Why did that Jesus do nothing?
“Did you ever think that Rosh—that he might be the leader we are waiting for?” […]
“I know he is,” said Daniel.
They sat silent, trembling at the immensity of the secret they shared.
“He’s like a lion!” Daniel said, his confidence mounting. “He has no fear at all. Up there in the cave, whatever he says, the men obey him without question. If there were more of us—if we could only get enough—Rosh would drive every cursed Roman back into the sea!”
“Try to bear your suffering with patience, because you know that God has made a place for you in His Kingdom.”
The kingdom! Daniel looked about him. What good would it do to speak of a kingdom to these miserable wretches? What could it mean to them, when not one of them could lift a hand to fight for it? But he saw their faces, white, formless blots in the darkness, all lifted toward this man. He heard their harsh breathing all around him, stifled in their straining not to miss a word. They listened as though his words were food and they could never get enough.
Somewhere, Daniel had been taught in his childhood, there would be an answer in the scriptures, for Moses had handed down in the Law an answer for every situation a man could encounter in this life. […]
Suddenly words were echoing in his mind. “For each one of you is precious in His sight.” Not scripture, but the words of the carpenter. That was what had confused him. Rosh looked at a man and saw a thing to be used, like a tool or a weapon. Jesus looked and saw a child of God. Even the old miser with his moneybag?
Where did he himself belong?
The fire in Simon’s forge had almost gone out. He raked back the ashes, blew on the coals and coaxed it back to life. Then he opened the inner door to the house. Leah looked up at him, her blue eyes as lifeless as the fire. She had not combed her hair or bothered to get herself breakfast. With irritation he saw that the water jar was empty and that he would have to stand in line at the well with the snickering women. He bent and picked up the jar, and the bars of his cage slid into place around him.
“Do the people—crowd together and push each other?”
“It’s all you can do to stay on your two feet sometimes.”
She was silent so long that he thought she had stopped thinking about it. Then she asked, “Are there children, too? […] Jesus wouldn’t let them hurt the children, would he?”
“He won't even let them send the children away when they’re a nuisance. He insists on talking to them, and finding out their names, and listening to their foolishness. It makes some of the men furious—as though he thought children were important.”
“Daniel, what makes you and Joel so sure that Jesus means to make war?”
“He says that the kingdom is at hand. What else can he mean?”
“Did you ever think he might mean that the kingdom will come some other way? Without any fighting? […] You see, Jesus has made me see that we don’t need to wait for God to care for us. He does that now. […] If everyone understood that—every man and woman […] Suppose—the Romans too could understand?”
He stopped in the road and stared at her. “Romans? You think God loves the Romans?”
Thacia sighed. “That’s impossible, I suppose.”
Dismayed, Daniel climbed the mountain to take the warning to Rosh, only to have Rosh laugh in his face.
“They are afraid of their own shadows,” Rosh jeered. “What good are they but to raise food for men who will fight?”
“They are desperate,” Daniel urged. “You know they cannot carry arms themselves. They are going to appeal to the centurion for protection. They want him to send legionaries.”
“Let them come!” Rosh boasted. “Let them get a taste of the mountain. They will only break their teeth on it.”
Daniel’s control gave way. “You’d just use him and then let him go? Without even a try—?”
Rosh squinted up at him. “I’ve warned you before,” he said, his voice ugly. “There's a soft streak in you. Till you get rid of it you’re no good to the cause.”
The red mist of anger cleared suddenly from Daniel’s mind. He looked at the man who had been his leader. He saw the coarsened face with its tangle of dirty beard. He saw the hard mouth, the calculating little eyes. He saw a man he had never really looked at before.
In the darkness the same words echoed over and over. “They who live by the sword will perish by the sword.” […] Jesus had spoken them on a hot summer morning under a blue sky. Daniel had not questioned the words. To live by the sword was the best life he knew. To take the sword for his country’s freedom and to perish by it—what better could a man hope for? But something he had not reckoned on had happened. He had taken the sword, but Samson, instead, had perished by it, who had no freedom to gain, and Nathan, who had left behind a bride. Their deaths were on his head. And freedom was farther away than before.
“[Samson] did not give you vengeance. He gave you love. There is no greater love than that, that a man should lay down his life for his friend. Think, Daniel, can you repay such love with hate?”
“It’s too late to love Samson. He is probably dead.” Then, as Jesus waited, “Should I love the Romans who killed him?” he asked with bitterness.
Jesus smiled. “You think that is impossible, don’t you? Can’t you see, Daniel, it is hate that is the enemy? Not men. Hate does not die with killing. It only springs up a hundredfold. The only thing stronger than hate is love.”
Unable to endure that smile, Daniel bent his head. Suddenly, with a longing that was more than he could bear, he wanted to stop fighting against this man. He knew that he would give everything he possessed in life to follow Jesus.
Even his vow?
He tried to cling again to the words of David that had always strengthened him. He trains my hands for war—
But Jesus said that the Victory was God’s promise. He called men to make ready their hearts and minds instead.
Was it possible that only love could bend the bow of bronze?
