Everything in the church and in government rises and falls with leadership. I heard a man who was a leading authority on leadership and management skills say, “Most of what I am teaching you about leadership I learned from the Bible.” This seemed amazing to the mostly secular crowd that listened to him. But I have found it to be true.
Lessons and examples of leadership abound in the Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments. In the tenth chapter of 2 Chronicles, we find the example of Rehoboam who became king of ancient Israel when his father King Solomon died. Solomon asked for and received wisdom from God about leading the people in a right manner. He became immensely rich and built the most powerful and influential kingdom Israel has ever experienced. But it came at the expense of the people who suffered under his tyrannical rule. Solomon seemed to forget all the wisdom he received from God and lived opposite to the proverbs he wrote for everyone else. But then he died and faced the righteous Judge of the Universe, the fate of rich and poor, weak and powerful alike.
Imagine what King Rehoboam received! Untold wealth and the throne of one of the superpowers of the known world. He had eighteen wives, sixty women in his harem, fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. But at the coronation a fly landed in the soup. The people had been groaning under the despotic rule of his father Solomon. A leader named Jeroboam had arisen among the people who spoke in their behalf to King Rehoboam, “Your father made our yoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.” 2 Chronicles 10:4 (NASB) I think the people presented the young King a fair request, “If you will rule justly with a light hand in favor of all the people, we the people will be good, loyal, and peaceful citizens.” Rehoboam, being new on the job, asked for three days to think it over. He did the right thing initially and sought the counsel of the elders who had served his father. They advised, “If you will be kind to this people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” 2 Chronicles 10:7 (NASB) But Rehoboam decided instead to take the advice of his new counselors, friends of his youth and other sycophants who did not regard the people but wanted to lord over them for their own benefit. He decided not to listen to the people. Scripture records how Rehoboam answered the people.
“…all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed, saying, “Return to me on the third day.” The king answered them harshly, and King Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the elders. He spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”2 Chronicles 10:12-14 (NASB)
The result was inevitable. A great majority of the people rebelled and unified behind the leader who was their advocate. Ten of the twelve northern tribes of Israel formed a new nation with the capitol in Samaria and crowned Jeroboam King of Israel while Rehoboam was left with the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Rehoboam continued to reign in Jerusalem along with all his friends, the elite ruling class of government officials, most of the priests, some false prophets, and all the other ring-kissing functionaries of a monarchy. Israel was divided north and south and never reunited, sometimes warring against each other, or occasionally allied against a common enemy until the demise of their kingdoms more than three centuries later. This too was inevitable.
The best leaders are those who respect the lives of the people they govern whether in the church or the state. Good government guards and strengthens the God-given rights of all the citizens, who are not just some oligarchical elite of rich and influential supporters but include the weaker members. Justice is established when all the people are equal before the law. Good leaders protect their preborn citizens as well as the helpless elderly. A nation that kills its children for the sake of birth-control or convenience will never find success as a just and enduring republic.
Current events seem to be taking America in directions that free people do not wish to go. What then does an ordinary citizen do? Even when we think our votes have been nullified and the corrupt have won, we must keep voting and advocating for life and justice with whatever influence we have. With what is left of our free speech we need to speak out as long as we can, supporting only candidates who will protect the lives of the preborn and will strive to bring about justice and freedom in the land. We who follow Jesus Christ must pray and live with love and integrity as Christ and His Apostles commanded us, believing that God sees all things and will reward the nation that will turn from evil to establish justice for all. We must do this so that our nation, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, “...shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
George Cargill