Today’s Reading Judges 10-12
Focal Scripture: Judges 10:14 “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you whenever you are oppressed.” The rulers of Gilead said to one another, “Which man will begin the fight against the Ammonites? He will be the leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
How a person leads tells you a lot about their character. Here Israel is going through many judges. Most of them do not live long after they are chosen to become a judge. There are a few judges, however, that do lead for a while. Our reading tells us that the judges get more wicked as they are chosen to lead the people.
The strange part about this comes from the fact that even though they are wicked God is still using them to deliver Israel and give them success as a nation. These leaders have terrible character and nobody seems to want to address this problem. This goes to show that even though positive things are happening it doesn’t mean that God is happy with the leadership. He always will look to the overall health of his kingdom first. Even when leadership is wicked.
The application of this passage today is a sobering one. What type of leader are you? As we have seen through the book of Judges you can have success and be weak in character. You can accomplish great things and be a terrible leader. God is demonstrating that his plan will not be stopped even when leaders are corrupt and go against his standard. Even when the people will not stand up for what is right and call out the corrupt leader.
The point is this, God will accomplish his purpose through a good leader or a bad leader. We must have the emotional intelligence to ask ourselves if we are leading biblically and rightly. Which leads to the most important question of the day, “what type of leader are you?”
Over the course of my life I have had good leaders and terrible leaders. The good leaders were those who were confident in who they were and who God made them to be. They trusted the people they hired to do their jobs and allowed for the flow of ideas. Even when they didn’t make sense. They also treated their people with respect and loved everyone, even those that nobody got along with.
The bad leaders always tried to control every situation. It created an environment of hostility and crushed any sense of creativity or individuality. These leaders were often demeaning, condescending, and controlling. Sometimes these leaders would have success for a few years in their position even be loved by those that they lead. However, at some point when things turned in a direction they didn’t count on the leader was ousted because of their personality. The bad leadership was only tolerated when things were going well.
All of this is being said to challenge you if you are in leadership. Don’t equate good leadership with success and don’t equate bad leadership with failure. Good leaders take every situation, even failure and use it for good. Good leaders build others up and don’t tear others down. Good leaders take the blame for situations when they turn south and give praise to everyone else when success happens.
So what type of leader are you? Will you be remembered like many of the judges? Some success for a season in your personal and work life, then when leadership gets difficult you fold which in turn leads to you treating family, co-workers and others horribly. Or will you be a leader who leads people and leads them like Jesus. You sacrifice your wants and desires and serve the people you lead. You love the unlovable and have a heart that demonstrates hope in God.
How will you be remembered?
If a book was to be written about your leadership what would it say?
Tomorrow I plan on reading Judges 13-15
