Leadership in the Word of God
Jeremy Pace
So many famous names come to mind when imagining leaders from the Bible. This is going to look at four who I think were great leaders of the Word of God; Joseph the dreamer, Moses the deliverer, King David the psalmist, and Paul the apostle.
Joseph was a young man with a dream, that one day his entire family would bow to him. (Thousands of years later, another young man named Joseph had a dream, (mention of “dream” in the New Testament) that he should marry his young feance and father Jesus Christ himself. Needless to say, when young men start to dream, something big is about to happen.) Joseph was envied by his family, while those he served under later on noticed his skills and talents. Our families are the toughest crowd to believe we can be great. No matter what happened to Joe, he had integrity, and did everything with diligence. In prison, as a slave, he never got an attitude; he kept serving above and beyond what anyone expected. He never gave up. He went from slave, to servant, to savior. He never lost sight of his dream, but he only started being successful when he got sight of other peoples dreams! He was found when the time was right. He worked diligently, never sought importance, but he was ready when God called him to his destiny. When he forgave his brothers, and those who had harmed him, that’s when he got his father back and his dream came true!
Moses grew up encouraged of his greatness by his family and adopted family. He had the call of deliverance on his life, and in his arrogance, decided to become deliverer in his own power. But that over confidence made him loss his position and the respect of Israel (Ex. 2:14). He overstepped his boundaries and ended up in the desert for 40 years. He still had the deliverer calling (he saved Jethro’s daughters) but it took 40 years to humble him. In fact in that time he became just the opposite, and had no faith in himself. God appears to him at last and makes him throw down the thing he leaned on, his rod. And God turned that, Moses weakness, into an instrument for deliverance. God let Moses go with Aaron speaking for a while, but in the end it was Moses who led them out. He became more and more into his calling and gained Israel and Egypt’s respect (Ex 11:3). He thought God better than riches (Heb 11:26). Crossing the Red Sea, Passover, leading a nation of messed up self-absorbed losers for 40 years in the desert…. Now that’s a leader! And he did it all by faith and humility. (Num 12:3)
Now the pattern here is they went through years of humbling before God could make them the amazing leaders he needed. Most of all was King David. As a boy he learned to seek and listen to God in the solitude of being a shepherd. Those quiet times with God where the foundation for all the wonderful things God did through him later on. He understood his power and authority was from God, and he used that to slay the giant Goliath. Then he fleed death at the hands of Saul, the peoples chose for king, for doing nothing more than saving the country from enslavement. David wept, he fled, he hides, he fought, and he wept and fled again, and the Saul in him was destroyed. He lead without meaning to, 400 men just decided to follow him. He didn’t care if he was the leader or not, and that’s what made him the best leader. He adapted to situations (1 Sam 21:15) and never tried to overstep his boundaries by killing Saul. When he screwed up he prayed not “save me” but “save the kingdom”. He never cared about himself, he only loved the people with all his heart, and that’s why they looked up to him. He truly loved those under him more than himself.
Those stories probably wouldn’t happen to me in my day to day life. For that example, we look to the New Testament, to Paul, formally Saul of Tarsus. He was a Pharisee, the best of them all. Just a tent maker who was so self-absorbed that he killed Christians and threw them in prison just to make himself look more holy. But when he met Jesus on the Damascus road, everything changed. Saul could always influence people, and he was using the power in a very bad way. Perhaps that’s why God choose him (Acts 13:9) to be his spokesman to the world of Gentiles. Saul spent 3 days blind and 3 years serving under the same people he was trying to kill not to long before. Now that be humbling, serving the church you’d hated your whole life. And after those 3 years of humbling preparation, he was ready to become Paul. He traveled the world, and people followed him because they saw God working in his life. He grows wiser and wiser, and now he is persecuted. But he never gives up! Eventually he is famous and honored among his Christian family, and is in a postion of authority much like he was as a Pharisee before. But now he doesn’t care. He counts that all as garbage, so he can know God more and love his children more. It was Paul’s undying love as seen in his letters that drew the nations to his words.
Leadership is influence. Influence comes by serving. That principle has never and will never change. These four men served, lead, and they continue to influence the world today. (Heb 11:4b “… he being dead still speaks.”)