In Selecting Leaders

On the occasion of my 100th post, I have looked back a little over recent weeks and found that much of my writing has been devoted to all things political.


Politics are something of a hobby for me and frankly I have felt angry and frustrated - I have spent a lot of that frustration on this blog.


Today, I will stay near that same stream of thinking, only I hope to give you something that's constructive and instructive and less about Obama, McCain etc.


In the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament, there is a chapter that speaks to some leadership issues (actually Nehemiah is a book filled with leadership concepts - I highly recommend it).


In chapter 5, Nehemiah has to deal with some conflicts and I think it would be very helpful for us to consider his example of leadership. This is especially true as we near the time that we, in America will be selecting political leadership.


First, let's stop a moment and think about the wonderful and unique privilege we have in this country of selecting who will rule over us. The power of the vote is a sacred honor and a blessed duty. We should not deem it lightly and we should guard it's integrity with a fierce vigilance.


In case you are not familiar with the story of Nehemiah, I will try to give you a quick synopsis. Nehemiah was a cup-bearer for King Artexerxes. Nehemiah was a Jew who, along with almost his entire nation, had been taken away from his country and was in exile in a strange land. Meanwhile, his entire nation had been destroyed, including the city of Jerusalem which had been burned and lay in rubble.


When Israel fell, a small remnant of Jews had been left behind in the land, but most all of the people had been marched away in chains.


Years before Nehemiah's story, Ezra had been allowed to take an expedition back into Jerusalem to work on rebuilding the temple; Nehemiah was led of God to take on the mission to rebuild the walls of the city. They worked together, rebuilt the walls and Nehemiah became the governor.


In his capacity as governor, a problem arose.

Because of taxes and other financial burdens, many of the poorer people had fallen into financial straits and now there was a famine. Here is how the Bible lays out the situation:


They were saying, “We have such large families. We need more food to survive.”
Others said, “We have mortgaged our fields, vineyards, and homes to get food during the famine.”
And others said, “We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes. We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy, and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.” Nehemiah 5:2-5 NLT



Wow, that sounds familiar - mortgage problems, high taxes, people having to borrow.... well, the real problem here was that it was the Nobles and the Rulers of their own tribes that the people were indebted to.


When I heard their complaints, I was very angry. [verse 6]


Yeah, so Nehemiah was angry at this injustice.

Nehemiah's leadership model can be boiled down to one statement: Fear God.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom [Psalm 111:10], it is "clean" [Psalm 19:9], it involves listening to and learning from God[Psalm 25:14], and it involves relying on Him [Psalm 33:18]. Nehemiah lived by this standard and he expected if from others in authority under him.

So he addressed the injustice - publicly. The nobles and rulers were speechless.

Nehemiah reminded them that those that they were oppressing were there "brothers".

He reminded them that our relationship with God is reflected in and affected by the way we view others and the way we treat them. The fear of God and mistreatment of others cannot abide together.

God is concerned with and involved in our actions and attitudes toward others - when Joseph was tempted by his bosses' wife, he said "how can I do this great wickedness against God!" [Genesis 39]; when Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, He said, "why are you persecuting Me?" - Saul wasn't directly persecuting Jesus, he was persecuting His church and Jesus took it personal.

So leaders who fear God will be moved to correct injustices and properly prioritize attitudes; Correct God relationship = Correct people relationships.

After Nehemiah straightened out that issue, he gave account of his own administration and again we see the fear of God as central in all his actions.

He displayed a willingness to sacrifice and to endure the same struggles as those that were following him.

General Washington did that during the War of Independence, in fact it was very likely that he truly won the hearts of his men when he stayed with them during that first winter at Valley Forge. It was acceptable and even expected for Generals to quarter in town or to go home during the winter months, instead, Washington endured the same hardships as his men.


Nehemiah displayed that same spirit of sacrifice as evidenced by the latter part of chapter 5 in which he talks about how other Governors before him had required bread, wine and silver from the people; he did not. This was despite the fact that he had a large staff to feed as well as visitors.

He even got his hands dirty, working on repairing the wall alongside the people and he required his officials to do the same.

This allowed him to be acquainted with the burdens the people carried. He even eluded to that at the end of verse 18:

Yet I refused to claim the governor’s food allowance because the people already carried a heavy burden.

A leader that fears God will be acquainted with the burdens of the people he is leading.
As we pray earnestly about the leaders we will be selecting in just over two weeks - let's pray that God will allow us to choose a leader that fears God.

Likewise when we serve under the leadership of others in ministry, in our vocation, and in other areas of our lives.

Finally, when we have the opportunity to lead, whether it be in a major role before many people or in the case of parenting - a role that is no less "major" but involves fewer followers - let's take on that role with vigor and display the fear of God in all we do.