The Weight of Leadership
But the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me; and the Lord said to me, ‘Enough! Speak to Me no more of this matter.’ Deuteronomy 3:26 NASB
On your account – John Maxwell aside, the role of the biblical leader is not so wonderful. It’s easy for us to focus on the blessings and benefits while forgetting the opposite side of the coin. With Yeshua as the paradigm eample, we think about the amazing miracles, the penetrating lessons and the intimate devotion while turning quickly aside from the agony in the garden, the torture on the cross and the disappointing behavior of his closest friends. Biblical leadership is not hero-worship. More often than not it is sacrifice and dying, not only because the truth isn’t a valued commodity but also because the leader is accountable for others’ actions.
“A private individual is responsible only for his own sins. A leader is held responsible for the sins of those he leads, at least those he might have prevented.”[1] Lema-ankem, “because of you,” is Moses’ explanation for God’s refusal to allow him to enter the Promised Land. In Moses’ view, this is not about striking the rock. This is about the disobedience of the followers. The leader is responsible—for the good and the bad—and the leader will be held accountable.
Would you like a millstone hung around your neck? Ah, then become a leader, and the sins of the people will be yours to pay. You will ask, “But how can this be fair? How can a God who says that everyone is accountable for his own sins hold leaders culpable for the sins of followers?” Maybe you will suggest that this is only Moses’ perception, not God’s reality. The Talmud answers:
“Whoever can prevent the members of his household from sinning, and does not, is seized for the sins of the household. If he can prevent his fellow citizens and does not, he is seized for the sins of his fellow citizens. If he can prevent the whole world from sinning, and does not, he is seized for the sins of the whole world.”[2] We would like a system of biblical justice that is as unambiguous as our ideals, but, as Sacks points out, “Judaism is less a philosophical system than a field of tensions.”[3] Perhaps that’s not surprising. Life is full of tensions. Why should a “way of life” be any less so? We Western thinkers constantly demand straight answers to bent questions. We force the world of biblical paradox into the straightjacket of moral uniformity. But if we just step back a bit, we see that life itself is a “blooming, buzzing confusion.” And YHVH is the God of life, the God of all that glorious messiness, that wonderful confederation of explained and unexplainable, of conscious and unconscious spiritual apprehension. So, of course a leader is responsible. How could be otherwise?
Makes you want to be at the head of the crowd, doesn’t it?
Topical Index: leadership, Deuteronomy 3:26, because of you, lema-ankem, sin
[1] Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation, p. 97.
[2] Shabbat 54b.
[3] Op. Cit., p. 101.
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Somehow, my sins are inexplicably tangled up in those that are committed against me, and I would think that includes the smaller individual as well as the larger, corporate, generational and even the planetary culpability for all the injustice that I labor under. I am tied to what is done to me at the same level as I am responsible for all that is done in the vacuum I was supposed to occupy, but did not. In that vacuum, demons reside and others stepped in and acted in my stead. All, all that is on my head. Jonah ran to Joppa with the fate of an entire city hanging over his head. He did not find a place to escape that tie, even at the bottom of the sea.
The only thing worse than answering the call of the world around me, for ME – for who I am is necessary for others to be who they are – is to not step up. Yes, I fumble and fall. Yes, I am exposed for the obnoxious, ignorant fool that I am; yes, everyone can then see how far away from those pearly gates I am, too, but that is no excuse. I am called to show up, faults and all, and step into the traces of accountability. I have to grow up on the job. I may look like a sage with my mouth shut, carefully keeping myself on the edge of the needs of others, but I am more useful as the fool that actually shows up in the middle of that need, and says “here am I, send me” – praying furiously as I go!
We have all been called to be light and salt, which essentially exposes and fundamentally changes reality around us, for better or for worse. Those changes are on my watch, but the ABSENCE of those changes is, too. I think it is still safer to try, and fall, then to not try at all. Perfection never described dereliction of duty.
Follow the Leader
“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King comes to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, even upon a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'” (Matthew 21.5)
He leadeth me,
O blessed thought..
~ Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the LORD has helped us.”
*To Him be glory in the ecclessia world without end..
and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the [other] nations.” But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. The LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them.…
“Hello Tall, Dark and Handsome.”
~ Kish had a son named Saul, as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else. ~(1 Samuel 9.2)
And still, unto this very day.. the heart of the matter remains.. [the word of God is forever true] Man will [still] judge according to the “outward appearance,” But God? — according to the heart.
Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, — a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him..
You cannot lead if no one is following. His request? “Follow Me.” Our answer? “We will not have this Man to reign over us.” “Who is the LORD that I should obey Him?” “We have no king but Caesar.”
~ O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your Name in all the earth. You have covered the heavens with Your majesty ~
A Rising Star
~ Magi (Wise men) from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have see His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” (Matthew 2.1,2)
Friend, was He “born a King?”
~ For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.. ~
Israel, Here’s Your Sign
and this shall be sign unto you.. [hello] – “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
Write That Down
~ A sign was fastened above Jesus’ head, announcing the charge against him. It read: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” ~
Prophet-Priest-King.
A Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, King of Righteousness — King of Shalom. One who ever lives to make intercession for us..
Man of Sorrows! what a Name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
Spotless Lamb of God was (is) He
Full atonement! can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Lifted up was He to die;
It is finished! was His cry;
Now in Heav’n exalted high.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew tHis song we’ll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!!
~ Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” ~
~ He shall feed His flock like a Shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young ~
~ My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me ~
Friend, today, shall we hail Him? or nail Him?
Always and forever.. “blessed IS the Name of our LORD.”
Jesus, Your Name is life.
After a brief study of the patriarchs and other notable men and women of scripture, our little fellowship has decided that none of us wish to be called leaders. In fact we avoid the word altogether preferring rather the title servant. So far it has had quite an amazing physiological impact on those of us who are called to serve in the body.
Thanks for the reminders of how leadership is sacrifice. How we need this version of leadership today rather than how many facebook friends, twitter followers we have. Leadership is sacrificial. You always pay a price for leadership especially when it means taking on the responsibility to keep people from sin.
The TALMUD answers?
Seriously?
You did those teachings on Leadership and I can not remember ever once mentioning the talmud, but now it ‘answers’?
How/why does the talmud have any answers for a believer. Thanks.