"For
that the leaders took the lead... bless the Lord"
(Judges 5:2).
While there are few
things fraught with more difficulties, perils, and
involvements than leadership, there are few things more
vital and necessary. The fact of leadership needs no
argument. It is in the very nature of things. Every
situation that arises of a serious and critical nature
either finds its salvation by the spontaneous forthcoming
of the spirit of leadership in someone, or becomes a
disaster for want of it. When an emergency arises, people
are either paralyzed and helpless because there is no one
to give a lead, or are galvanized into action or
confidence by the right kind of leadership.
But not only in
emergencies does this factor show its importance. Both in
any enterprise, mission, and service, and in any realm of
responsibility, this - which is an elemental principle
- invariably shows itself. We have much to say
about its nature, its sphere, and its purpose, but first
of all it is necessary that we should recognize and
accept that leadership is a fact in the very constitution
of life and purpose. It has been so from the beginning,
and - in principle (if not in form) - has
operated in every realm, not least in the Church.
In its right place,
sphere, nature, and relationship it is a must;
only chaos, confusion, and frustration can obtain where
there is no spirit of leadership. Indeed, even where
there may be a pretending to the contrary, it will be
there somewhere if things are not completely stagnant or
running to seed.
With all the desire and
intention in the world to safeguard the unique and sole
rights of Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Church, we
still believe that there is an essential place for, and
need of, subject and subordinate (to the Lord)
leadership. Moreover, this we believe not to be out of
order, but in the Divine order.
The place and function
of the shepherd in the Bible is to "go before",
and the sheep "follow after". The Lord is truly
the Chief Shepherd, but there are shepherds in the
churches, and they have to lead. While James, John, and
Timothy were apostles of the churches, they were
recognized as having particular responsibility in a local
church. If this can be proved to be true in any case, it
must be accepted as: (1) expressing a certain personal
leadership, and (2) not necessarily violating either the
headship of Christ, the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit,
or the corporate nature of local responsibility. To argue
otherwise is to say that it is impossible to have a
corporate body of responsible men who recognize anointing
for leadership amongst themselves - and to honor such -
while not being under autocratic oppression. While we
most strongly contend against autocracy, we as strongly
contend that leadership even amongst responsible brethren
is right, provided always that it is evidently anointed
leadership and of the kind that is approved of God...
As is always the case,
the positive is revealed in its importance by the
opposition which it encounters. We have only to consider
the leadership function of such as Adam, Moses, Joshua,
Gideon, Nehemiah, Paul, and a hundred others to
understand the intense and many-sided antagonism levelled
at them. Of course, the Lord Jesus as "the captain
of our salvation" i.e., "the file-leader"
is the supreme instance. Break, defeat, beguile, seduce
the leader, and the battle is won - the forces are
helpless. The focus of adverse attention upon leadership
is its own testimony to its importance.
Then in approaching the
question of what leadership is, we must say something of
what it is not. Leadership (in the work of God) is not
firstly on natural grounds. It is not - in the first
place - a matter of personality, natural ability,
assertiveness, enthusiasm, assumption, strength of mind
or will. A blusterer is not a leader. A leader in God's
work is not made or trained in the schools or academies.
That may be so in the world's work, but we are dealing
with spiritual leadership. Many natural things, inherited
or acquired, may - or may not - be helpful subsequently,
but God's leaders are not essential leaders because of
certain natural qualifications.
Whatever may or may not
be true in the natural realm, the fact is that God's
leaders are chosen by Him. They, and others, may always
have many questions as to Why, but that fact governs. God
only knows why! When God does it, men have either to take
account of it and accept it, or in repudiating it to be
out of Divine approval. This is very true to the Bible,
as we shall see.
What we have just said
does not imply that there are no qualities in leaders.
They go to school with God, and in a hard school the kind
of qualities required by God are inculcated. Another
general thing about leaders chosen by God is that they,
while being human, are in many respects a class by
themselves. They are pioneers, and pioneers are lonely
people in more respects than one. In some ways they are
difficult people. Their standard and measure has to be
ahead of others, and as human nature generally likes not
to be disturbed but would seek the easy way, the pioneer
is often a bit too much for people. He is restless, never
satisfied, always pressing and urging forward. The
keynote of his life is "Let us go on". His is
not the easy way, and because human nature does want the
easy way the leader is not always popular. The whole
nature of man is either downward or to a quiet and happy
mean and smugness. The pioneer is therefore not always
appreciated, but often very much otherwise. He is so much
contrary to this mediocre gravitation. A part of the
price of leadership is loneliness.
Leadership is a divine
imperative. In the work of God, true leadership is not by
the choice or desire of those concerned. Very often it is
against their inclination or desire, especially when they
have been in God's 'school of discipline'. Indeed, the
man who wants to be a leader, who forces himself into
that position, who assumes it, and who would not rather
be saved from it, will most likely be a menace. It will
be clear to all that it is more the man than the Lord.
His leadership - such as it is - will be forced,
artificial, and lacking in unction. The God-chosen leader
is a 'cannot' man in two ways. Firstly - like Moses and
Jeremiah - he will genuinely feel and confess, "I
cannot." But on the other hand, he will know that he
cannot do otherwise; it is a Divine compulsion, a fire in
his bones, an urge and energy not of himself. While he is
on his job, he may give the impression of personal
strength - perhaps of efficiency or even self-assurance -
but he and God know the depth of his secret history: the
overwhelming consciousness of need and dependence, the
awareness of limitation, and the desolating realization
of failure and weakness.
Leaders know deeper
depths than any others, and their battle with
self-despair is more acute. Yet it is a part of their
leadership and responsibility that they hide their own
personal sufferings and sorrows. Like Ezekiel and Hosea
they have to anoint their face and in the hour of deepest
sorrow go before the people "as at other
times." The troubles must not get into their voice
or manner; if they do, their influence has gone; for if
people are going on to the greater fulnesses of Christ,
the supreme virtue is courage, and it is this that a
leader must inspire. His boldest times - before men
- may be his times of deepest suffering before God.
They know that they are involved in the 'impossible' but
- in spite of themselves - they are committed; and for
them compromise is unthinkable.
While writing this, I
have come upon "The Making of a Pioneer", by
the Misses Cable and French, and in it these lines occur
in reference to the Pioneer:
"They are not an
easy-going class of people and are subject to an
inarticulate urge, the impact of a driving force pushing
them forward to further effort and carrying them into
what other men call 'impossible situations.' 'Appointed
to pioneer work' is an expression which is a travesty of
the true case, for no man can be called a 'pioneer' until
he has proved himself to be one. The.... pioneer is
heaven-ordained, not man-appointed."
It is in the very nature
of true spiritual leadership that the leader has to have
in his own being through experience that to which he
seeks to lead others. He has gone the way before. He has
tasted what he calls others to taste. He is no book
leader; what he says to others and urges them toward
comes out of his own life at great cost. The artificial
'leader' (?) can say the most extravagant things, can
give all the theory and assume all the mannerisms; and he
gets away with it and knows little or nothing of the real
heartbreak. ''The husbandman that laboreth must be the
first to partake of the fruits," said Paul, but
while this may apply to the reward of labor, it may also
apply to the cost.
When we have said all as
to that special class of pioneer-leaders in spiritual
things, we must point out that even if we cannot count
ourselves among them, you and I should be leaders in the
sense that we inspire and are an incentive to others to
"go on" with the Lord. While
"followers" there are always others who can be
influenced by us, and the very essence of leadership is
inspiration. May we all be leaders in this sense. Having
introduced this matter of leadership in a more-or-less
general way, we now proceed to look into it more closely
in order to learn from Bible examples the principles
which are basic to it and the features which delineate
it.
Before coming to our
first great example, let us emphasize the two common
factors in spiritual leadership:
One is the fact of the
sovereign act of God. In His choice of men for specific
responsibility, God acts in the absolute right and
independence of His own sovereignty. No one is allowed to
question His act, His judgment, His reason. Sovereignty
is unpredictable. God is answerable to no one, neither is
He responsible to anyone. His thoughts and His ways are
unfathomable, and in His wisdom He waits long past His
acts for vindication. But it is always vindicated in the
final issue. The second factor is that of God linking
Himself with a vessel - a human vessel - and linking that
vessel with Himself for a special purpose. This is the
meaning of anointing in both Testaments. Anointing in
which God so commits Himself to the vessel is always
related to purpose, and man cannot touch that vessel or
dispute its work without having - sooner or later, by
sudden intervention or the slowly-grinding mills of God - to
reckon with God. It is here that we are forbidden to
judge God's instrument on the ground of their humanity
apart from God. We may think that they provide ground for
adverse judgment, but if God is using them and is with
them, it will only bring us into a controversy on the
part of God with us if we touch His anointed - in word or
deed. The Bible has many instances of this. Provided the
vessel remains in meekness, God will take full
responsibility for its defects and for its vindication.
Having said that, we can
now proceed to the first example of leadership in the
Bible. While the principle of leadership was at work from
the beginning, leadership only had its full expression
when there was a people needing and prepared for it. This
full expression of the principle first came out in Moses.
Moses
What we
have said regarding the sovereignty of God is
unmistakable in the case of Moses. From his birth and
preservation at birth right through his history, all the
evidences of his being a "chosen vessel" are
clear. He was where he was because God did it. Even when,
out of sympathy and wrath, he essayed to assume the
position of deliverer, that was negative, because this
thing had got to be so utterly of God.
The endurance of Moses
is a matter that is remarked upon in Scripture, but that
endurance - as ours will be - was greatly supported
by his later knowledge that he was where he was because
God had done it, and it was not of his own choosing. How
important it is that Christians - and especially
Christian leaders - should be in a position to say
emphatically that they know how true Christ was when He
said, ''Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you." This
foundation of 'an act of God' is the only one to support
the tremendous weight of responsibility and demand that
leadership has to experience.
The second thing that
comes out so clearly as making for leadership is the
firsthand knowledge and experience of that out from which
we are to lead others.
Moses had forty of the
years in Egypt when the Pharaoh-complex of Joseph's time
had so utterly changed from favor to hostility. He was
born into that hostility and hatred and would have known
from his mother and sister of his own Providential
escape. He knew the palace and its tensions. He lived in
the atmosphere of mingled fear and animosity. He daily
saw the conditions of his own people. As with Joseph,
"the iron entered into his soul". No doubt that
background contributed greatly to his later reluctance to
go back, and his effort to find a way out of so doing.
It is not God's way to
send inexperienced people into leadership responsibility.
Such people are really handicapped and in serious
weakness. A part of the training of any leader should be
a firsthand knowledge of the world and its inimical
forces, and a life with God in the midst thereof.
Many a servant of God
has been profoundly thankful in after years that - in the
sovereignty and foreknowledge of God - he had periods in
conditions against which God reacted through him. This
may apply to various aspects and phases of life. God
places His servants in situations which are not His
ultimate will for them, and the time will come when they
react against what at one time seemed to be wholly or
almost wholly of God. It is strange that it is possible
at one time to believe a position to be wholly of God,
and later to discover that it was only the provisional
will of God to qualify for something quite other. Such
servants of God take with them through life a very real
inside knowledge which makes it possible for them to say,
"We speak that which we do know." We could
hardly exaggerate the importance and value of this factor
in leadership.
The third factor in this
leadership is a fundamental lesson that the work of God
is essentially spiritual.
Moses was "learned
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians". He no doubt had
natural endowments. He certainly had rich acquired
qualifications. He was evidently a man of considerable
physical strength. His natural disposition was to be
thorough in anything that he undertook, as see him
slaying the Egyptian and separating the quarrelling
Hebrews. He was not lacking in zeal nor weak in
initiative. But with all this, God did not take him up on
those grounds. "Not by might, nor by power" are
words which very aptly apply to Moses at the age of forty
years.
"The weapons of our
warfare are not carnal." The real and eternal aspect
of God's work is spiritual; therefore only spiritual men
with spiritual experience and resources can do it
effectively. God's true leaders are spiritual men and men
of the Spirit.
All our natural ability,
our training, our acquired qualifications; our strength,
zeal, and learning will prove of little avail when we
come up against the ultimate forces of the universe,
which are spiritual. This Moses well knew when he came
actually to his life-work.
Leadership is often born
of the deep discipline of failure and self-discovery. The
second forty years of his life served such a purpose and
were no doubt deeply tinged with the bitterness of self-
disillusionment. He was in a much safer place when he
shrank from the responsibility than when he
self-confidently tackled it in his own strength.
A further qualification
for leadership as seen in the case of Moses is
faithfulness, promptness, and humility in ordinary and
unspectacular affairs.
Tending a few sheep at
the back side of the desert by an erstwhile royal prince
of Egypt for a considerable number of years could be a
fair test of patience and lack of bitterness. The
opportunity to help some defenseless women to get their
flocks watered was neither beneath his dignity nor an
annoying interruption in preoccupation with 'higher and
more important matters'. He was not so disaffected by his
disappointment as to be contemptuous of a humble piece of
work.
High-mindedness is a
disqualification for leadership. The Lord watches the
out-of-sight life and determines His approval there. A
true leader is not one who has to be shown and asked to
do menial things, but one who sees a need and
self-forgettingly lends a hand.
It is quite evident that
God knew where Moses was, and that he was not a castaway
servant. Moses had been inwardly disciplined in the
school of inaction, a very hard school for his active and
energetic type. The self-emptying had been a painful
process, but it had effected God's intention and put him
on that essential ground of spiritual leadership which is
"no confidence in the flesh"; "all things
are of (out from) God."
But the immediate point
is that upon which the Lord's eye was looking during the
time of waiting. That is, a spirit of service. It is so
easy to be active and energetic when there is some big,
interesting, or worthwhile job on hand, especially if it
is in the public eye or alongside of others. But the real
test is when things are quite otherwise, and we are right
down to bedrock principle; the principle of
conscientiousness without the influence of relatedness in
responsibility and another's eye upon us. Service is a
spirit, not an outward obligation. There is very little
of the spirit of service left in the world now, but with
God it has always been something of which He has taken
particular account.
This is His law of trust
and approval: "He that is faithful in that which is
least."
Say what we may about
Moses himself and of Divine sovereignty in his life, but
let it be understood that Divine sovereignty does not
bypass simple 'everyday' behavior in what may seem to be
very insignificant matters. A whole life's vocation may
turn upon a seemingly small issue. It is our spirit that
God looks at. The few sheep at the back of the desert, a
few helpless women in difficulty had a place in God's
esteem which led to a true exaltation.
The episode of the bush
was the crisis and turning-point in the life of Moses. We
could say that the past forty years found their meaning
and issue here, and the following forty their strength.
There is an incomparable meaning in this, and the
significance was immense; for here we are in the presence
of the Triune God in combined operation unto the
emancipation of an elect people.
When Moses, many years
after, pronounced the blessings upon the tribes, the
highly esteemed Joseph was to know "the good will of
Him that dwelt in the bush" (Deut. 33:16). Moses
came to understand that "good will" in all its
redeeming love. What a basis and background for
leadership!
Moses may not have
understood all the New Testament meaning, but he came
into the power.
What Moses was meant to
understand - for his great responsibility - was that
humanity in itself may be frail, weak, and as vulnerable
as a bush of the desert; but if God links Himself with it
in the power of the Holy Spirit, it can endure and live
and triumph when naturally it should succumb.
Joshua
Joshua, like the One
Whom he typifies, is the link joining the great salvation
from, with the great salvation unto. Moses - in the main
- had to do with the salvation from; Joshua entered into
that, shared it, and then took it to the great 'unto' of
its purpose.
The unto broke down in
the case of Moses, although he laid its foundation. It
broke down with the first generation who came out. They
failed to go through. The New Testament repeatedly refers
to this failure in the most solemn warnings to Christians
of this dispensation. In so doing, it reflects the very
great importance of the leadership-work of Joshua, and
thereby lifts Joshua and his special aspect of leadership
on to very high and vital ground. Nothing less than the
whole import of salvation, and therefore ninety percent
of the New Testament is represented by the leadership of
Joshua. True, in his own case, it failed of full
realization, and Joshua did not lead them into the
"rest" (Heb. 4:8). But he did - in eternal
principles - lead to the One Who has made his work
complete, even Jesus...
There is no doubt that
Joshua was the Old Testament counterpart of Paul; each in
his different and respective sphere. The one, the
earthly, temporal, and limited; the other, the heavenly,
spiritual, and universal. In both cases the dominating
issue was THE FULNESS OF CHRIST as being God's supreme
and all-inclusive purpose.
This was - and is - the
object of the salvation 'out from'. Fail of this, and
salvation has lost its most essential meaning and object.
Fail of this, and we inherit all the reproaches resultant
from the tragedy of Kadesh Barnea. Fail of this, and we
are in the first letter to the Corinthians where - with
this very example presented - a life-work can go up in
smoke in 'the Day', and we be saved 'yet only as by
fire'. Fail of this, and the most grievous things in the
New Testament (see the Letter to the Hebrews, chapters 6
and 10, etc.) will apply to us. From both the Old
Testament history and the New Testament admonitions, it
is evident that it is possible to be saved in an
elementary sense but lose the 'inheritance'; and it is
the inheritance which justifies all.
Thus Joshua represents
the leadership which, energized by the Holy Spirit, has
in view and all-governing that FULLNESS into which Christ
has entered and which He is - and has - for His
people: Nothing less or other than that.
This is a tremendous
thing, and it constitutes a very great vocation. It gives
leadership its highest and fullest meaning...
What Joshua really represents, then, is Christ under the
anointing Spirit committed to the full purpose of God -
the Heavenly Inheritance, God's FULLNESS in His Son. Who
will say that to have even a small place in this work is
not preeminently important? Here, then, leadership takes
on its superlative meaning...
Let it be understood
that for many years Joshua himself was in the school of
leadership. He was being tested, proved, drawn out to be
approved. This aspect of his history was in the
wilderness, and forty being the number of probation,
Joshua's leadership had its difficult and testing
probation. No one leaps suddenly into this vocation. A
great deal of history lies behind this ministry.
It will surprise no one
that, with such a purpose in view, leadership is
fundamentally linked with warfare. We first meet Joshua
in connection with the withstanding of God's people by
Amalek (Exod. 17). So early in the people's history, as
they start with freshness toward the ultimate goal, evil
forces arise to bar the way. Amalek took the initiative:
"then fought Amalek".
It is in a time of
conflict, when the enemy takes the initiative, that there
is revealed what fighting spirit there is hidden amongst
the Lord's people. Joshua was the embodiment of this
spirit. He knew that this move of the enemy signified a
disputing of the inheritance - that it was not just an
incidental and unrelated thing. Defeat here had a
long-range connection. Everything was involved. There
would be many battles ahead and the approach of the full
end would be marked by an intensification of conflict
from which there would be very brief, if any, respite;
but this very early assault involved the whole.
It would be a great
thing if the Lord's people saw everything in the light of
the full end and weighed what seems but incidental
against the whole involvement of a defeat at any given
point. How much hangs upon this spirit of leadership
coming to light at a critical moment! Leadership, in
Joshua's case, was hidden, so far as the record shows,
until the hour of real need; then it is found to have
been there - but latent. But there is little doubt that
Joshua had A SECRET HISTORY WITH GOD.
So we come to a vital
factor in leadership. It is a secret history with God
which is motivated by a deep and intense jealousy for
God's full thought. Later it came out in the revealing
occasion when he and Caleb stood alone against all
Israel.
The second occasion on
which we meet Joshua is equally revealing as to his
spirit. It is when Moses was in the mount with God. The
forty days had proved too much for the patience of this
vacillating and self-willed people. They broke loose, and
Aaron's part in it was deeply discreditable (The story is
in Exodus 32).
As Moses descended the
mount, picking up Joshua on the way down, they heard the
noise in the camp. It must have been loud and confused;
indeed, very wild. Consistent with his very spirit,
Joshua interpreted it as 'the noise of battle.' The
war-horse thought he scented conflict. He was right,
although the battle element was deeper than the
appearance. They were making merry, but their very
merriment was a battle against God.
Jealousy for God's honor
will sense and see the really inimical and hostile
elements in things like this. Anything that threatens to
take the Lord's unique and utter place will make one like
Joshua instinctively scent battle and rise to it in
spirit. Joshua represents utterness for God and of God,
and this always means battle. If the whole purpose of God
concerning His Son and His Church really captures the
spirit, compromise is intolerable and unthinkable. In
thin, Joshua does foreshadow his great New Testament
counterpart - Paul, and they very definitely meet in the
latter's Letter to the Galatians.
The spirit of battle
which characterized Joshua on the way down the mountain
found its very definite materializing in the immediate
act of Moses. His challenge of "Who is on the Lord's
side?" found Joshua a wholly committed man. The test
was a very grim and exacting one, but it is evident that
he was wholly one with "the sons of Levi" in
their uncompromising course.
The tent was pitched
outside the camp and to it and Moses Joshua, with the
sons of Levi, resorted at the call of Moses. This brings
us to the next significant mention of Joshua:
"....Joshua....departed not out of the tent."
Joshua had chosen the place of complete separation and
difference at great cost, and there he stayed.
The Letter to the
Hebrews takes this incident up and applies it - on the
one side to the compromising Judaizers, which it calls
"the camp"; and on the other side to the
non-compromising, committed devotees to Jesus Christ. It
says that to the latter "outside the camp" is
the place of "bearing His reproach".
Here, then, we have come
on two more factors in true spiritual leadership. One is
that the true leader is one who will never, however much
it costs, be drawn into compromise. A leader must never
be weak. He must never allow policy to override
principle. He must never allow popular opinion to weaken
his committedness. He must never allow sentiment to
dilute his strength. He must never let sociability make
him sacrifice supreme interests and spiritual or moral
integrity under the cover and pretext of a false usage of
Paul's words about becoming "all things to all
men." 'Hebrews' says that "outside the
camp" where Joshua elected to be is the unpopular
place, and it is always very testing to be unpopular. But
leadership often demands this price.
The other thing which
arises at this point in the case of Joshua is
reliability. Moses - not in compromise - returned to the
camp. Joshua abode in the tent. This is stated in the
narrative evidently with a serious meaning. What the full
meaning is may be left for us to consider, but this one
thing is clear: you would always know where to find
Joshua. If it were asked, 'Where is Joshua?' everybody
would have the answer: 'Oh, he is - where he always is -
in the tent.' If Moses needed him, he knew where to find
him.
Leadership absolutely
demands this characteristic of dependableness. What a
strength it is to know that a person can be guaranteed to
be in a definite spiritual position - right on the spot
spiritually; not temperamental, vacillating, variable, or
unpredictable. The multitude, especially "the mixed
multitude", is like that - not consistently true for
two days together. You never know how you are going to
find them at any given time. To lead them into anything
more of God demands this feature of 'abiding'. Yes, there
may be discouragement, disappointment, provocation, and
heartbreak, but true spiritual leadership rests upon an
all-or-nothing basis, and deep down there is an abandon
to purpose which is stronger than all that is against.
The leader may adjust on
points and be open to progressive light, but as to the
ultimate Divine vision, he will die rather than betray or
recant. He is no time-server or opportunist. He cannot be
bought off. He is going on or he is going out. He has
seen, and he can never unsee. He says, "Here I am, I
can do no other. May God help me"; or, "this
one thing I do".
Such a faithfulness and
undeviating committal is something in the very nature of
the call and the vocation.
But with all his
strength of purpose, Joshua, like his New Testament
counterparts, was always in school learning fresh lessons
on leadership.
Our next touch with him
is very indicative of this. It is in Numbers 11. The
Spirit of God is exercising His essential sovereign
liberty. Into this sovereign activity certain 'laymen'
are caught up; that is, men who are not recognized
official prophets; they are not in the recognized place
for functioning in such a way. Eldad and Medad come under
the spontaneous movement of the Spirit and prophesy in
the camp. Joshua is alarmed and scandalized. He rushes to
Moses in his jealousy for that great man and cries,
"My lord Moses, forbid them." To his amazement
and disconcertion, Moses shows no sympathy with his
jealousy and conventionality. Rather does Moses rebuke
it: "Would to God that all the Lord's people were
prophets" - 'Do not be jealous for me.' In other
words, 'Do not limit the Lord. Do not circumscribe the
Holy Spirit.' The Holy Spirit will not be bound by
jealous conventionality, nor by human fears as to what He
may do next: "The wind bloweth where it
listeth."
The situation is quite
clear. Peter had to learn this lesson, and failure to do
so fully only resulted in fettering the Church and some
of its apostles. The absolute sovereignty of the Holy
Spirit was something which meant an immense amount in the
after life of Joshua and his leadership. If it is true
that 'the love of God is broader than the measure of
man's mind', that is only another way of saying that the
Holy Spirit will demand the right and liberty to overleap
our prejudices, our stringencies of interpretation -
indeed, anything and everything that makes Christ smaller
than He really is.
The very leadership
itself can be jeopardized and falsified if this lesson is
not well and truly learned.
But our special point
here is not the range of the Spirit's work, for the
occasion to which we are referring was amongst the Lord's
people. What we are especially pointing to as an
essential law of leadership is the absolute sovereign
rights and liberty of the Holy Spirit to choose His own
ways and means, places and times. The government of the
Holy Spirit without deference to any one or any thing
other than His own nature and authority has to be
recognized, acknowledged, and accepted in order to
implement the Divine purpose.
Having summarized the
general ground of leadership as represented by Joshua,
there remains one specific and inclusive factor which is
given peculiar prominence and emphasis at the beginning
of the book which bears his name. It is THE VITAL FACTOR
OF COURAGE. If the first chapters of that book are the
preparation for all that follows, or the foundation
thereof, then quite clearly courage is the dominant
characteristic. Four times in the brief first chapter is
this note strongly struck: three times by the Lord and
once by the people. Courage is made a command and a
demand. "Be strong and of a good courage" is
the Divine command and requisite...
There had been the great
'Out.' Now there was to be the great 'In.' There had been
the tremendous fact of redemption. Now there was to be
the Purpose of it...
If the 'Out' had made
immense demands for courage in the case of Moses, the
'In' was going to make equal, if not greater, demands in
the case of Joshua. Every value to be secured and every
step of advance toward fullness was going to be fraught
with powerful and relentless resistance. The issue was no
less than absolute dominion, and for this no quarter
could be given by either side.
The salvation of the
Church from the power of Satan's dominion is a costly and
withstood matter. But the collective forces of his
kingdom are stirred to any and every kind of resistance
when it comes to a growing and additional apprehension of
Christ and a larger measure of Himself in possession of
His people.
Not only the frontal
attack or withstanding, but the paralyzing insinuating of
his own character in the form of covetousness, as at Ai;
or the deceptiveness of compromise, as with the
Gibeonites, are very effective methods. Let it be clearly
recognized that the effect of the second of these - with
a very long crippling carry-over - was to take the fight
out of the Lord's people. It is a subtly effective
manoeuvre of the enemy to make the Church accept a
compromise without the need for battle.
So there was always the
temptation to accept an untimely and too-early settlement
and satisfaction. This, in the case of Israel, resulted
in the terrible period of the 'Judges' - the disgrace of
the Bible. Discouragement, impatience, and weariness were
ever near to rob of FULLNESS and finality.
All this was in the
knowledge of God when He laid such emphasis upon courage
at the beginning.
We could say that
perhaps the greatest weapon of the foe of spiritual
progress and fulness is discouragement, and he well knows
the menace to his interests of spiritual courage. We need
not stay to do more than remark that spiritual courage is
a peculiar kind of courage, and of a higher order than
physical or even moral courage. The courage
of Jesus when on trial - the courage to be silent - was
more powerful than any other kind of courage. The courage
of the Apostles on and after the Day of Pentecost was a
victory over their own former cowardice and something
that was above the natural. To meet the ultimate
spiritual forces of this universe requires more than the
best natural courage. The best human courage is no match
for the Devil and his hosts, with their almost boundless
resources of subtlety, malice, guile, cunning, strength,
and tireless energy. Only, as with Joshua, a
knowledge of the "Captain of the hosts of the
Lord" as being in charge, though unseen, will nerve
the spirit of those in this battle.
That function of
spiritual leadership to keep vision ever in view and to
inspire to its attainment is in itself a battle with
disappointment and despair. The leader has to infect
others, like Joshua, through intermediaries, and be a
constant inspiration to those in the battle... The leader
has to get his courage at first hand from God, and this
means many a secret courageous battle with depression.
His temptation is very often and fierce to lower his
standard, to lessen his demands, to modify his
expectations, and to accommodate the situation so that it
is not so exacting, but easier, for everyone.
In a thousand ways and
in ever-recurring demands, courage is called for as the
only way through.
Deborah
(Judges 4 & 5)
It is a fairly far cry
from Joshua to the Judges, and there is a terrible lapse
from those days of triumph and conquest, as there was at
the close of the Apostolic days. The Book of Judges is,
perhaps, the most tragic book in the Bible...
That those were times of
spiritual declension needs no arguing. That a primary
reason for the declension was the absence of authority is
definitely stated four times. It is as though the
narrator focused all the trouble upon this absence of an
authoritative leadership.
There seems to be more
than the statement of a fact. The suggestion or
implication is that it was more than an absence of
leadership; it was a disposition. When it says that
"every-man did that which was right in his own
eyes", it seems to imply that that was how they were
disposed to have it. They did not like the restraints of
authority. They felt that leadership implied limitation;
they made their own judgment the final authority. As they
saw was the 'right' way - "right in his own
eyes". It was independence run amok.
Possibly the loss of
true spirituality and the enthronement of the natural
mind had resulted - as it usually does - in an inability
to see the difference between spiritual and anointed
leadership on the one hand, and autocracy on the other.
The dislike for, and resentment to, anything autocratic
or in the nature of dictatorship makes people throw over
and utterly repudiate law and authority, and become a law
unto themselves. The unspiritual Corinthians gave this
'autocratic' interpretation to the authority which Paul
said had been given him in Christ. To read his letters to
that church is to see how he claimed and used that
authority, but it is also to see that it was absolutely
necessary to
their salvation as a church. But it certainly was not
autocratic domination.
It is only lack of the
spiritual discernment as to "things that
differ", although they may appear alike - about
which Paul said much to the Corinthians - that confuses
things, and loses the values of what is God-given. On the
one side, it was disastrous for Israel and meant four
hundred years of confusion, weakness, and impotence. On
the other hand, the salvation and periods of improvement
were because the Lord raised up leaders.
When we come to Deborah,
we have a significant and impressive thing. There is
first Deborah herself, and then there are those to whom
she refers when she says: "For that the leaders took
the lead" (Judges 5:2). Deborah overshadows the
whole story; therefore she must be seen for what she is:
Being a woman in such a position, she must represent a
sovereign activity of God. The Bible is quite clear that
- in the normal order of God - women are not set over
men. Normally it would be disorder if they were... In
God's first order man is given the position of authority.
But here in the case of Deborah, we have a woman by
Divine consent and approval in that place...
Deborah, while being a
real person, is - in effect - the spirit or principle of
leadership. This is borne out in that she is called a
prophetess. What is the supreme characteristic of
prophetic ministry? It is inspiration. So we see that
leadership in Deborah's case was her power to inspire.
Both Barak and the leaders who took the lead fulfilled
their leadership by reason of the inspiration received
through Deborah. Leadership is a matter of inspiration.
It is an endowment. Not
all who take the position can fulfil it. It is a pathetic
thing to observe someone in the position without the
inspiration or anointing. That is why it is so wrong and
dangerous for anyone either to assume the position or be
put into it by vote or human influence.
Let our godly women
realize that their function is not to rule and govern,
but to inspire. Deborah said to Barak: "Hath not the
Lord commanded...." She knew the Lord, and out of
that knowledge she was the spirit of inspiration.
It is no small thing to
see the purpose of God and to inspire to leadership in
it. This can be done, as in the case of Deborah, without
personally going into the forefront of the battle.
Our lesson, then, from
Deborah is that, whether officially in the office of a
leader or not, leadership is essentially a matter of the
gift and power of inspiration: a contagious influence, an
emanating spiritual energy, and a potent example.
How often is leadership
regarded as an official thing. The leader must have a
title, an office, an appointment. Deborah teaches us that
leadership is the expansion of the mother-spirit to
embrace the whole of God's people. "Until that I
Deborah arose....a mother in Israel'' (Judges 5:7). Not
'Till I a leader, a prophetess, a Divinely-chosen
instrument arose' but "a mother." Hers was
evidently a heart-concern, an affectional concern for the
Lord's people.
We have earlier referred
to the revolt against Paul's spiritual authority, but his
answer to that was his love, even 'as of a nursing
mother' (1 Thess. 2:7,11), and any seeming severity was
born of his very deep paternal or - spiritually -
maternal concern for them.
This element must be in
all leadership; the element of a jealous yearning over
the spiritual interests of those concerned. "I arose
a mother," said Deborah. The incentive of her
inspiring leadership was the mother-passion for a
spiritual family.
Back of all that appears
and sounds otherwise in the prophets of Israel, there can
always be detected this sigh and sob of a
heart-relationship with a wayward family, in trouble
because of its waywardness.
From the book "Leadership". First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, 1963, Vol 41.