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Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends and welcome to the third weekend in October 2020. I hope you have a great weekend, wherever you are, and I have a very interesting challenge for us today.
Here’s a word we don’t often use, but it is very important to how you and I live our lives everyday, regardless of where you live in the world: GOVERNANCE.
It means how a group of people are governed. It applies to governments, businesses, churches even your family! So may I ask… how are your family decisions made, your family conflicts resolved, your family values established and upheld? What is your family discipline procedure when there is rebellion? That’s family governance! Can you apply those ‘governance questions’ to all the organizations that you are part of, including your job, your church, your social groups, your community and even the nation in which you live?
In the USA this month, GOVERNANCE is the main issue as a Supreme Court Justice nominee is being vetted, and the election season has the entire country in a frenzy, looking at how America should be governed at the national level, after January 2021.
What are you learning about American governance leadership as you watch and listen to all the voices attempting to shape America this month? What does God say about “governance”? That is our pursuit this month… finding God’s wisdom, God’s guidance in the complex world of governance!
The people of Israel made a dramatic governance decision in the days of Samuel the prophet. They had grown tired of God’s leadership so they said to Samuel “Give us a king so we can be like all the other nations…” (1 Samuel 8:19,20) The people of Israel turned away from God’s design for them… being a Theocracy, a God led governance of Israel. Instead the people wanted a Monarchy… like other nations around them. They wanted a human king led governance of Israel.
We’ve followed the journey of the first two kings, Saul & David, and today we look at the third, Solomon. These three kings each reigned 40 years. They were each selected by God, each for different reasons, and as we’ve seen each king related to God and responded to God’s guidance differently. We’ve seen some of the results, both good and bad, for the people they governed. I hope our ‘Walking with Jesus” time together has been helping you look with fresh eyes at the leadership governance of your country, your region, your family, all the organizations of which you are part, even including your church. If you my friend, are in any type of leadership, I hope these daily studies are helping you see God’s ways of leadership.
In the Old Testament of the Bible six books essentially tell us the “governance story” of ancient Israel: 1 & 2 Samuel; 1 & 2 Kings; 1 & 2 Chronicles. May I be honest? When I was young, I thought these were about the most boring books in the Bible, yet over the years they have become very important in teaching me about leadership.
Our world history, sadly, is filled with stories of poor and failed leadership which has resulted in endless pain, despair and destruction for countless millions of people. In fact I think it’s safe to say EVERY person who has ever lived has been wounded at least once, by poor leadership making bad decisions. So together, my friends, let’s learn from the Bible, so we can all do better going forward.
Yesterday, we learned from king David some important lessons about how leaders should prepare to end their leadership season well. With God’s help good leaders can build a good succession plan, finish well, and transition leadership to the next generation in a God honoring manner, which is safe and beneficial for everyone. Today let’s look at how God can help new leaders begin well.
There is little information about king Solomon’s coronation, but we do see king David making it clear Solomon was God’s selection to be the next king. (1 Chron. 28:5,6) We also see David’s challenge, both to Solomon and other leaders, to be faithful in seeking God, listening to God, and following God’s guidance carefully, for the good of the people they would govern. (1 Chron. 28,29)
1 Kings 2 gives us some insight into a private, final instruction conversation from king David to his son Solomon, regarding some unfinished business in dealing with a few bad characters. Justice needed yet to be accomplished. Here is a very important Leadership Transition question of governance: what does a new leader do with the past of the organization of which they are moving into leadership? Now ponder that a moment friends.
That question is crucial to effective leadership transition of a family, a nation, and any organization, isn’t it my friends? Often in the Bible you’ll see old people, who are nearing death, call their family or those they lead together to give instructions as they pass the mantle of leadership to the next generation. That was especially true with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel and most recently in our study, king David.
I wonder if you agree that as new leadership steps into their new leadership roles, they will likely choose one of three paths:
1. New leaders will seek to understand their inherited past, celebrate the good of the past, acknowledge the difficult parts of the past, learn from the past, and with God’s guidance, build on the past. As we study the kings of Israel we’ll see some great examples of this! In many ways this was the challenge Jesus gave to His disciples as He was leaving to return to heaven and entrust to them the Great Commission. (Matt. 28:18-20)
2. Some new leaders, however, fearful of the future and the challenges of leadership, simply chose to live in the past. They work to maintain or sustain a continuation of the past as they lead in stagnation. Do you remember Jesus’ parable of the talents and the man who buried his talent in the ground? (Matt. 25:14-30)
3. Sadly, a third group of leaders disregard the past. They build walls between the past and their new leadership present, and they quickly move to change things connected to the past so the future is their preferred future. Often this can lead to disaster as the wisdom of the past is ignored, thus mistakes of the past are often repeated unnecessarily. Sadly this happened frequently in Israel’s history as we’ll see. Of course sometimes the past is so terrible a new leader needs to move quickly to change course to a much better future. King Hezekiah did that in his first month, when he followed wicked king Ahaz. (2 Chronicles 29)
These three leadership transition paths are true in a family, a business, a church, or a nation. Please take careful note of the advice David gave Solomon in regard to two different troubling situations which would be part of the past that king Solomon would need to deal with, upon accepting leadership: “Deal with him according to your wisdom…” (1 Kings 2:5,6) “Do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom, you will know what to do to him…” (1 Kings 2:9)
But where would this ‘wisdom’ come from for king Solomon? Remember at this time in history there was little formal education and certainly nothing like the Universities or leadership training programs of our day. As you read 1 Kings 2, you’ll see Solomon wisely dealt with the difficult people situations that his father had left to him, but also one or two unexpected challenges arose almost immediately after king David’s death. It seems Solomon quickly realized that his single greatest need would be wisdom and so what he did next is very, very instructive to anyone moving INTO a leadership position. Tomorrow we’ll look into this miraculous event which is unique to king Solomon and his transition INTO leadership.
As we conclude today, I’m asking you to take some time this weekend and look around your world… begin with your family, then your church, then your employment journey, and other organizations you’ve been part of, and finally look at your nation.
Look closely at how leaders act as they step INTO new leadership roles. What do they do with the past of the organization they now lead? How do they learn from those who have preceded them?
What role has God held in all the transitions which have touched your life? And as we look at America, what can we anticipate may happen in the weeks to come? And finally… if you are a leader, what is the Holy Spirit of God saying to you, right now?
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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