"Choosing a Nation's Ruler"
June 29, 2003 1Samuel 16:1-13
What to Look For in a Leader?
As we approach Canada Day this year, the political machinery is turning in preparation for the selection of a new leader. The Liberals are choosing a successor for retiring Prime Minister Chretien; the three candidates are Paul Martin, John Manley, and Sheila Copps, and the news lately has featured six leadership debates, and announcements of who's backing whom. Upon which qualities are they making their selection? What should characterize our nation's next potential leader?
The Globe and Mail this week reported that Human Resources minister Jane Stewart has decided to support John Manley because, as she says, he would balance fiscal responsibility with concerns for Canadians "who need a helping hand"; and he supposedly is "decisive, clear-thinking, concerned about Canada's future". Earlier this month, according to a CP news article, Manley said: "Liberals and Canadians are telling me that they want an experienced leader who gives them straight answers on the difficult decisions facing the future of Canada...Leadership means taking a stand. Canadians will always know where I stand."
Good money management...decisive thinking...concern for the needy and the future...honest communication: all of these are desirable qualities, but are they the most important when it comes to choosing a leader? Is much consideration being given to the candidates' views on controversial issues of morality? What guidelines does Scripture offer for Christians to use in deciding who to vote for, whose campaign to contribute to? Leadership isn't just important in politics; it's vital for our church as we take the next steps in getting officially organized with elders and a church council. Employers need to know what to look for when hiring. Students applying for summer jobs will be wondering what qualities to emphasize on a resume, or how a particular job may "grow" them in their own maturity as a Christian and desirable leadership skills and traits.
1Samuel 16 hints that what's most important is not what's immediately obvious about someone. God's criteria for leaders has more to do with heart than with hype, with attitude than appearance.
God's choice: based on the heart, not outward appearance
When the prophet Samuel is sent to anoint a successor to King Saul, God emphasizes that He has already chosen someone. V.1, "I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem; I have chosen one of his sons to be king." V.3, "...I will show you what to do.You are to anoint for me the one I indicate." Choosing a leader requires spiritual discernment, it's not just a matter of deciding who offers me the most advantages. If Jesus is Lord of all of life, putting our vote in the ballot box is as significant an action as placing our offering in the plate. Both are matters to be handled prayerfully. God can help us see things about people that wouldn't be apparent other ways. Jesus spent the whole night in prayer before choosing the apostles (Luke 6:12). When Peter and the other disciples go to replace Judas in Acts 1(24f), they pray, "Lord, you know everyone’s heart.Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry..." Revelation is involved as well as reason, what God shows us just as He was directing Samuel step by step. God's word is supreme over human authority, His foolishness is wider than human wisdom.
When Samuel begins to meet Jesse's boys, God warns him that there's more involved to choosing a leader than what meets the eye. Vv.6-7 give a very important Biblical principle: "When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, 'Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.' But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.'" The oldest son was impressive to look at, but there's more than that to being a leader. Back at the beginning of chapter 9 we're told that the previous king, Saul, was the son of "a man of standing", he came from a rich and influential family. Saul himself was "an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites -- a head taller than any of the others." He had the physical stature to make a significant first impression. But height and wealth didn't prepare Saul to be a good king. When it came down to the crunch, Saul rejected God and made selfish choices.
How did this happen? Chapter 15 opens with the prophet Samuel giving Saul a divine order to punish the Amalekites, a "band of guerilla terrorists" as the Life Application Bible puts it, for their attacks on and plundering of Israel from the time of the Exodus on til Saul's time. They were to be completely obliterated; the Hebrew term refers to "the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them." Saul was successful when he attacked, but 15:9 says they spared the king and the best of the livestock - "everything that was good.These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed." When confronted by Samuel, Saul lies to pretend that they were saving the best animals for sacrifice, but that was pointless because they could have just as easily sacrificed them by destroying them on the spot. (Saul's lie reminds us of Ananias and Sapphira's deceit in pretending they'd given more to the church than they actually had (Acts 5:1-11). Samuel's words are more accurate when he says (15:19), "Why did you pounce on the plunder...?" Saul and troops wanted some of the best spoils for themselves.
Saul's rebellion against God's direction is highlighted by his lying and self-justification to the prophet, Samuel. In 15:24 he whines, "I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them." We want to be liked, so we cave in to peer pressure or adjust our stance based on popular opinion, but that doesn't make a leader. God calls us to be different, to be His people, not to be liked. Unfortunately too many politicians today base their political platforms on polls and popular opinion. Mr.Manley spoke of what Liberals and Canadians "want" in a leader, not what they "need". Part of a leader's job is to try to persuade people of measures that they may not like but which would be most beneficial for everybody.
Pouncing on plunder is the motivation of personal profit. Being afraid of the people and giving in is being pressured by popular opinion. Another faulty motivation is revealed in 15:12 when Samuel is told Saul went to another place to "set up a monument in his own honour" - what a contrast to other servants of God like Moses and Joshua, who were careful to give the credit to God! This is the motive of pride, image, wanting to look good and impress others. Another fatal flaw in a leadership candidate. Ego gets in the way of making ourselves available to do what God wants. Saul seized the victory as an excuse to set up a monument to himself, even though he was being deliberately disobedient to God who'd authorized and enable him to defeat the enemy.
All these unclean things floated in the lagoon of Saul's heart - pouncing on plunder, fearing the people, honouring himself. So God reminded Samuel that he wasn't looking for appearance or height such as Jesse's oldest son had; the Lord doesn't look at things the way we do. We're wowed by outward appearance, "but the Lord looks at the heart."
WANTED: an Obedient Trustworthy Servant Attitude
So, one by one, seven of Jesse's sons passed before the prophet, but none of them was the one to anoint as future leader of Israel. Samuel maybe was starting to wonder if he'd come to the wrong house, for all the young men present had been examined. In 16:11 he asks Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." (You've got to realize that looking after sheep was right down there with cleaning toilets and digging post holes - lowest status job in the economy!) In the next verse, David is brought in, all tanned and wind-blown from his outdoor duties. His hands are rough from pulling thistles out of the pasture, and he smells strongly of - yup - definitely barnyard. Strangely, the Lord says to Samuel, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."
All these big strapping maturing lads, and God chooses the youngest? The one that was almost forgotten, stuck out in the back 40 tending the sheep? This is the one chosen to be the future King of the country? C'mon! How many memberships has his campaign sold? They probably haven't even heard of him in the next village!
What had David been doing out there in the sheep pasture that caught God's attention, that qualified him for the Lord's amazing selection? For one thing, he'd been playing music skilfully. David not only enjoyed the harp, he realized the sheep enjoyed hearing his voice; music calmed them and helped them feel secure. The shepherd's song helped them forget the predators and dangers, settle down and feed peaceably. David didn't realize that this talent would soon land him at King Saul's court as the royal musician, providing music therapy to help the king recover from spiritual and emotional depression (16:18-22).
It doesn't matter where you start out working: do your job well, grow in your proficiency, and eventually the Lord will steer you to a place where you can make a real impact. Proverbs 22(29) says, "Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men." Later in 2Sam.7(8) God reminded David through another prophet, "This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel." Clearly it is up to God Almighty to place us where He needs us in His sovereign wisdom and timing. So when you're stuck with that "joe job", when you feel like you've been forgotten in the back 40 career-wise, when things just aren't coming together like they did for your class-mates or for the people up the street, remember God's eye was on David stuck out there with the sheep rather than the other 7 upwardly-mobile brothers. Jesus in a parable featured a master who said to an employee, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things..." (Mt.25:21,23) Whether we're dealing with sheep or with foreign ambassadors, the common element is our attitude. It was David's willingness to risk his life taking on a lion or bear hand-to-hand to save the lives of a few dozen muttons that prepared him for the highly public, high-stakes contest with the giant Goliath (17:34-37). However low your profile, God is training you each moment for His future projects, on earth and in eternity. The godly leader is trustworthy because they have learned to subject themselves to the Lord's leading, be the task small or great.
Besides making music to calm the sheep, David was also developing an attitude that worships God from the heart. Reading the Psalms even today, we notice how many purport to be "of David". He worshipped the Lord where he was there in a field sitting on a rock or log, pouring out his praise and his problems. He learned to turn to God as his first resource, not a last resort. David had learned to give God priority in his life, to desire the Lord and seek His will more than anything else. Psalm 63 and Title state: "A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah. O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." You can sense his real attachment and longing for the Lord.
That's what was missing most from Saul's Kingship. He disobeyed God's command and showed little regard for spiritual things. In 14:19 he rushes the process of priestly inquiry for guidance. In 14:35 when Saul builds an altar to the Lord in the midst of a conflict, the author notes "it was the first time he had done this;" he hadn't taken opportunity to do it previously in his kingship. In the next verse, after Saul proposes a course of action, a priest suggests, "Let us inquire of God here" -- something David would later do as a matter of course. Then when challenged by Samuel about his failure to carry out sentence on the Amalekites, Saul repeatedly distances himself from God by referring to Him as "the Lord your God" (rather than "our" God; 15:15,21,30).
Recently on the door of a parishioner's home I saw a sign that warned, "There is nothing in here that's worth losing your life over." I'm sure it would make a would-be burglar stop and think! Jesus maintained, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" Yet for the sake of a little plunder, Saul violated the divine covenant entrusted to him, rebelled against God and forfeited the Kingship. His lack of a servant attitude made him disobedient and brought disaster. Samuel rebuked him, saying in 15:22ff, "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king."
Saul had a stubborn, arrogant, selfish attitude, putting his own interests first. David, by contrast, learned obedience and servanthood out there in the pasture with all those bleating, stubborn, helpless but willful sheep. Because he could be trusted with small things, God committed the Kingdom of Israel into his care.
Lovingly Shepherding 4th-grade "Sheep"
John Maxwell is an expert on leadership, pastor of a huge church in San Diego, and speaks to thousands of pastors and laypeople every year through his seminars. Yet he pays tribute to some little-known people who had a major impact on his life -- not actual shepherds, but Sunday school teachers! He writes in his book The Winning Attitude:
"My 2nd-favourite teacher was Roy Rogers (not Trigger's master). I had him in the fourth grade...I don't remember much about what he said, but I do remember what he did. He conveyed love and acceptance to a group of 4th-grade boys by giving us his time. He took us to Ted Lewis park and taught us to play baseball. We learned how to field grounders and make double plays. We laughed together, sweated together and got dirty together. The, following an afternoon on the diamond, Roy would load us into his station wagon and take us to the Dairy Queen for a foot-long hot dog and a chocolate milk shake. I loved Roy Rogers!
"Glen, who taught the junior boys class, was my 3rd-favourite. Did you ever teach a group of ten-wiggles-per-minute boys? Usually those teacher go straight from the class to their heavenly reward! Any teacher of this class who read about Daniel and the den of lions would say, 'Big deal...if they really wanted to test Daniel's faith, they should have stuck him in a junior boys class!'
"Well, Glen was stuck with us. More accurately, he was stuck on us. He taught this class for 20 years. Every ornery, wiggly, inattentive boy felt Glen's love. At times, tears trickled down his face as he saw how God's love could transform junior boys.
"One day Glen stopped in the middle of his lesson and said, "Boys, I pray for you every day. Right after class I need to see Steve Banner, Phil Conrad, Junior Fowler and John Maxwell." After class the four of us huddled in the corner with Glen, and he said, "Last night while I was praying for you, I sensed that the Lord was going to call each of you into full-time Christian service. I want to be the first to encourage you to obey God." Then he wept as he prayed, asking the Lord to use us for His glory.
"Today we all pastor churches -- Steve Banner in Ohio, Phil Conrad in Arizona, Junior Fowler in Oklahoma and I in California. These Sunday school teachers," Maxwell concludes, "made a positive mark on my life because of their acceptance and affirmation."
Amongst the various ministries in the church, teaching junior boys does not have that high a profile. It doesn't make the newspapers or wire services, not like becoming leader of a national political party. It's a bit analogous to shepherding in an out-of-the-way place -- who wants to be "stuck" with wriggly 4th graders? But Roy and Glen were faithful shepherds. Their trustworthiness with their appointed tasks had major impact on those boys' lives, and affects many more today for Christ's Kingdom. Glen even became a kind of prophet like Samuel, alerting the four boys, as David, to what lay ahead of them. May the Lord help each of us discover our "sheep fold", and develop our hearts and our skills for His glory. Let's pray.