June 1

I Kings 12 Two Leadership Mistakes

In the division of Israel and Judah we observe two fatal leadership mistakes. The first mistake is made by Rehoboam, king of the southern kingdom. He doesn’t care about the people he leads. He rejects the advice of the elders and listens to the counsel of the young men he had grown up with. Rather than reduce the burden on the people and lighten the load, he oppresses them. Caring about people is a top priority of a leader. A good leader knows the hearts of the people underneath them. Jesus is our best example of a good leader. In Matthew 9 we see his heart for people. Jesus was serving an area forty miles wide and seventy miles long, roughly the size of Puerto Rico. The ancient historian Josephus tells us that there were some two hundred cities and villages in this area and that the minimum population of a village there and then was fifteen thousand. This means Jesus was ministering to at least three million people at this time. This must have been a tremendous burden for him. Yet Matt. 9:36 says, “Seeing the people, he felt compassion for them.”

When Jesus saw the crowds he saw more than an obstacle getting in the way of his mission. He saw his mission, and he felt compassion for them. It is easy to think that people are sent by God to help us reach our goals, but the truth is, leaders are sent by God to help the people reach their goals. Jesus teaches us that our responsibility as leaders is to help people reach their maximum kingdom potential.

The second mistake is made by Jeroboam, king of the northern kingdom. He thought he could lead without God. Jeroboam was afraid of people going back to Judah, the southern kingdom, for the religious celebrations so he set up a false God and a false religion in the north. The selection of two golden calves shows that either he was totally ignorant of history (remember the desert calf) or he was acting like modern day politicians, by giving the people what they wanted (the local deity was a calf.) On top of that he set up a false religion to look like the real one with special days for celebration so he could take the people away from the true God.

We succumb to Jeroboam’s mistake when we spend more time reading the newspaper than praying, or talking to people about God than talking to God about people. The mistake of Jeroboam was leading without praying.

Today is accountability day. Send me an email telling me where you are in your daily reading. We are closing in on the half way point of our journey!!!!