38 - Leadership Character Qualities [B]

Leadership Character Qualities. 1 Kings 12

The question: Should religion be divorced from politics? We can address that question from two perspectives. One is from the perspective of the voter and the second would be from the perspective of government. From the perspective of the voter you cannot divorce religion from politics. If someone has a religious conviction, whatever that religion may be, if they don't allow that to address that the every-day issues and decisions of life, then it has no value to them, it is just a façade. So from the perspective of the individual every value judgment, whenever we say something is right or something is wrong, that brings to the table an ethical system, a moral system, and we have some basis for saying why something is right or why something is wrong. Is that informed by a view of the divine institutions coming out of the Scripture? Is it personal preference, or is it just motivated by one's desire to avoid a recession, depression, or difficult times economically because you really don't want to lose everything you have invested?

So what is the value system? There is always a value system and that value system either comes out of the Scripture (which is what makes it biblical—the foundation comes out of the Scriptures and then you build on that; it is not because it seems to be compatible with Christianity), God and His revelation, or out of human reason, human experience, pragmatism, empiricism, etc. It comes down to what one's ultimate authority is. There really is no neutrality in human thought. All human thought that involves any sort of value judgment, any sort of ethical decision, always brings to the table some sort of view of ultimate reality—is it personal, is it impersonal? If it is personal does that ultimate reality communicate with man or is that ultimate personality non-communicative—something like a deistic view of God that was popular in the early stage of the Enlightenment.

When we think of it in these terms we realise that for a Christian to come to a decision about who to vote for in an election means that we have to analyse the particular leaders in a lot of different ways. None of them are going to be perfect. We stop and look at the various things that God has laid out. We think of it in terms of the divine institutions, for example—individual responsibility, marriage, family, nationalism. What God shows throughout the Old Testament history is that human government will always fail; it is not the solution. The political solution is no solution and cursed is the man who trusts in man. What God is showing, and specifically when we get into the theocratic kingdom of Israel, is that no human being can truly provide security and stability in the political realm. They are all failures. Ultimately this is going to point to the future to the Lord Jesus Christ, who because He is the God-Man he is the only true human without sin who can establish a truly righteous government. God is demonstrating that throughout history human governments will all fail because they are run by human beings with sin natures and will never achieve the kind of stability that they offer. We will always see trends in nations and empires to promote political solutions that mirror the messianic claims of Christ.

As Solomon during the latter years continued trying to impress people with the grandeur of his building projects he was conscripting more and more labourers from the tribes. So he is virtually taking away their means of production by bringing the men into Jerusalem and Judah in order to carry out these building projects. One principle that comes out of 1 Samuel 8 is that the Bible is against big government, centralised government and excessive taxation. First of all, big government is a violation of divine institution #4. The basics that the Bible gives on government is that the role of government is to protect the nation from external enemies, attacks from those who are opposed to the nation, and from internal enemies in terms of criminality. There is a limited role of government. It is to adjudicate in criminal cases, adjudicate in certain disagreements. There is a recognition of private ownership of property, property is not taxed under the Mosaic Law; which shows that the Bible recognises the validity of the accumulation of personal wealth. What we see today is an attack on personal wealth. The more money that the government takes out of the pockets of people who have earned it the less freedom and liberty they have. There is a violation of divine institution # 1 which is personal responsibility, and that puts incredible pressure on divine institutions #2 & 3.

As we analyse the political process which is part of the whole social structure of mankind we have to realise that at the heart of the political process is people, and people are all totally depraved, as Scripture says, and if it is not for the truth of Bible doctrine which emphasises personal responsibility the tendency for human beings is to always shift responsibility to someone else. In governmental settings today in the modern world that fits within a model known as socialism—the idea that government controls the means of production and controls and redistributes the wealth. This destroys initiative, the desire to accumulate wealth and to produce and go forward, and many other things. But at the heart of this whole thing is the people and the leaders a nation gets comes out of the same cultural morass as everybody else. So we tend to get the leaders that we deserve because they come out of the same pot that the rest of us are in.  

In 1 Kings chapter twelve we see an emphasis on the character of the leader, and how important the character of the leader is. We can see a contrast between Solomon's son Rehoboam, who will succeed him on the throne, and Solomon. In 1 Kings 10 we saw the grandeur of Solomon's empire because of God's blessing. It was not through taxation; he didn't build this kingdom on the backs of the people. God blessed him and the nation was prosperous because his heart was totally devoted to the Lord. But when his heart turned away from God and he began to do evil in the sight of the Lord—defined in context as open idolatry, which is treason against God—God brought him under discipline. Now to maintain the façade of affluence and in order to keep that veneer up he is going to maintain his affluence on the backs of the people. So he is increasing the load that he is putting on the people in terms of financial taxation as well as the demand for more and more labourers. He had to keep up the façade that God is still blessing them when in fact God is no longer blessing them and has announced the judgment on the nation through His own revelation and then the prophet Ahijah to Jeroboam who is one of the key leaders in labour force in the tribes from the north.

A character comparison from what we know of Solomon and Rehoboam. First of all, Rehoboam is much older when he comes to the throne than Solomon was. Solomon was probably somewhere near the age of 20; he's young. That is something to notice because youthfulness and the naivety of inexperience of the young is a theme within this particular chapter. Rehoboam is 41 when he comes to the throne, not far from the age that Solomon was at when Solomon began to get away from the Lord. Rehoboam is older and should be wiser and should have more experience. But he doesn't. He is arrogant; he is self-centred; he makes, as a result, foolish decisions. That comes because he is not oriented to God. His heart is not for the Lord at this point.

The second thing in comparison that we see is that Solomon listened to the counsel of his fathers. Cf. 1 Kings 2. He is teachable, he has humility, he recognises his own limitations, and he has objectivity. By the time we get to 1 Kings 3:7 we see that he is humble toward God. ^NASB "Now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in." He asked God for wisdom and skill in leading his people. So we see that there is a heart for leadership there and he understands that his leadership is servanthood. That is a key element because Rehoboam is going to reject that. Solomon understood that at the heart of leadership is that a king is serving God and serving his people.

Solomon's priorities show that he is focusing on God. He wanted to build the temple for God in Jerusalem. His prayer of dedication showed that he had a profound understanding of the covenant and of the Mosaic Law. The way that he was able to weave all of those elements into his prayer of dedication shows that it was deeply embedded within his soul. In contrast Rehoboam shows arrogance. He doesn't listen to the wise advice of elders; he rejects that for the foolish advice of the "young men." The Hebrew word is yeledim, which means children. The writer is being sarcastic. These are just naïve children with no experience, no background; they are just his cronies and they are no better than going to simple-minded children with no experience and getting their advice. Rehoboam is not oriented to the Mosaic Law, he doesn't study the Law, he doesn't have a heart from God. Later he will show some humility when he gathers the people together. He gets angry, the nation is splitting apart, and he goes back and raises an army of 180,000 and Shimei comes out and tells him this event is from God, so he stands down. This is the only time he shows any humility whatsoever. He obeyed the Lord for three years and then introduces idolatry, and God's final assessment of his reign is "he did evil in the site of the Lord."

What makes the difference between Solomon as a great king and Rehoboam as a poor king is the spiritual factor. 1 Kings chapter twelve shows us the issues related to leadership and the individuals involved. A number of important principles are pulled out of verses 1-24 which are often thought to be the main idea here—listening to the elders instead of the young men, and some other things. But that is not the main point that the writer of 1 Kings is trying to make. He is trying to show as part of his broad argument through 1 & 2 Kings that as based on the Mosaic Law God blesses the nation that is in obedience to Him and is keeping the contracts, the covenant that God made with them, and that God will bring judgment on the nation that disobeys Him, and the most egregious form of disobedience is idolatry. All of this goes back to our understanding of Deuteronomy and the Mosaic Law. The fundamental lesson through all of this is related to God's discipline of Israel for the sin of idolatry and for their treasonous actions.

One of the key contrasts between Solomon and Rehoboam has to do with wisdom. Solomon is wise; Rehoboam is foolish. Proverbs 1:7 ^NASB "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction." The starting point is this fear, this respect for God as the sovereign ruler of His creation. That is what the fear of the Lord really means. It is a fearfulness but it is also a respect. It is that recognition that if I disobey God He will lower the boom. Once there is that respect for God's authority that is when we really begin to learn and that is the basis for wisdom. In contrast, fools despise wisdom and instruction. We see that with Rehoboam, he despises the wisdom and instruction that comes from the elders.

Another key passage to look at would be Psalm 11:10 ^NASB "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do {His commandments;} His praise endures forever." That is the idea that James has of practicing what we learn from the Word of God. Those who hear should be doers, implementers of what they learn.

Proverbs 8:13 ^NASB "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate." So there is an ethical aspect to wisdom, an ethical skill that develops within the context of Jewish thought. Wisdom in Jewish thought is not abstract reasoning, it is skill in living that same word that is used for wisdom, chokmah, in Hebrew; the skill that God gave the craftsmen, the jewellers, the carpenters who built the tabernacle. It is the ability to take raw materials and to produce something of beauty and value. So we take the raw materials of Bible doctrine and through the power of God the Holy Spirit we apply them in our life, and it produces a spiritual life, a character that has value and beauty in terms of eternal absolutes.

Proverbs 9:10 ^NASB "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." So it is not a college education, it is a relationship to God which is the real key to knowledge; and that comes from His Word.

Psalm 19:7-10 is a tremendous meditation on the value of God's Word. ^NASB "The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb." Only the Word of God has the ability to restore our soul and give us true soul health. We come out of the womb with a sin nature; we are born with a distorted soul and a warped mind. The word "simple" there in English isn't really a good rendition of the Hebrew. The Hebrew word means the youthful, the inexperienced or the naïve. That is Rehoboam. Wisdom comes only from God's Word. Solomon had wisdom because of his devotion to the Lord. There is nothing in life that we can invest in that is more valuable than the study of God's Word, and it is pleasant to us.

The contrast is in Psalm 14:1 ^NASB "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'." This is not talking about some overt atheist; this is talking about the person who in terms of their inner thought life, how they approach life, are functional atheists. It could be said that perhaps ninety per cent of people who go to a Christian church on a Sunday morning are functional atheists, because they don't live as if God has actually spoken to every area of their life. They lives as if there is no God. But there is a God, so they are foolish because they don't have the fear of the Lord. So the fool is not the unbeliever, the fool is the person who is living in terms of his inner thought life, his inner view of reality, his human viewpoint thinking which is based on non-biblical assumption. 

Proverbs 12:15 ^NASB "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel." Rehoboam does not listen to counsel. We all know people who do not listen to wise counsel from those who have gone through experiences, they seem to have to always learn things on their own terms the hard way. This is the biblical fool, he is living as if there is no God.

Proverbs 14:16 ^NASB "A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, But a fool is arrogant and careless." This fits the categorisation of Rehoboam.

Proverbs 15:5 ^NASB "A fool rejects his father's discipline, But he who regards reproof is sensible." Solomon had guided Rehoboam as a young man but now he rejects the teaching of his father in his early years and he rejects the guidance of his father's counsel. In contrast, the wise person is the one who regards reproof.

Romans 1:21 ^NASB "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] Professing to be wise, they became fools." Men operating apart from God, having rejected the witness of God, build their thought systems on human viewpoint foundations. As a result they will make bad decisions. There are consequences for bad decisions.         

Illustrations