Leadership… a concept many believe they are great at. There are so many authors, so many experts who have made it their life’s mission to tell us all how to be a better leader. Did you know that the best self-help book to great leadership is the bible itself? I know many people think that the bible is all about sin and hell and rules and laws. But the Bible is loaded with principles. Yes, sometimes God comes right out and says, “Thou shall not kill.” Pretty self-explanatory if you ask me, right? But what about the principles in messages? Principles like character and integrity and honesty are at the core of God centered leadership.
There are many characters in the bible who God places and uses in positions of leadership. The first point of interest I would like to share is that all are human, and all but Jesus himself were sinners, and they all made mammoth mistakes. For now, I want to look at just one prophet who was an excellent leader. I want to look at the leadership qualities of Micah. Let’s put ourselves side by side with him and let’s bring in the mirror.
The first thing that is amazing to me, something that just rings loudly in my ear is that Micah was a poor man. He was considered a commoner, a peasant. He was not like Isaiah, who counseled kings; he was just a common ole country boy. I am a commoner, a peasant. I have nothing of great value, except for the Holy Spirit in me. I, in my flesh am not different than Micah. But Micah valued people. He had a love for mankind. Even though Micah spoke of the consequences for Samaria and Jerusalem, his heart broke for the people. Just understanding this little piece of background should already make you acutely aware of how God will use the small and the mighty to accomplish His mission. Isn’t also funny that most ‘great’ leaders have the love of people in common? To say the least, ‘great’ leaders at minimum understand and invest in the value of people. I think of General Patton. I think it may be a stretch to say he ‘loved’ people. However, he understood the value of well trained and well equipped soldiers. He understood moral and in the hardest of battles he was able to motivate them to give all they had. Micah loved people. He understood the disobedience and the need for God’s wrath, but his heart hurt for them.
In the first chapter we see Micah declaring God’s witness against the disobedient. We also see Micah’s mourning and grief for the people. Right now I am thinking of that old saying, “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Micah’s prophecy was not a kind one. But then he cries out for the people. As a leader, the people are the most valuable asset. I believe God looks at His children and loves them everyone. Each of us, no matter our differences, is loved by God to an unmeasurable degree. Equally and completely loved the child is to his Father.
Micah 1: 2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 3 For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. 5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem? 6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.
Micah 1: 8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.
In the second chapter we see characteristics of bad leadership. We see that the leaders of Micah’s time were selfish, greedy, lovers of self, and had not affection and respect for a human. They took things that were not theirs just because they could, like land and homes. A good leader cannot be selfish. At work, there is a goal. A leader must get the team to the goal, or to accomplish the goal. A leader must also grow the employee as the drive toward the goal. A leader must be a teacher, sharing wisdom and information. Dare I say there is a difference in teaching someone what they need to know so the goal is met, and teaching someone what they need to know so they have that information all their life. A student can feel and hear the teacher’s desire to grow them in a lesson just as loudly as they can hear and feel the teacher’s cold delivery of words just to get it done. At home the man is ordained as the leader. The husband is the accountable and responsible party. We should never lead selfishly, using our family to labor toward our goal. That is not leadership, its manipulation. We should lead wanting our children to be better than us. Moving them and our wife more toward God than to us. We are not the power, we are not the authority. This is God who ordains, it is God who has power and authority. We are a servant to His power. We are to grow the family towards God.
Micah 2: Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 3 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil.
In the third chapter we see that the leaders of Micah’s time were abusive, and that God rebuked them. When they prayed to God, he did not hear them. I think the coming of Christ brought a greater understanding of God’s love, and how we are to love one another to this world, but I don’t think it changed how God’s wrath will handle sin. I don’t think God hears an abusive leader to this very day. I continue to believe that God’s wrath is no different in concentration and strength. I think sin angers God. To this day I think that many people profess to know and love Jesus, yet fail to understand that living in sin is not acceptable. We sin daily, but the spirit convicts us. We know of our errors and the wrath of God frightens us to our knees and we beg for forgiveness. I know people who claim the blood of Jesus and live no differently than those in the world thinking that the confession is all there is. Jesus loves me and I love him. Love is all there is to it. NO!!!!!! Love, when you have it right, motivates you to do the right things, to live in submission to Christ. Love does not permit you to grieve the spirit, to abuse the temple, to live in immoral conduct. We saw this here where the leaders abused the people, being evil in their daily lives, and still expecting the comforts of God.
Micah 3: And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? 2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; 3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. 4 Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. 5 Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. 6 Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. 7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God. 8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
Fast forward to chapter 6. I love verse 8. Understanding that we are all leaders, let us lead according to these principles so that our leadership finds favor in the sight of almighty God. Let us let at work, in the world, and in our homes looking to be just in all that we do, desiring from the depth of our minds to love one another and to be merciful with each other, and to be humble in our words and actions so to always have God at the head of all that we do.
Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
The final chapter of Micah, chapter 7 ends with the comfort a leader has when his leader is the LORD of all leaders. It starts with the reminders that man will fail you. Your own family will disappoint you. Your best friends will ask for gifts and seek bribes. We are instructed to have no confidence in man. Sure our daily tasks required us to have expectations in others. I think this is talking more along the lines of faith. We have expectations, me may even trust that our workers, our friends, our family will do what they need to, what they promised to but in God we put our faith of redemption in God. We pray God will protect us, and lead us. God does what no man can do because God is the divine leader who loves his people, who is the designer of morality and character, and the supplier of all mercy.
Micah 7: 5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. 6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. 7 Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.
Micah was just in his prophecy in that he did not allow his love for people to sway his calling. But because he loved people, he was in the best position to lead by reminding the people that God will deliver Israel. God will fulfill his promises. Micah could do that because he humbly removed himself and allowed himself to be led by God.
So, as I look in my mirror, Micah teaches me to ask, am I just? Am I being fair or not? Do I fully understand all sides and am I making a well informed decision? Am I making sure that my people know I care about them, and not just about the mission? Do my people want to work for me? Are they motivated to want to be successful? Am I leading them to me, or to God? These questions are great questions for the employer, supervisor, manager, and even teammate. They are equally great questions for the husband, wife, dad, mom, older sibling, and even the youngest of them all.
If you stand in the mirror what will the reflection tell you about yourself, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your house, straight from the cross to the Christian!
Believers of Biblical Truth 