No Leader is Perfect (unless your Jesus)

1 Samuel Chapter 8

     

“When Samuel became old”. This is the opening line to chapter 8. We fast-forward through who knows how many years of Samuel’s life to the point that he is now old. This chapter, like so many in the Samuel narrative, makes me sad. We have seen Samuel be a faithful and courageous servant to the Most High God and we will see him continue to be in many respects. In this chapter, however, we see a chink in his armor, and a significant one I might say. Like his mentor Eli, he has allowed his sons to use their religious authority for injustice. In case you didn’t know, abusing God given authority is about as bad as it gets. 

                I honestly wonder how Samuel could have made this same mistake as Eli did, especially after he saw firsthand how horribly it turned out. Why didn’t he punish his sons for their disobedience? Why were they allowed to remain Judges, over Israel? This is a huge leadership mistake and Samuel pays dearly for it. 

                Because of his son’s dishonest reputations, the people seek to have someone else lead them after Samuel. His sons are a disaster, the people decide they would like a king. And why not? Everyone else has one and the other nations look really cool when they go to battle with their king leading the way. “Why, if we had a king, all of our leadership problems would be solved and then we would be victorious on battle and prosperous in peace time” right? 

                At least Samuel does the right thing and goes to God with this issue. It must have hurt to be rejected like this but he does the right thing, unlike the peoples solution to the problem, he goes to God for counsel. God tells Samuel that the one they are actually rejecting is God himself. Even though they wrongly ask for a king, God is going to let them have one, and suffer the consequences of getting exactly what they want. 

Lessons: No matter how close or interconnected our relationships are with those we have authority over, they must always be held accountable for their actions. We must not let friendship or family loyalties blind us from poor performance or character flaws. They have to be dealt with quickly and intentionally. Far too many businesses and ministries have been destroyed because top leadership refused to acknowledge the problems in the leadership below them. Open your eyes and do the hard thing. Plan on it, do it on purpose, do it now.

                We also need to be humble enough to take the criticism of others and bring it before God instead of proudly or arrogantly shoving it back in other’s faces. We need to let God mold us and shape us. Perhaps we might just learn something in the process.

                We need to be careful what we ask God for, He just might let us have it. God wants us to come to Him with our dreams and desires, but we need to do so recognizing that our hearts can be deceived. We need to want God’s will above our own and be willing to let Him mold and shape our lives. We need to be willing to let God change us when we come to Him in prayer, not just wanting Him to change our circumstances.