Leaders

 

Leaders

 

11/15/20

 

 

 

 

How is it possible that people who are placed into high-level positions totally forget how to run their title, area, or nation?  One can pick up a news headline and read such corruption being portrayed all across the world, and sadly, many times these corruption headlines come from the Church.  Of course, we are all humans but we should accept the responsibility to live separated lives when called by God to complete His work.  It breaks the heart of God to see how far down the Church has become due to the insubordination of Church leaders, thus influencing their congregations that sin is ok and that God really did not mean the harsh examples He gave in the Bible.  It is this attitude and vocal belief that got Judah into dire trouble with God, so much so that their nation was led away into captivity and totally abolished from the earth.  The passage of this article begins by addressing the people responsible for such calamity for they should have known better. Today, we should have known better as well and we are about to face a similar consequence too; turn now, and tell as many people as possible.

 

Once again we face several conflicting and deepening settings that have been thrown in front of us due to our lack of responsibility that the status of humans requires.  But even with these high profiled cases set before us, we continue to serve our selfish courses and look to blame someone else instead of addressing the appropriate committees, you and I.  We could sit and read about each scandal, accusation, deposition, subpoena, etc for twelve hours a day and still not match the new ones coming in front of us.  Yet, while all of this grotesque and embarrassing turmoil festers around us our setting really does not seem to bother us that much for we are actively not trying to correct such atrocities that we are committing, it seems like we are doing these infractions in the name of our way of life, therefore, giving us the authority to create and then execute such plans without any thought or belief about what will occur as a result of such whimsical projections and with these contentious events being spewed out like a burst artery, we wallow in this “blood” and therefore desire it to cover us as a symbol of our personal and national devotion. 

 

In turn and with stride, we then accordingly elect such officials that portray what we want to hear instead of what we need and when we accomplish such tragic directions, we further and deepen even more the quagmire that we wish to live within.  So, when everything is said and done and the end of the day arrives, who is to blame for such directional discourse?  It is partially the leaders who we encourage to run for public settings, but when it comes down to the truth it is our fault for even wishing or allowing such confused directional people to be put into such positions for our overall appearance to our Creator shall follow such course and we all should know what happens when we live in such a state.  Eventually, we will find out exactly who we have placed in charge of our lives and while they were elected by our votes it still should be necessary that these leaders should understand and know the True foundation of what makes us who we are, but as many can attest, this is coming true but not on the level that is eternally beneficial.

 

 

Micah 3:1

 

“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?”

 

 

This passage clearly gives us a timeline of selfish behavior that has become the main focus on those in charge who should have done things differently.  When a prophet, leader, minister, layperson makes such stark words in order to get across the seriousness of what is imminent, something or many things have not been correctly addressed and handled.  So much so, that the warnings have been given and it is time for God to do something far more drastic in order to grab the attention of those who should have known the Truth in the first place.  It is also evident through the words of Micah, that even the leaders have made excuses for not upholding what is right and following through with what is right; in other words, both parties have been found guilty of not upholding what is true and now from all circumstantial evidence is deemed worthy of a far greater decision.  When people know what is correct do not do anything when wrongdoings occur, those actions – on both sides – shall be noticed and will gain notoriety and strength at some point down the road.

 

This passage also states that this lending machine of spiritual failures has crossed over into the physical sector which is a logical pathway for disobedience to travel.  Once a pattern such as this is allowed, it will gain a hold on others and thus allowed to be accepted as a way or a pattern that is normal.  How many acts of scandal and barbarism took place over a long period of time before Micah had to make such statements to those who know what it means to be judged?  It is one thing to make a mistake in judgment in a certain case or item of human iniquity, but when it is obvious that continuous malpractice of the spiritual level of existence rampantly is accepted as law it must be called out by those who still deem the foundational right to be right and wrong to be wrong.  In many laws of different lands, they are written in the manner to which the people that had broken them either knew they were doing wrong or that they should have known that what they were doing was wrong.  This act and wordage from Micah speaks to those specifics that the leaders should have known and taught about.  However, for reasons given through human behavior, those laws were overlooked and not followed which allowed people to fall away from the Truth and then fall away from God Himself.

 

We fail to recognize that it is through our leaders that our actions have become such atrocious so much so that we deem these actions of ours as normal thus providing a dividing line that will certainly cut deep if trying to cross to change. We cannot go any further unless we define exactly who we are referring to as leaders because this word can reference any type of position when dealing with the English language but when it was written in Hebrew it was done so with a specificity of which level of leadership it was meant for and according to this word “rase” it means the top level of leadership which includes the total, sum, chief, or head of the nation.  In other words, Micah is addressing the people who are supposed to be in charge of the entire nation of Israel because Micah goes a bit further in detail and makes sure he states that God is directly referring to the entire leadership position by saying “ye princes of the house of Jacob”.  You cannot get any more specific than that types of a call-out besides naming each individual one by one.

 

In your opinion, why would God single out the leaders of Israel instead of the people themselves?  Wouldn’t it make more sense if He would address those who are more in multitude than a mere few or small groups?  It is evident that the will of the people have embraced these people as their leaders according to what they have said they would do.  Also, it is apparent that the ways of the people have fueled such electoral processes and ordained such activities as their own throughout the ages.  This type of language against the leaders by prophets (Micah, here) does not come overnight, it is a procedural step by step adaptation that grows as time passes.  With this type of spirit in place, fixing what is wrong with the system becomes tainted by the courses of sinful activity, thus creating and establishing a set of rules that serve the wants and wills of the world instead of God.

 

Here lies the underlying or inner problem, and that is our hearts have been filled with worldly pride that we would rather live out on the incorrect path and flower it up with lies instead of admitting wrongdoings and wholly correct those issues.  Israel and Judah had built themselves up so high in their new worldly positions that they had no intentions of returning back to God because they would have had egg on their faces, if they did.  All credibility to their friends and surrounding nations would have been lost and when a choice is made to extend someone or something in a new course or manner, it is difficult to retract that extension and to go back to a previous standard or standing.  But is this type of return such a bad concept that those involved would fight against their own people in order to keep the incorrect path intact and on track?  That answer is clear, for you know that not all of the people in Israel and Judah wanted to be extensions into the world, there were godly people living then and had their voices heard.  It was the majority that was taken into consideration when it came time to venture out into the world of secularism and through the words of Micah and all of the other prophets, it was a good choice for those who loved the world but not for the One who Created them to be separate from the world.

 

Micah mixes no words here in this verse and right from the start he states that these leaders should know the difference between justice and judgment.  From the context of this single verse, it seems like the difference in opinion in these words were being played out just as they are today.  Micah solemnly yet with God’s authoritative voice proclaims that these leaders who have charge over the people should recognize that if they do not first, turn their hearts back to God that they will be intimately reminded what the word judgment stands for and what God’s definition means.  Micah also makes it clear that God sees exactly what is transpiring amongst their lives thus giving Him an overall picture of the entire nation.

 

When the word judgment is used it should bring into play a way to stop the actions that cause such pain and agony and repent to those who are over you.  At the same time, it should bring back into play exactly who you are subject to and that you have a responsibility to repent of your actions to them as well and if you do not then the appropriate conditions for judgment are ripe and should be placed on the table for all to witness.  However, if pride and arrogance have been allowed to occupy our hearts for an extended amount of time the process of true repentance will hide and then superficial “being sorry” will publicly flourish and deemed adequate for a new beginning.  This is a product of soft and false teachings from those who have authority over others and can only produce a heart set of lies that will quickly return to the ways set in motion.  Micah saw this type of face valued words and lies and God reminded him to ensure that he included such maligned practices were not going unnoticed and that if they did not truly repent and turn back to God that He would have no choice but to exhibit His hand over their lives and land.

 

Micah reminded the leaders of the house of Jacob that it was their responsibility to teach God’s Ways no matter if Israel and Judah had physically chosen to abandon the Ways of God.  Unfortunately, we see what occurred to Judah and to Israel and even though these terrible events occurred to the Children of Israel you still had prophets and leaders of the synagogues from Jesus’ time on earth all throughout the New Testament proclaiming God in a demeaned manner that was underneath the choices of mankind.  Micah made it very clear in his reminder to the leaders that God knew that if the leaders continued their lax mannerisms towards the obedience to God that the people would continue their descent into sin and therefore require judgment upon their lives as well.  As stated directly above, this model for leadership had not stopped or been hindered for its presence still thrives unabated in the Church leadership today.

 

Micah tells the leaders of the house of Jacob that their game is up and if they do not change ugliness shall soon follow afterward, God has done the exact same process that we see Micah for quite some time now to His Church not only to just the leaders but of the congregations as well.  It is evident in this passage of Scripture that God did not warn just the leaders of Judah and Israel but provided many signs to the ordinary people as well during this specific time in human history, He has done the same today; for God does not change on any level.  It is obvious what lies within our hearts due to the results of our elections over the past decades, it is not just here in this nation but in all other nations that claim to be Christian nations. That is why when this leader falls we shall take down the entire world with us simply because we are responsible for all our actions and to those who believed our lying and selfish hearts.

 

Why such a hard and gloomy message for an article in such a time as this?  Look back at the times of Micah and you will see that while the nations of Judah and Israel had luxuries in many areas, their spiritual content was in shambles and their actions began to tarry on their physical benefits just as we are witnessing today.  They condoned sin every day and justified it as modern thinking and “woke” societal behavior, does this sound familiar at all?  It has been stated over the past years that America has positioned herself, lined up herself with, and paralleled herself with the Roman Empire, and that is a good comparison – sort of.  But more intimately, we have paralleled ourselves with Israel and Judah due to the fact of our Creation and who created us and this alignment has far greater consequences to it.  We can say that we do not belong to God and that we were not established to please God or to serve as a new manner of religious freedom but no matter what our mouths state and our hearts convey we still belong to God and to His Ways.

 

As one can imagine, this article and its message is directly targeted to the Church and the leadership of the Church.  It should be for we are the ones who are supposed to be encouraging those who claim to love God and follow Christ to go out and to all the world and tell them that they are sinners and that they need to repent before it is too late.  Instead, we have condoned sin in our hearts and have allowed its rule over us spread into our families, then into our jobs, then into our communities, and so on.  Even more ludicrous we have added our own personal belief that we are doing God a favor by allowing those who come to Him to stay in sin without any type of repentance needed.  This type of behavior on our parts cannot provide any better example of worldly death and lies to those who need God.  Ironically, those who believe such antics are true are in need of God just as much as those who they claim to be witnessing to; yes, that is how far we have fallen and why this topic needs to be discussed right now.

 

Sadly, Israel’s and Judah’s destruction was so severe and complete with their leaders being so weak spiritually that they had no legitimate response to their destroyed dilemma.  Not only that but, it took thousands of years later before they could regroup and allowed to reform as one nation again.  It was a horrific day when God scattered the people away from the Tower of Babel, and it was a devastating sight to behold what came of Israel and of Judah after their enemies wreaked havoc on them, you can say that even though people knew where they had been taken they were no longer identifiable as a nation or solid group.  All of this was due to the fact that their true leadership could not have the willingness to do what was right and to lead the people in the Ways of God.  There is nothing good about the world even though it will shine like a bright light as you walk by it.

 

What God says, shall come to pass, just as Micah preached continually during his time as a prophet.  Israel had plenty of time and opportunities to repent but chose to continue to do it their own way, so have we.  God has chosen a plan for this nation and it is one that shall not have good results; in fact, what is coming to this nation is what Israel and Judah faced it may not be at first through human hands but it shall be according to the hand of God, then shall the ravens and buzzards are allowed to pick through the distorted and mangled flesh of this nation’s heart.  This is our fault Church, we have utterly failed in the mission that Jesus gave us to do and our light is now flickering and will soon be squelched completely.  The message of Repentance is still here and remains the ONLY hope for our lives.  What is coming has been ordained by God and cannot be changed, but we can still change our hearts and get right with God before things halt.  This is the message we should have been telling others back when, but it still is the message we need to tell them now.  Our leadership may be coming to a close, but we can still demonstrate God’s Leadership to those who need Him even through His judgment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

DLB