CHAPTER 3
SETTING THE STANDARD
God promotes and exalts people into leadership roles and He sets the standards by which leaders are to operate. Unfortunately the Bible is full of characters that forsook God and His standards once they had achieved promotion. It is a sad thing to admit that when He places people in high positions they tend to forget where and who they are and what they were supposed to do. Some allowed ego to play a part in their dealings, others, afraid of criticism, continue to carry on as one of the ‘boys’ hoping to keep or win the approval of the people:
My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. (James.3:1)
Any leader, even if he is ‘one of the boys’, has to take responsibility, and that responsibility is what places all leaders, irrespective of rank, in a different category of authority than others. They are subject to a higher level of accountability from their peers and those in authority over them, and a much greater level of scrutiny from those subject to their authority. This greater pressure that Christian leaders must endure is not only in the workplace but also at home and at leisure, with fellow believers as well as unbelievers. As a leader, more is expected of you, not only in decision-making but also through example. Those to whom you are responsible will not go to your followers and ask them why was this done or why was that not done. They will come to you and you will have to answer. It will not do to blame someone else as was done on occasion in the Bible. In fact right at the start Adam blamed Eve and indirectly God for his sin:
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. (Gen.3:12)
In 1 Sam 15 we read of an incident involving King Saul and the prophet Samuel. Instructed by God through the prophet Samuel, Saul was to attack and destroy the Amalekites and to kill all, men, women and children, ‘even ox and sheep, camel and donkey’ were to be destroyed:
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.(1Sam.15:3)
The idea being that all were to be a sacrifice to God. But Saul chose not to comply with this command, sparing the life of the Amalek king, Agag, and allowing the Israelites to plunder and take home the best of the captured loot:
But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. (1Sam.15:9)
When Samuel heard of this disobedience he approached Saul, demanding an explanation, but Saul promptly blamed the people and indirectly used God as an excuse for his behaviour:
And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. (1Sam.15:15)
Samuel who had brought him the instructions in the first place was not impressed. He had set the standard and Saul had failed to meet the requirements by allowing the will of his followers to undermine his authority. Being king, he should have set the example and ensured that God’s instructions had been carried out to the letter by slaying Agag and destroying all the Amalekite property.
It goes without saying, if the king cannot do what is expected of him, how can his people be expected to be obedient? This was not the last time Saul overstepped, or should I say under stepped, the mark. This type of indiscretion was to cost Saul his kingship and doomed his sons to death at the hands of the Philistines.
As a leader, you are the standard by which all is measured, if you disobey, it will filter through the ranks and disobedience will become the norm for all. Setting high standards may produce complaints and grumblings but that is part and parcel of leadership. Success will bring acceptance. If the people see you reaching higher, they will be inclined to follow suit. This can be done without being draconian or bombastic. Each of us is capable of rising to a challenge, of achieving more than just the average.
In contrast to Saul we have David, who on various occasions had the opportunity to assassinate his tormentor Saul, but chose not to. (1 Sam 24; 1 Sam 26) David could have gone the route of the nations around Israel and followed the norm, seizing power for himself, but he chose God’s way and in the long run it brought him enormous rewards and success. Imagine the consequences if he had murdered Saul, it would, in all probability, have led to strife and years of civil war, and more than likely it would have prompted someone else, at some time in the future, to take the sword to David. David from the outset of his rise to power and eventual accession to the throne set the standard by which he wanted to be judged. It was the standard by which he would also judge.
All people are subject to authority, from the lowest to the highest rank, and Saul chose to disregard those who had a higher authority than him, ignoring the consequences of his actions, and his subjects saw what he did, they did exactly the same and all paid the price.
For the first part of his rule David, always loyal to God, listened and obeyed and his subjects listened and obeyed. It was only later in life when David committed his indiscretions with Bathsheba, that unrest, famine and disease began to sweep the country, and his sons turned against him. He undermined his own high standards with dire consequences.
Solomon too, started out with aplomb and determination and some wonderful ideals, but time and fame and wealth and lust all took their toll and he eventually gave in to the world and forsook the Lord’s guidance, lowered his standards, and allowed idol worship to flourish unchecked in the land, and, eventually, his disobedience was to cost the Israelites their freedom. Solomon is an example of a leader who set out in good form, maintaining the standard of his predecessor, even raising the bar by seeking the wisdom of God to lead his people but, unlike David who maintained his relationship with the Lord even when he deviated from his calling, Solomon chose to trust in his own ability, to use his own form of measurement to determine what was right and what was wrong. In his prayers he asked for wisdom to be a good leader but ego, wealth and status undermined his kingship, turned him from the standards set by the prophets, and biblically speaking, his reign could considered a failure, as it was his fault that rebellion and division rent the kingdom in two after his death.
In Daniel 5 we read the story of Belshazzar, son of Nabonidus, who upon ascending the throne held a great feast, and while feasting the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall –
In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. (Dan.5:5)
Frightened out of his wits, the king called for Daniel to interpret the words on the wall:
And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;
But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.
And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. (Dan.5:22-28)
Weighed and found wanting could be interpreted, weighed and found lacking in ability, standard, faith and dignity. Belshazzar did not measure up to God’s standard and he was removed expeditiously. As a confessing Christian leader, you have the responsibility of maintaining the standards set by God. As a Christian leader, whether you are in business, or the military, in politics, at school, or in church, you are always under scrutiny, always in the sights of someone either looking for guidance or a reason to criticize.
In recent years we have seen the world become lenient towards its leaders, less discriminating in its standards, allowing them indiscretions and room to sin, excusing them with the words ‘they are only human’, but the results of this lax attitude have been catastrophic.
As a Christian that luxury is not available to you. Yes, biblical standards are high, but God, who promotes, knows that you can achieve them, in fact He will help you.
Take Isaiah for example, by his own admission:
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah.6:5)
Unclean means defiled, contaminated, polluted, in other words, his speech was not good, most likely he swore a lot, or told lies or gossiped or committed some other form of sin with his mouth.
Matthew reminds us:
…for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. (Mat.12:34)
Isaiah was not only admitting that his lips were unclean but also his heart, and in this unclean state, he was unfit to lead, incapable of transmitting the pure, unadulterated word of God to the people, but God removed the filth that defiled him and he became one of the foremost prophets, proclaiming Israel’s impending destruction and the coming of the Messiah. A touch from heaven changed everything for a man who considered himself unworthy:
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. (Isa.6:6-7)
There are times when mishap will befall us, when things go wrong, things that are not our fault, things that take us by surprise, but that is no excuse to lower the standard. Take Job, for example, he lost his family, his wealth and his health to storms and enemies and through no fault of his own, but he maintained his standard of faith even when his wife came nagging:
Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. (Job.2:9)
The result of this steadfastness:
And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. (Job.42:10)
Leaders are ordinary people, they are fallible and they make mistakes, but the wonder of it is that those mistakes can be rectified and turned around:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Rom.8:28)
Look to the Author and Finisher of our faith and you will not be ‘weighed and found wanting’. May the ‘work of your hands not be taken from you’. Do not lower your standards for a short, temporary moment of gratification. Maintain God’s standards in all that you do. Keep in mind the rewards that await the outcome of what you are doing.