Lesson 6: Crisis of Leadership

How to use the KLI: Online Worldview Training:

When you study the Holy Scriptures, how do you do it? First, you research. You compare scripture to scripture, consult a concordance, dictionary, and a Bible commentary. Then you reason from the biblical truths and identify spiritual principles. Finally, you relate these truths and spiritual principles to your own life. Many people record their Bible studies. To help you develop a biblical worldview you will use the research, reason, relate, and record teaching method, popularly called the Principle Approach. To learn more about the Principle Approach for teaching and learning, visit the Foundation for American Christian Education.

Select and print the lesson below. There are 10 lessons, each one containing scriptures and words to define using the online Noah Webster 1828 Dictionary. The study questions are designed to help you develop a biblical worldview and the principles of godly leadership. The training is based on the book, The Kingdom Leadership Institute Manual: Raising Up Leaders a Time Like This Demands, by Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas.

Lesson 6: Crisis of Leadership

Fundamentally, the crisis of our time is a crisis of leadership. The Bible reveals God judges and restores nations based upon the leadership. By the leaders he raises up or removes, God curses or blesses a nations. When our sayings or doings are against the Lord, the Bible warns God will remove the honorable and mighty men and turn us over to weak, inept, and wicked rulers culminating in Isaiah 3:12, which states, “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of the paths.”

Righteous Leaders

Leadership can also be a sign that God is willing to restore a nation. The book of Judges clearly reveals this principle. God’s Word states that after Joshua end the elders that led Israel into the Promised Land died, a generation grew up that “knew not” the Lord. This generation exemplified the statement, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).

Due to this deplorable condition, a tragic pattern developed amongst God’s people. They would start with faith in God and obedience to his Word and then devolve into idolatry. This pattern of idolatry produced unavoidable consequences. God lifted his invisible hand of protection and allowed his enemies to judge his people for their disobedience. In this oppressive state, God’s people raised a cry of repentance. Their prayers were heard and God answered by establishing righteous leaders. These judges drove out oppressive enemies and reestablished righteousness in the land.

What is a “righteous leader?” Look up the definition for “leader” in the online Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary. Write out the first three definitions below.
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Continue your word study. Look up the definition for “righteous.” Write out the two definitions below.
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God Judges and Restores Nations Based on Leadership

Read Judges 2:11-23.

Reason from your word study and the scriptures. When the people “forsook the LORD God of their fathers” who did they follow? Who was the “anger of the Lord…hot” against? As a result of their disobedience, was “the hand of the Lord” for the people or against them? Whom did the Lord “raise up” to deliver “them out of the hand of those that spoiled them?” Finally, “when the LORD raised them up judges…and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies.” Why did he do so?
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Read Joshua 1:6-7.

The opening Scripture in Joshua records a great paradigm shift in Israel’s history. As you may recall, God saw the plight of his people in Egypt. In his mercy, he raised up a deliverer, Moses. His sacred charge was to lead the people out of bondage and into the Promised Land. As they were on the verge of God fulfilling his promise, God took his servant, Moses, home. This plunged the nation into a time of crisis. Why would God take Moses at such a juncture?

God’s Word provides the answer. Through much of the administration of Moses, unbelief, doubt, and complaints marked the people’s Exodus from Egypt. In the midst of this struggle, Moses began to weary under the weight of command. On one fateful day, Moses faltered and misrepresented the Lord to his people.

Read Numbers 20:1-12.

Just as in times past, the people murmured to Moses. This time it concerned their thirst. God told Moses to speak to the rock. Instead, Moses took his rod, the symbol of God’s authority, and smote the rock. Though the water still came, and so to did the sad news that Moses forfeited his opportunity to lead the people in to the Promised Land. He had misrepresented the Lord to his people. At Moses death, whether the people liked it or not, the demand for new leadership was upon them.

The first principle to glean from this account is this: in a time of national crisis new leadership will emerge. In Israel’s case, it was Joshua, Moses faithful assistant. God chose Joshua to stand in the gap and make up the hedge for the nation without a leader.

The second principle is this: to a large degree new leadership will determine whether a nation prospers. Proverbs 29:2 states, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” He who stands in the gap left by a fallen leader has strong future implications. Again, this principle is rooted in the truth that God judges and restores nations based upon leadership.

The third principle is that both God and the enemy of our soul understand this truth. God establishes and works through leadership to advance his kingdom on earth. He protects, provides, and guides us through leadership, while the enemy of our soul seeks to undermine rightful authority to scatter the flock. Smite the father, the family falters. Smite the pastor, the congregation splits. Smite the political leader, the nation suffers.

According to God’s Word, the demand for righteous leaders is not optional if our nation is to thrive once again under the blessings of God. Isaiah 58:12 refers to those who will be called, “the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.” And Isaiah 61: 4 states, “And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.”

Relate what you have learned to your own life and the world around you. Is your leadership being undermined in any area? Where are the breaches in our nation? Are you a kingdom leader? What can you do to be used of God to repair “the desolations of many generations?”
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For a fuller treatise of the subject, read The Kingdom Leadership Institute Manual: Raising Up Leaders a Time Like This Demands.

Proceed to lesson 7