The Inspired Leader: 101 Biblical Reflections for Becoming a Person of Influence (15 page)

Perhaps most disappointing were kings such as Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:22-23), Asa (1 Kings 15:14), Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:43), Jehoash (2 Kings 12:2-3), Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:6), Amaziah (2 Kings 14:4), Azariah (2 Kings 15:3-4), and Jotham (2 Kings 15:34-35). These monarchs generally sought to rule righteously, but they stopped short of tearing down the high places. However, Judah’s two godliest leaders did have the courage to actively demolish the bastions of wickedness in their land: Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4), and Josiah (2 Kings 23:4-20).

Ultimately God destroyed the nation of Israel for its debauched worship at its pagan altars and the depravity that ensued (2 Kings 17:9-18). Scripture concludes, “
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight”
(2 Kings 17:18). Likewise, the nation of Judah became so perforated with centers of evil that even the righteous King Josiah could not dissuade God’s wrath and the destruction of his nation (2 Kings 23:26-27).

What are the high places of America today? They are the people, organizations, and centers that promote sinful attitudes and carnal practices. They are the groups that mock God and His word, and promote falsehood. Tearing down a nation’s high places is not easy. William Wilberforce recognized that many Christians were unconcerned or ignorant of the depravity their society embraced with the slave trade. After losing a critical vote in the Commons, Wilberforce lamented that there were enough Christian MP’s at the opera that evening to have deposed the slave trade had they cared enough to show up.

As a business leader today, are you satisfied, as were most of the leaders in Israel’s history, to merely mind your own business? Or, will you allow God to use your life and influence to bring the high places of your day crashing down?

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

1. Consider for a moment where the “high places” are in your community and workplace. What are the centers from which ungodly influences are spewing into society?
   

2. Prayerfully consider how God might use your life and fellow Christians to “bring down” the centers of evil in your community. Don’t assume there is nothing you can do. God knows how to defeat evil. Talk with other believers about what God might have you do.
   

3. Take a Saturday or an evening and prayer walk with other believers through your community and ask the Lord to show you what is happening where you live. Allow God to place His heart for your community over your heart and to help you see the people and establishments in your neighborhood the way He views them.
   

ON OCTOBER 12, 1960, Lorenzo Sumulong from the Philippines delivered a speech at the 902
nd
plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, had earlier denounced the imperialism of western nations. However, when Sumulong challenged Khrushchev to give freedom to nations in Eastern Europe, the Soviet leader grew incensed. Khrushchev removed the shoe from his right foot and waved it menacingly toward Sumulong. Then he began pounding it on his desk more and more loudly until the entire assembly was transfixed at the spectacle of the leader of the world’s second most powerful nation defying the world.

On October 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy was informed that the Soviet Union, at Khrushchev’s direction, was installing medium range missiles in Cuba, only 90 miles from the United States border. On October 22, in a nationally televised speech, Kennedy informed his nation of the looming crisis. It appeared the two superpowers were racing toward a cataclysmic nuclear exchange. The American navy blockaded Cuba to intercept Soviet ships transporting weapons to there. Americans across the country nervously braced themselves for the coming holocaust. Bomb shelters were prepared, food supplies were stored, and air raid drills held. People around the world feared the worst. The fate of civilization hinged on how the volatile Soviet leader chose to act. Then on October 27
th
Khrushchev communicated with Kennedy his terms for the removal of the missiles and the crisis quickly abated. One man had pushed the world to the brink of oblivion.

Khrushchev received a call on October 12, 1964, at his villa on the Black Sea while he was on vacation. It was his lieutenant, Leonid Brezhnev, requesting his immediate return to Moscow to discuss urgent matters at a special meeting of the Presidium. On October 13, Khrushchev’s subordinates harangued him mercilessly, forcing him to resign from office. The fallen leader was cast aside for the remainder of his life, living on a small pension in obscurity. Khrushchev suffered from depression in his retirement and had to be prescribed sleeping pills and tranquilizers. Nevertheless, when one of his grandsons was asked what the ex-premier was doing in retirement, the boy replied, “Grandfather cries.” After he died on September 11, 1971, he was denied a state funeral while
Pravda
announced his demise in one sentence. The dacha where he spent most of his final years was leveled to prevent it from becoming a shrine.

The psalmist declared, “
Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers of the earth take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure”
(Psalm 2:1-5).

Government leaders may oppose God and His purposes. They may make headlines and issue bold pronouncements. But they rule solely at God’s discretion (Romans 13:1). He appoints and removes them at His pleasure. Ultimately, rulers will give an account of their leadership to Him. To whom much has been given, much will be required (Luke 12:48). This should cause leaders to tremble.

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

1. This evening, watch the national and international news. As you see what world leaders are doing and threatening to do, prayerfully ask the Lord for His perspective on your world. People may boast and strut across the world stage, but their every breath depends upon the grace of almighty God.
   

2. Do you find yourself being intimidated by secular authorities? At times we can fear people more than we fear God. Take an inventory of your life. Have you allowed people in authority to make you compromise what you know are God’s standards?
   

3. Do you pray regularly for your government leaders? Make a list of the government officials over you and regularly pray for them as Scripture instructs you to. Ask God to show you how to be a citizen who makes a positive difference in your nation.
   

IN HIS BOOK
Outliers,
Malcolm Gladwell, author of
The Tipping Point
and
Blink,
explores the roots of one of today’s most popular subjects: success. He suggests that while qualities such as intelligence, physical skill, and tenacity obviously contribute to high achievement, other less evident factors also play a significant role. For example, he notes that more National Hockey League players have birthdays in January than in any other month. The cut off age for little league hockey is December 31, so those born in January are as much as eleven months older than many of the peers against whom they compete for elite teams and coaching. For little league baseball, the cutoff date is July 31. Not surprisingly, more major league baseball players are born in August than any other date. Likewise, Gladwell studied the seventy-five wealthiest people in history and discovered that fourteen of them were Americans, born within nine years of each other (
Outliers,
61). The 1860s and ’70s saw the American economy skyrocket so rapidly that it produced a new aristocracy of extremely wealthy businesspeople. Those born in the 1820s were too old to capitalize on the Gilded Age and people born in the 1840s were too young. Significantly, fourteen of the wealthiest people in history were Americans born between 1831 and 1839. January 1975 was the dawn of the personal computer age. To capitalize on this technology and dominate the new industry, people would not want to be too old in 1975 to adjust their careers to the new possibilities nor too young to enter the business world. Gladwell suggests that being born around 1954 or 1955 would put you at a perfect age to rapidly adjust to the cyberspace age. Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955. Steve Jobs, February 24, 1955. Both brilliant men, but they were also born at the optimal time to dominate the cyberspace industry.

What’s the point? It’s futile to bemoan the fact you aren’t working in the Gilded Age or during a booming economy. It has been said that if you long for the “good old days,” just turn off your air conditioning! What
is
important is to understand the age in which you live. Scripture speaks of the sons of Issachar “
who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do”
(1 Chronicles 12:32). Those who make a positive difference in their world are not the ones pining away for better days, or waiting idly by for the tides of fortune to change, but those who boldly face the unique challenges and opportunities of their own generation.

Spiritual leaders recognize the possibilities that their day offers for the expansion of God’s kingdom. What advanced technologies are available? What new methodologies, alliances, and political realities are uniquely at play now that previous Christians could never have imagined? Vibrant economies offer many opportunities; so do depressed ones.

It was said of King David, “
For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption”
(Acts 13:36). David took what was given to him, understood the times in which he lived, and faithfully served his own generation by the will of God. Of all the ages throughout history you
could
have lived, why did God allow you to be born at this time? Are you discerning the days in which you are alive? Do you recognize the unique possibilities that lie before you? Seize the opportunities God has provided and fully live the one life you have to the glory of God.