There is an expectancy in the minds of many people that God will do things all on His own. While we do see some examples of this in the Bible, it is much more common for God to work through someone He has selected to be His representative here on earth. He selects leaders for His people and uses them as His instruments to accomplish His will.
This use of people as His instruments is partially made necessary by the fact that God is a spirit and doesn’t have a body; so, most people won’t hear anything He would have to say. If they were to credit anyone with the good fortune that they have in life, it would either be themselves or whatever false god they serve. Jehovah God would not get the credit or the glory.
In addition to this, there’s a problem with God speaking to those who identify themselves as His people. Most of these, whether Christians or Israelites (in Old Testament times), aren’t willing to get too close to God, out of fear. They are afraid of what God might do to them, if they get too close.
We see this manifested first when God gave the 10 Commandments to Moses. God had given specific instructions to Moses, telling the people how to prepare themselves before coming before Him. Even so, when the people saw the signs of God’s presence, they fled. They wanted Moses to talk to God on their behalf, so that they wouldn’t have to.
Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” 20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. – Exodus 20:18-21
While this might seem extreme to you and I, the same attitude still exists in the church today. While we might not see the signs of God descending on a mountaintop, with smoke and thunder, people are still just as afraid to draw near to God today, as the people of Israel were back then. They’d rather have their pastor draw near to God for them, coming back to hear what He said and saving them the “trouble” of seeking God for themselves.
God Uses Leaders to Provide Direction
While the purpose of Moses climbing up that mountain was to receive the 10 Commandments, there are many other cases where God speaks to leaders to provide them with direction for His people. God uses these leaders not only to provide leadership, but also to be a channel of communication between Himself and them.
But just how does God select these leaders? If we look at the life of Moses, it appears that he was selected for his position before he was even born. There were so many unique events about his life and upbringing, including his surviving at a time when the Egyptians were killing male babies born to the Israelites and him being adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, allowing him to be raised in the palace and learning how to govern (Exodus 2:1-10).
Yet none of this shows us why God chose Moses to be His instrument, not even the burning bush experience that Moses had, where God talked to him (Exodus 3:1-22). They show us that God chose him, but not anything about why.
God used Moses to bring the people of Israel out of bondage in Israel and then put him over them to lead and govern them as they traveled through the wilderness. This became too big a burden for Moses to bear, so Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, gave him some advice on how to select leaders to help him bear the burden.
Listen to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. 20 And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. 21 Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place them over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. – Exodus 18:19-21 and following
Here we see the very first place that the Bible provides any idea of qualifications for leadership. Jethro gave Moses some very specific instructions, which turned out to be such good advice that the Israelites used it for hundreds of years. The basic qualifications are:
- Able men
- God fearing (reverential fear)
- Truthful
- Hating covetousness
What’s perhaps more interesting than this, is that Jethro recognized that not all of those leaders would be equally able. Therefore, he told Moses “place them over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” Although it is not specified here, there is an implied hierarchy, where the leaders of hundreds would report to the leaders of thousands, just as leaders of tens would report to leaders of fifties or hundreds.
By implementing this hierarchy, Moses was able to allow these lesser rulers to deal with smaller problems, freeing him up from that responsibility. In doing so, he was able to concentrate on his job of teaching and leading the people, as well as acting as the intermediary between them and God.
Looking back at the qualities that Jethro suggested for these leaders, the clear focus is on their individual character. God wasn’t as concerned with their management ability, as He was with their ability to exemplify godliness to the people. That’s a key leadership trait throughout the Bible and is much more important than their leadership ability.
God Doesn’t Look for the Capable
In the business world, hiring managers look for the most capable people to put into management positions. But God isn’t so much concerned about the capability of the people He chooses. His focus is on their heart. As it is often said in the Body of Christ, “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.”
A perfect example of this is Judge Gideon. He was one of the least qualified looking people that God could have chosen to be a leader of Israel, yet God called him anyway, and He did it while Gideon was hiding from his enemies.
Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” – Judges 6:12
It’s hard to connect the idea of Gideon being a “mighty man of valor” with him hiding in a winepress to thresh his grain, let along this making him a clear choice for leadership; but God chose him and sent His angel to tell Gideon that he was chosen.
Gideon doesn’t think much of himself as a leader either, saying to the angel: “How can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” (Judges 6:15). Yet God is patient with us, when we struggle with receiving a calling, just like He was with Moses, when God called him. Gideon put out a fleece twice, asking for a sure sign from God and God answered him.
While Gideon might not have seen himself as a leader and he might not have seemed like a leader to his friends and neighbors, God looks at people differently than we do. God saw something in Gideon that He could use and it was God’s Holy Spirit pulling that out of him, which gave him the ability to do what God wanted Him to do. God said something to the Prophet Samuel, about David, which applies here as well, although in the opposite way:
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as a man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7
In that passage, God was speaking to Samuel about David’s oldest brother; a big, handsome man, who looked like a leader. Yet God rejected him for that role. This case seems to be the complete opposite, where a man who did not look like a leader was chosen by God for that very role. The only reason we can see that He would have done that, is that He saw something in Gideon’s heart, which made him perfect for what God wanted him to do.
One thing that we must always take into account is that God doesn’t share His glory. He allowed Saul to be selected as king; yet Saul didn’t glorify God. His next choice was David, who was apparently a teenager when God called him. He wasn’t big and handsome, like the older brother that God rejected, but was “ruddy” according to the description given of him in the Bible. Yet he became the greatest king that Israel ever had… and he gave all the glory to God.
There’s another well-known Judge in Israeli history, as recorded in the book of Judges; that is Sampson. If you know anything of him, you know that he was best known for his great strength. Any time that Sampson is depicted, he is done so in such a way as to make Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a wimp. But was he really that big and strong? If he was, then would the feats of strength that he did be so remarkable? Would it not be more remarkable if he was a 90-pound wimp, who could do those things because “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him” (Judges 15:14)?
In the New Testament
Moving on to the New Testament, do we see the men that Jesus selected to be His 12 Disciples as being capable men? Were they spiritual giants? Were they trained in Old Testament scriptures? Did any of them have rabbinical training? Were they eloquent speakers?
The only one of the apostles that we can say any of that about is Paul; but Paul wasn’t one of Jesus’ original disciples. He wasn’t called to spread the Gospel until his Damascus Road experience, where Jesus spoke to him (Acts, chapter 9). Yet God used those men to change the world. They were the right people, even if they didn’t have the characteristics that the world thought they should have had.
There is a joke that has existed in the church for quite some time; a made-up letter from the “Jerusalem Management Consultants,” talking about the men that Jesus had selected for His “board of directors,” otherwise known as the Disciples. While done to be a joke, had such an organization existed and had Jesus consulted with them, their actual letter would probably have been just about as negative as this made up one was, mostly because Jesus didn’t look for management material, He looked for men with willing hearts.
Yet it is through them, or rather, through what Paul wrote about leadership, that we find the most comprehensive description of what those men were and what God looks for in the leaders that He chooses. Speaking of overseers, or bishops, Paul wrote to his son in the faith, Timothy:
This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence… 6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. – 1 Timothy 3:1-4, 5-7
In those times, the term “bishop” had a slightly different meaning than it does today, partially because there were no denominations within Christianity. The bishop would be the chief or senior pastor within a city. Most cities only had one church, not many, and there might be several people within that church’s leadership who had the calling of being a pastor. The pastor wasn’t the church’s principal leader, as that was the bishop; rather, the pastors performed the spiritual work of shepherding the flock, rather than the business work of managing the church.
These characteristics aren’t something to be taken lightly. It would clearly take years for the Holy Spirit to bring all this about in the life of one person. Many would never reach this point, simply because of their unwillingness to allow God to change them. They might want to be leaders in the church; but they would disqualify themselves by their lack of spiritual maturity.
The next passage, in the same chapter, gives us insight into the qualifications to be a deacon. While we might think there’s a huge gap between that of bishop and deacon, it is clear that Paul, operating under the guidance and anointing of the Holy Spirit, didn’t see all that much of a difference, as there really isn’t much of a difference between the two lists. Yes, they are written differently, but many of the same qualifications are there.
Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not give too much wine, not greedy for money, 9 holding the mystery of the faith with pure conscience. 10 But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. 11 Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons be the husband of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. – 1 Timothy 3:8-12
It is interesting to note that in neither list do we see anything about their education, other than “able to teach.” That’s because Chrisitan character is a bigger requirement in God’s eyes, than their educational level. The church at large has made a mistake in this, as we often overlook character, in favor of their educational attainment.
The Most Important Thing
If we were to break down God’s requirements for leadership in the church, the big thing would be our willingness to be taught and molded by God’s Holy Spirit. God doesn’t expect anyone to be perfect when they enter the ministry. There was only one who was perfect and that was Jesus Christ. Those who follow Him are on a journey of becoming perfected, to be like Him. It’s a journey that none of us ever complete; but one that we should constantly be walking along.
The church has a tendency to expect perfection from our leaders; but that is not realistic. We are all humans; therefore, we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). This expectation has caused many pastors to hide their “secret sins” from their congregations, in order to protect their jobs.
Accepting imperfection in our leaders is not to say that we should allow sin. By no means. Rather, the issue is how they deal with their own sin. That ultimately affects how we, the church, accepts it too.
There’s a well-known story about King David having an affair with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his closest friends. Worse than that, when it turned out she became pregnant, David ordered to have Uriah returned from the war, so that he might lie with his wife, hiding David’s indiscretion. But Uriah was an honorable man who didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. So, David conspired to have Uriah killed in battle, so that he would never know what had happened (2 Samuel, chapter 11).
But God knew what happened and sent Nathan the Prophet to see David, telling him a parable (2 Samuel 12:1-6). David responded as God expected, becoming angry about the actions of the man in the parable and declaring judgment against him. That’s when the tables turned and we see David’s true character come forth.
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel; ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul… 11 Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun’”… 13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to Davide, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” – 2 Samuel 12:7, 11 & 13
David was quick to repent, which allowed him to retain the title of the greatest king that Israel ever had. Had he not repented, his reign would have gone the way of King Saul’s, another failure. While God was not happy with his sin, God has always been quick to forgive when we repent. This shows us that this was true in Old Testament times, just as it is now in New Testament times. If there is any characteristic that God wants from the leaders that He chooses, it is the willingness to repent of our sins.