God Needs Godly Leaders

1 Kings begins with David, the man after God’s own heart, and ends with Ahab, the worst king ever to rule over Israel. Israel begins as a powerful nation and ends as a divided nation and with many evil kings ruling over both kingdoms – especially over Israel. The condition of God’s people depends greatly on the spirituality or the lack of it in their leaders. Whenever Israel had a godly leader, they moved forward in godly ways. When they had a carnal leader, they moved away from God into carnality.

 

The great need among God’s people has always been for godly leaders. Jesus looked out at the multitudes in His day and saw them as sheep without a shepherd. He told His disciples to pray that God would thrust forth shepherds into the midst of His people (Matt.9:36-38) When God looks at the churches and families across the world today, He sees the same need for godly leaders and godly parents. The challenge that comes to us then is to satisfy the heart of God in our generation by being the type of men and women He is looking for.

 

In every generation God needs godly leaders. We cannot depend on the wisdom of the leaders of previous generations, David could not rule over Israel forever. He would die, and someone else would have to take over. What would become of Israel depended on the type of person that the next king would be, God raises up a godly man to start a work in one generation. He becomes old and dies. Will the leaders in the next generation have only the founder’s knowledge and his doctrines but not his godliness and his knowledge of God? Then the people will certainly go astray. it is good to venerate and honour Mother Mary, saints, and great men and woman of God but if we do not have the same beauty of holiness what they had certainly we will go astray.

 

 Learn Valuable Lessons from Solomon

 

In 1 Kings 2, we read that king Solomon began his reign by killing his step-brother Adonijah (1 Kings 2:19-27), his first-cousin Joab (1 Kings 2:28-35), and Shimei (1 Kings 2:36-46). What a way to start one’s reign! And to think that it was David, the man after God’s own heart, who had suggested all this to Solomon and thus started him off on the pathway of destruction! Such is the long-term result of un-cleansed bitterness, by which many are defiled. But Solomon still imagined that God would bless him in spite of all this (1 Kings 2:45). How deceived can a person get!

 

Once you start out on the wrong path, you go further and further away from God! The next thing that Solomon did was get married to a heathen woman – Pharaoh’s daughter. If only David had spent his last days advising Solomon on marrying wisely, instead of teaching him how to take revenge, what a different turn things might have taken in Solomon’s life. What advice do you give your children? What are the things that are most important to you in life?

 

 In 1 Kings 3:3, we read that “Solomon `loved the Lord’, except that he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.” What a contradiction! Solomon finally destroyed himself because of such compromise. He lived a double-life – one in the temple and one in private. Unfortunately that is also how many Christians live today. They make many loud expressions of love for the Lord. But in private, they live in unrighteousness and sin. Finally their little backslidings become big ones and destroy them.

 

Solomon took seven years to build the Lord’s temple (1 Kings 6:38) and thirteen years to build his own house (1 Kings 7:1). So we know which he valued more!! Solomon’s backsliding was gradual – as all backsliding is. He started off his rule by killing people. He could have easily disagreed with his father David and refused to kill Shimei and Joab. He could have forgiven Adonijah and not killed him. Once he had started sliding down, the gradient became steeper. Next, he married Pharaoh’s daughter – obviously for her wealth. Then he spent thirteen years building his own house. All this in spite of the fact that God had given him such wisdom. Many a time I have seen  parents and church leaders a drift towards the world right from the beginning of their lives. They start seeking their own right from the time they begin their family or ministry. When you see them years later, they have become experts in seeking their own.

 

But God still loved His people in spite of the backsliding of their king. So He filled the temple with His glory when it was completed (1 Kings 8:10). It was just like the day when Moses had completed the tabernacle. The temple was built in the same pattern as the tabernacle, but on a much bigger and grander scale.

 

Solomon prayed a beautiful prayer of dedication (1 Kings 8:22-61). The Lord then appeared to him a second time and told him that He had heard his prayer and again urged him to walk in integrity of heart and uprightness so that his kingdom would be established. He also warned Solomon that if he turned away from following the Lord, Israel would be removed from the land and the temple would become a heap of ruins (1 Kings 9:3-9), That was exactly what happened when the Babylonians came and captured Judah and destroyed the temple. God had warned them, “Don’t think you can live as you like and that I will just keep on blessing you.” The Lord warns us long before we start going astray.

 

In 1 Kings Chapter 10, we read of the Queen of Sheba coming and meeting Solomon because she had heard of his wonderful wisdom. But despite all his worldwide reputation for wisdom, Solomon was a mixed-up man. He could pray beautiful prayers to the Lord in public, like most Christians. But in his private life, he was as godless as anyone – again like many Christians. Solomon was more interested in satisfying and loving his own heart, mind and body than loving God with all his heart, mind, body and soul,(1 Kings 11:1-3, Mark 12:30-31). 

 

When Solomon went astray, God was angry with him and told him that He would divide his kingdom into two (1 Kings 11:9-13). But because David was a godly man, God did not do it in Solomon’s lifetime (1 Kings 11:12). We see there, how much children are blessed because of the godliness of their father! God raised up enemies to trouble Solomon, but he still did not repent (1 Kings 11:14). When Solomon feared that Jeroboam was going to rebel against him, he tried to put Jeroboam to death (1 Kings 11:26, 40). Jeroboam later became king of the divided kingdom. Thus Solomon died (1 Kings 11:43).

 

 

God Looks for Faithfulness in Little Things

 

In 1 Kings 19:19-21, we read of Elijah calling Elisha. Elisha was working hard in the fields with his oxen when Elijah called him. Notice first of all that God always calls those who are working hard and are faithful in their secular occupations. Moses was faithfully looking after his father-in-law’s sheep when God called him. David was looking after sheep and fighting with lions and bears. Amos was a hardworking herdsman. Peter, James, John and Andrew were hardworking fishermen. Matthew was sitting at the table working on his accounts. We never see anywhere in the Old Testament or the New Testament that God called a lazy man for His service.

 

We don’t find Elijah going to Elisha’s house when he was fast asleep and calling him there - because we would have thought he was a lazy man. Jesus also never went to Peter’s house in the evening to call him. He called him when he was fishing. All these examples show us that God wants us to be faithful and hardworking in our secular jobs before He can call us to serve Him. If you are not faithful in earthly matters, how can you be faithful in heavenly matters? If you are young and still living at home, then be a faithful son or daughter at home.

 

Notice secondly that all these men dropped everything and went as soon as God called them. We see that with Peter, John and Matthew and also here with Elisha. God calls those who will respond to His call immediately and wholeheartedly. They may seek to confirm God’s call on their lives with godly people in order to be certain that they are not acting on their own emotional feelings. But once they are sure, they act quickly. God can use only such people to serve Him, because His service requires instant obedience, total commitment and hard work.

 

God tests us in our secular occupations to see whether we are faithful. If you are asked to clean a room and you are careless about the way you do it or you are not bothered about it, I doubt if God will ever call you to serve Him. Because, if that’s the way you clean up a room that will probably be the way you clean up your heart, mind, your family as well. How then can God use you to build His Kingdome and clean up His church? It is faithfulness in the little things that God looks for.

 

In the old covenant, the emphasis was always on the external "because of the hardness of men's hearts" (Matt. 19:8). The law emphasised cleanliness in the external. The new covenant, in contrast, emphasised cleanliness "inside the cup" first (Matt. 23:25,26). Jesus said in that verse (v. 26) that once the inside was cleansed, the outside would automatically become clean so that there would be no need to clean the outside at all. One can see this clearly from Matt. 5:21-30. If one has cleansed his heart from anger, there would be no danger of his committing murder externally. Likewise, if he has cleansed his heart from sexually dirty thoughts, there would be no danger of his committing adultery externally. Clean the inside of the cup and the outside will automatically become clean. our emphasis primarily on the externals like - avoiding  smoking, drinking, taking drugs, gambling etc., - The way to get rid of external evils is not by concentrating on them first but rather on the internal worldly attitude of mind and heart which produces those external evils.