My dad used to threaten my brother and me with a joke: “I’ll skin ya’ alive!” We barely knew what that meant. We just knew he was being silly, tickling us and teasing us. He would never have said such a thing in anger. If we were behaving badly, he would be serious and handle it in an appropriate way. My parents had little patience for the kind of scenes misbehaving children sometimes make in restaurants or on airplanes. My brother and I wouldn’t dare. (I saved my scenes for the classroom.)
You know what is worse than bad children? Bad parenting. Worse than lazy students? Lazy teachers. Worse than bad players are bad coaches. Worse than bad employees are bad managers. How do you lose a war, with bad soldiers and sailors? No. Wars are lost by bad generals and admirals. The one thing worse than selfish, evil people is selfish, evil leaders. Yet, we have all seen and suffered under poor leadership.
God sees our selfish, greedy, dishonest leaders—whether in churches, cities, or businesses—and he will punish them.
Until he does, hang in there and keep doing what’s right! Just as Jesus would later rebuke the priests, the teachers of the law, and the Pharisees, so the prophet Micah rebuked the priests, prophets, and leaders of his day.
“And I said, ‘Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house Israel. Aren’t you supposed to know sound judgment? You who hate what is good and love what is evil, who pluck the skin from off the people and their flesh from off their bones, who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and you break their bones, and chop them in pieces for the stewpot, and meat for the cauldron. Then you will cry for the Lord and he will not hear. He will hide his face from you’” Micah 3:1-4.
These are strong words! God, through Micah, accuses Israel’s leaders of cannibalism. They were doing such extreme harm to the nation that Micah says they might as well be skinning, cooking, and eating God’s people. Micah was fearless. He was not trying to win a popularity contest. He did not need the approval of City Hall, or a bridge named in his honor. Instead, Micah sought to please the Lord, no matter how violent the confrontation it would create between him and the nation’s corrupt leaders.
And Micah knew God would judge the leaders who had been derelict in their duties:
“Night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a VISION. And it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not DIVINE. And the sun shall go down over the prophets … then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded, yea, they shall cover their lips, for there will be NO ANSWER FROM GOD” Micah 3:6-7.
Because of their dereliction of duty, the prophets, priests, diviners, and seers, would be swallowed up in darkness. God would give them no visions, no prophecies, no dreams, no answers. All would be darkness. The so-called seers would see nothing. God would abandon them.
God holds leaders to a higher standard. He will judge them! “Let not many among you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such, we shall incur a stricter judgment” James 3:1
Dear God, grant us good, godly leaders! Send our churches, our schools, our businesses, and our nation leaders with integrity. Raise up leaders that love you and seek your face, leaders who honor your word and respect your law, leaders who will put honesty and good decisions before money, “legacy,” or fame. And make each of us the best leader we can be. Grant that we would be like “the men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” 1 Chronicles 12:32.
AΩ
Household Words: 