LEADERSHIP
[p. 362] LEADERSHIP
Hebrews 12:2,3; Psalm 77:20; Psalm 78:70 - 72
I want to speak to you this evening about leadership — leadership in the things of God. It is God’s way in carrying His people through this world to employ this means — that of leadership, and the Lord may help us in our inquiry to see some of the features that mark true leadership. As in all else, we have to learn from and in Christ, for He is not only the Teacher, but He is what He teaches.
I have selected the epistle to the Hebrews first, because the idea is emphasised there, being seen more in that epistle in relation to the Jewish Christians than in relation to others, for they were encompassed as connected with God’s ancient economy, with what tended to darken and make the path difficult. The position of these Jewish Christians in the early days corresponds to a great extent with our own, for around us there are similar conditions. What claims to be connected with God, but is not really so, implies much that darkens and bewilders, so that the path of the people of God is extremely difficult. The epistle to the Hebrews, therefore, is of peculiar value to us in many respects, and not the least in this, that it emphasises the idea of leadership. In it we have a beautiful touch in regard to God’s leading His people of old. It says He “took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt”, Hebrews 8:9. It is not stated that He led them in by the hand, but that He led them out by the hand. He led them in also, but He led them in through their minds and their affections, for they had advanced; but He took them by the hand to lead them out. We read, too, that He “taught Ephraim to walk”, Hosea 11:3. These are infantile references, showing how God can come down [p. 363] to the smallest growth amongst His people in order to lead them. It says, too, “He nursed them in the desert” (Acts 13:18) — a beautiful touch! and further, that He walked with them in all their ways — the ark of the covenant going before to find a resting-place for them. In such language God conveys to us His tender sympathies and His consideration for us, especially for those who have not advanced in the truth; and so too in this epistle, which, indeed, treats of the infantile condition — not a normal one, alas! but one that resulted from retrogression.
Israel in Egypt was in a normal infantile condition; it was such a condition as occasioned and drew out the love of Jehovah; He said, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him”, Hosea 11:1. There was that freshness and beauty of youth at the outset which drew out the affections of God; then follows, “and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1), but there is first the freshness and beauty as seen in early spiritual life, which is delightful to God, and which corresponds to the epistle to the Thessalonians, which epistle treats of Christians in their early youth — a normal youthfulness. Nor are they treated as so many persons; for although very young in their spiritual life, they are treated as an assembly: “The assembly of Thessalonians in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Thessalonians 1:1. It is the only assembly addressed in this way. They were beloved of God and so the apostle says, “but have been gentle in the midst of you, as a nurse would cherish her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7); and then again, “ye know how, as a father his own children, we used to exhort each one of you, and comfort and testify” 1 Thessalonians 2:11. God thus indicates to us what early spiritual life is, and it should be encouraging to the youngest of us.
God delights in early spiritual freshness, but then, on the other hand, it was His son He called out of Egypt. He took the child by the hand and taught him to walk, but, He says, I called my son
[p. 364] out of Egypt, for whilst He delights in youthfulness, His thought goes beyond that, His thought is maturity, His purpose is sonship, and sonship involves maturity, so that the son does not need to be taken by the hand; the son goes into Canaan. He is called out of Egypt; it is a question of the purpose of God, and His purpose is sonship; and so He calls us sons, and because we are sons, He gives us the Spirit of His Son in our hearts, and having that Spirit in our hearts we are led by the Spirit — a very different thing from being taken by the hand. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” Romans 8:14. In the history of Israel it was after forty years’ experience in the desert in which God led them, and fed them, and nursed them, that they come into the good of the Spirit, and typically in the power of the Spirit they followed the ark of the covenant into the land of promise. They went in by way of affection, and of intelligence. But whether as led by the hand or as led by the Spirit, they were led by God.
Now, whilst God leads His people, He leads them mediately, that is to say, He leads them through others, first of all through Christ, so that, as I said, we have to learn this thought in Him. I have selected these verses in Hebrews because the apostle emphasises the idea of leadership particularly in this passage, where the word ‘author’ or ‘leader’ is used in the sense of one who, as many of us here know, sets the thing forward, who inaugurates it, originates it, so that we are at the very source of the thing. We are called upon to look on Jesus, for it is a question here, not of what He teaches by word, but by example; hence it is that we look on Him, and in order to look on Jesus, the author and completer of faith, we have to understand the gospels.
Now what I wish to dwell on particularly, and what the passage dwells on is faith. To have part in [p. 365] this dispensation we must have faith. It may not be needed in the millennium, for then things will be on the principle of sight, but at the present time, to have part in what God is going on with there must be faith: “He that draws near to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them who seek him out” Hebrews 11:6. There is very little to see at the present time; hence, the greater need for faith. And so it was at this particular juncture of the history of the Jewish Christians, for the time of miracles was passing, and the things spoken by the Lord had already been confirmed, and after a thing is confirmed there is no need of further miracles; the thing is there; to give it up is apostasy, and there are no miracles for apostates. The only miracles that an apostate shall have will be those of antichrist, and it is solemn to think there will be such. What is needed therefore when things are confirmed is faith, and hence the great features of it are given in chapter 11, so that these Hebrew Christians should know what it was, and then, instead of looking for further miracles, further external interventions of God, they were to exercise faith. True Christians among them were characterised by believing: “We are not drawers back to perdition, but of faith to saving the soul” Hebrews 10:39.
And then the writer shows that the faith that they had was illustrated in its varied features in the people of God of old, and having gone over the ground he comes to Jesus, of whom he says, “The leader and completer of faith” — He is the Beginner of the thing. Faith did not begin with Abel. When God framed the world He had in mind that the thing should be understood by faith; it was never His intention that men should discover anything in the physical system in a final sense by investigation, by natural powers. I do not believe there is one single thing that is final in what scientific men [p. 366] speak of. God intended that the thing should be apprehended by faith: “By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God” Hebrews 11:3. I think that God intended to distinguish this dispensation above all others in that way. Things are to be understood in it. He begins therefore with the beginning, in dealing with faith: “By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appear” Hebrews 11:3. It is a question of the word of God. The soul is put directly in touch with God in regard of these things. Faith was anticipated, and the Framer of the thing, the great Architect of it was to be the Beginner and Completer of the faith that was to shine in this dispensation. It is a wonderful dispensation — that God should work out His greatest and His eternal thoughts in connection with faith.
Of the Lord it is said, in chapter 1, “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3), but here in this chapter (12) He is the One presented to us as a model, as an example — not, surely, as the Creator, or the Framer of the universe, but as walking a path as man here, as we have to walk it. You see the dispensation was in the mind of God; He intended this dispensation to shine out, to stand out above all others; so it is called God’s dispensation which is in faith. The great principle is inaugurated or begun by the Lord Jesus as Man here, and so, as I said, we have to look into the gospels to see the marvellous design of God — that the very Creator Himself could be in such circumstances! “I was cast upon thee”, He says, “from the womb”, Psalm 22:10. From the very outset of His being here, He was dependent upon God. Who can understand it? That He should be in such circumstances, that there was never a moment in His existence as a Man in this world that was not lived on this principle. Those [p. 367] thirty years that followed are filled up, and no doubt what there was for God in them will yet be brought to light. The Holy Spirit lights on the Lord’s infancy and on His boyhood, but we have nothing for eighteen years. But what were those years to God! Was there a moment in those years that was not delightful to heaven? Not one. Every breath of that holy Babe, of that Boy, of that Man, was taken in faith.
It was a marvellous design, and carried out in the minutest detail in that holy life, and hence Scripture abounds with the detail of it — the meat-offering sets it forth. The types are full of it, and the meat-offering is for the priests — that we should understand what the nature of that life was and grow in it: “In this thy nature grow”. What is omitted in the gospels abounds in the types. The types abound with the humanity of Christ, what He was from His infancy onward, what He was to God; so the priests could feed on it and thus understand what the life of faith is, what man according to God is here. Hence He is presented to look on, to look steadfastly on and to “consider well”, it says. But to do this, beloved, we have to read Scripture and we have to understand Scripture, particularly the types, for, as I said, what is omitted intentionally in the gospels is depicted in the types. And God at the end of the thirty years uses the word ‘found’: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”, Matthew 3:17. It is absolute. You will observe it does not say ‘all’ there — found all my delight — for God had all that should develop out of that in His mind; everything that will be evolved out of that came under the eye of God for His pleasure.
Now I go further. One could continue to dwell on such a marvellous subject, but I can only just suggest what the life of faith was in Jesus. Luke particularly points it out for us, and so we have more prayer of the Lord in Luke than elsewhere, particularly [p. 368] as you come to the close, so that He should be rightly in view as a model in Gethsemane — indeed, it is not Gethsemane in Luke, but the mount of Olives. We read there that He went, as was His custom, to the mount of Olives, He had often been there. I have no doubt it was His holy retreat. Bethany was His retreat in relation to the remnant; Olivet was His relation to heaven; His custom, according to Luke, was to go there, and as there, He is withdrawn from His disciples a stone’s throw. It seems as if He is presented objectively, to be seen, as it were, clearly. He had said to them that they should pray, but He does not pray with them; and He is withdrawn from them. It is a question in the gospels of what is objective, of what is to be learned objectively in Christ; it is what is seen in the model, and so He is withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw and He kneels down and prays. Marvellous spectacle! Reverential, of course, but it was for them to see the idea as He is approaching the last solemn moments of His life. Then we read, “and being in conflict he prayed more intently” Luke 22:44. It is perfect humanity tested to the utmost. What a spectacle to look on! And that is the point here; looking steadfastly on Him, as if we were in company with those who were privileged to be with Him at that moment, looking steadfastly on that blessed Man and seeing Him kneel down, and pray, and then the agony, and then the praying more intently — not as with ourselves where there is the possibility of unbelief. The thing is, “Does any one among you suffer evil? let him pray”, James 5:13. The greater the affliction, the more intent the prayer. And so on the cross itself, in Luke, He is praying. It is a Man dependent upon God and asking Him to inaugurate the dispensation — the dispensation of faith. It was to be a dispensation in which things are brought in by the asking, and so He asks the Father to forgive them. He ushers in [p. 369] the dispensation of grace in that wonderful prayer: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” Luke 23:34.
But I must pass on. I want to show that there can be no leadership apart from faith. This was first seen in Christ, faith being exemplified for us in Him. It being the dispensation of faith, a true leader must be a man of faith, he must learn to look away from seen things and to bring God in, to reckon on the power and faithfulness of God; he moves on in that way. He despises the shame, too, for there will be shame, there will be reproach attached to it, but he sees the end, as Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. That throne is rendered favourable by the presence of Jesus; in this epistle He is seen “on the right hand of the greatness on high” (Hebrews 1:3); “on the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1); “at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12); and lastly “at the right hand of the throne of God” Hebrews 12:2. The throne is favourable, and the leader can reckon on all the dealings of God with His people being favourable, for God is not against His people in any sense. This passage shows not only that the throne is favourable, but that it is active too, for the government of God goes on with every one of us. Hence discipline flows from it, and the saints are treated, not as enemies, not as sinners, but as sons; they are made to be partakers of the holiness of God. The leader amongst the saints understands this, and he can reckon on the throne being rendered favourable, and ever active to help the people of God.
Now I wish to touch on Moses and Aaron. The apostle and High Priest of our confession is Jesus. It says in Psalm 77:20 that God led His people by the hand of Moses and Aaron; these two represent [p. 370] the qualities of leadership. In the first epistle to Timothy and in that to Titus we have qualifications for eldership. It is quite obvious that every brother is not to be an elder. It is put, “If any one aspires to exercise oversight” 1 Timothy 3:1. It is a question of one who aspires to an office. Strictly there are no such offices today, I need not say, nor should we assume that they exist; nevertheless, there was the idea of one aspiring to be an elder or overseer, and the qualifications are given. There is no suggestion in that that every one should aspire to be an elder or an overseer, nor is there any thought that those who are not overseers are not to be interested in the order and government of the house of God. As a matter of fact, responsibility rests on every one in the assembly, and certainly both addresses to the Corinthians are to the assembly. The responsibility rests on it.
I refer to that in connection with Moses and Aaron, because God led the people through them. God was there; He was there every inch of the way, but the leadership externally was in these two men, and I take them to represent the qualities for leadership as combined in a leader.
You will bear with me if I touch on these two men, and I go back to the earlier history so as to bring out what the combination was, as it was remarkable. Moses had been forty years in the desert with the sheep; he led the flock to the backside of the desert and God met Him there. He saw God. God was in the bush, and Moses saw the great sight; he turned aside to see, it says. One is of no value really in the service until he turns aside to see what God presents. The thing that God presents to you is so interesting that you turn aside to see it, and thus Moses is signalised. God says, “Moses, Moses” (Exodus 3:4), but Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Now, God says, you go back to Egypt and I will be [p. 371] with your mouth; you are to say this and that to the people, but Moses replies that he cannot speak. Full of light, full of experience, but he fails in his speech! Well, God says, Aaron thy brother the Levite shall speak, and he comes to meet you, and when he sees you there will be gladness in his heart; see Exodus 4:14. You have the light, you have the authority, Aaron will be the mouth; but, more than that, Aaron is the brother, he will be glad in his heart to see you (as a matter of fact he kissed him) and God says to Moses, Aaron will be to thee instead of a mouth, thou shalt put words in his mouth; he will speak, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.
I wish you to take note of this, so that you may see the mediatorial idea in the service of leadership. Here is a man who is to be as God. Can I impress the saints as representative of God? I certainly cannot impress them unless I impress them in some sense that I represent God. Let us not be afraid of it — of the idea of representation. Here is a man who says he cannot speak, a shepherd in the wilderness, and yet God says, “Thou shalt be to him for God” (Exodus 4:16), that is to Aaron, and then again, “I have made thee God to Pharaoh” Exodus 7:1. What a sense of obligation such a man would have! I refer to it so that we might understand the greatness of the idea of leadership; that there is in it the element of God and the authority of God, that the presence of God is in it, so that the saints understand that you have to do with God in your service amongst them — that you represent Him. And then alongside of that you have the mouth of a brother, for Aaron was the one who was to represent that; he was to be on the side of the people. If he spoke to them, he was to give them to understand that he was one of them; he had compassion on the ignorant and erring; there is nothing arbitrary about Aaron. The authority of God is imperative; but Aaron is the sympathetic [p. 372] element, hence you find that in writing to the Corinthians, in both epistles, the apostle associates a brother with him. There is the authority of God in the apostle, but with that there is the sympathy and affection of the brother. In the first letter he associates Sosthenes; not a brother simply, but “the brother” (1 Corinthians 1:1) — as if characterised by the idea. In the second letter he links Timotheus with him. How can we have these things brought down? We see them in Moses and Aaron, we see them in the apostle and Sosthenes and Timotheus; is that idea to lapse? Not at all. God carries it through, and He carries through the idea of leadership, and if the idea is to be present in a concrete way amongst us, these elements must be present — the sense of the presence of God, the authority of God on the one hand, and the tenderness and sympathy of a brother on the other. And so “if even a man be taken in some fault, ye who are spiritual restore such a one”, Galatians 6:1. Even if he be taken in it, who is going to restore him? “Ye who are spiritual” restore him. Whatever the man’s circumstances, apparently, if he is spiritual he can do that, he can restore him. In the spirit of meekness, “considering thyself lest thou also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1), is the spirit of Aaron.
I think what I have said about these two men will indicate plainly that the leading in the wilderness by the hand of Moses and Aaron is a combination of divine authority, light, and intelligence, with the sympathy of a man — the sympathy of a brother. “Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron”.
Now I go on to David. He is the next leader spoken of here. I do not say that there were not others, because Deborah speaks about leaders who led. A leader is of no value unless he leads: “for that leaders led in Israel” (Judges 5:2), she says. They led in the right way. But David stands out, as [p. 373] Moses and Aaron stand out; and when we come to David it is a question of sovereign choice. It is not now intelligence that predominates, nor even the sympathy as in Aaron, but loveliness of character; the kind of person you are, as it were, inherently. David is brought on the scene in Scripture as “ruddy, and besides of a lovely countenance and beautiful appearance” (1 Samuel 16:12); he is brought in in his youthfulness. He is not brought in to illustrate experience as Moses was; he is brought in in his ruddiness, in his beauty, that is to say, he is a person delightful to God; he is inherently delightful to God. The Lord says, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he” 1 Samuel 16:12. It is a question of the kind of person, of what the man is from his beginnings. This brother who is helpful among us — what has he been from his beginning? You say, he has been disciplined by God. But what kind of a beginning has he had? The word ‘David’ means ‘beloved’; it refers to the delight that God had in him. The first mention of David’s name in the book of Samuel was when he was anointed. David was anointed; that is to say, God anointed the beloved, the one whom He loved, the one who pleased Him in his youthfulness.
So in Psalm 78 he is chosen. There is nothing said about Moses and Aaron being chosen, but David is chosen; and he is immediately called a servant, but that is not what one becomes suddenly. You see some who take short cuts to service, but there are no short cuts in Scripture; the idea of being a servant begins with yourself. You will always find in a man whom God uses, that the idea of being a servant began with him; it is there inherently; hence David is here chosen and he is called a servant. What had he been doing? He had been “Following the suckling-ewes”. Following them, he was a servant. If they went astray, he went after them. I need not go into it — the story of David is well known [p. 374] to us — but I dwell upon this one feature, that he was chosen of God. He was a servant of God, as he was following the ewes great with young. In his mind there would be great increase; he saw to that, and so it is with those who have grown up with the features of the servant from the outset; that which pleases God — multiplication — is always in view. David followed the ewes great with young, and God took him from that to feed Jacob His people and Israel His inheritance.
In speaking thus of David, the thought before me is looking at the saints according to what they are to God. How do I know what they are to God? I look at Christ as here publicly. He was delightful to God. I think of myself when I was converted, when I received the Spirit — I was delightful to God. I am not speaking of theories; we should be conscious of divine pleasure. Is it too great a thing to say that God intends that every one of us should be to His pleasure? David was to His pleasure. One thing was remarkable about David and that is the comparative shortness of his life. There are many in this room who are older than he was and they are yet fresh, but he is regarded as an old man at seventy. He reigned forty years, which was not extraordinary. In truth, he was like Jesus, the greater David. Think of the immensity that was compressed into that life! The life of Jesus was less than half that of David, but see what there was for God in it! John says that if the many other things which Jesus did were written one by one, “I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written” John 21:25. Think of all that being compressed into His life of thirty-three years! So with David, it was a life that afforded pleasure to God. We have in the book of Chronicles (1 Chronicles 29:30) that the prophet Nathan wrote about him; that Gad the seer wrote about him, and that the prophet Samuel wrote about [p. 375] him. Why should all these great men write about David? For what reason other than to record the things that were pleasing to God? They were worth recording. Prophets do not record what is not worth recording; the seers do not record what is not worth recording. Nathan and Gad saw wonderful things in that man and they wrote them down; they were to be read. Samuel saw wonderful things in him and he wrote them down, and so it is that David presents leadership as pleasing to God; he was chosen.
Is it not a great thought, beloved, to be chosen of God in this way to service? As it says here, “to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance”. David understood the value of the people to God; he understood that they were the inheritance. At Ephesus the elders are more signalised than any others, but the epistle to the Ephesians contemplates the saints as the inheritance of God, “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” Ephesians 1:18. As you see that you would gladly “spend and be utterly spent” (2 Corinthians 12:15) for them. They are for the pleasure of God.
Of David it says, “He fed them according to the integrity of his heart and led them by the skilfulness of his hands”. With David, it is not what God said he should do, it is what he did. He represents the spiritual man. With Moses and Aaron it is a question of what Jehovah said to them, and the people were led by these two men because they obeyed the commandments of the Lord given through them. But with David it is a question of spiritual discernment and wisdom; you know what to do, you know what the saints are to God, you care for them according to the integrity of your heart and guide them by the skilfulness of your hands, that is, you do your very best for them. All that you are is to be devoted to the service and leading of the people of God.