Godly Instructions for Leaders

Isaiah 16:5

"And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness."

In the verse above, Israel was under the rule of Moab. God addressed the king of Moab and gave him several options as to how to reign and establish his throne. The most favorable way to rule his throne was to follow God's instruction for establishing the throne. There are several things that God expected of this ruler, and the things God expected of him He expects from every person who leads.

First, God expects the leader to establish his throne in mercy. Years ago, I had a preacher make a statement to me that influenced how I conduct my ministry. He said that when you preach from the pulpit you should make sin sound as ugly as you can. When you preach from the pulpit, you cannot be afraid to call out sin. But, he said when you leave the pulpit be kind and courteous to those to whom you preach and allow the Holy Spirit to convict their hearts. This is what God is saying by establishing the throne in mercy. A leader cannot be going around constantly picking their followers apart. Every leader needs to exercise mercy.

There are leaders who seem to have no mercy which results in an unstable business, church home or ministry. I've heard leaders say, "I'm slow to hire, but quick to fire." This is not a strong way to lead. Where is mercy? How can the follower grow if they perform with the fear that they will be quickly released if they make a mistake? Certainly, the follower needs to know that they can be released, but a good leader will be more apt to teach through failure than release through failure. Followers will fail, and the good leader will be merciful during the failure so they can teach them how to do things right.

Second, God expects the leader to rule by judgment. In other words, a good leader will have definite guidelines. There have to be rules set into place for the followers to follow. Most misunderstandings happen because there were no clear guidelines. Everything has to be black and white or right and wrong. There can be no gray areas, because the gray areas are where misunderstandings happen. A good leader will clearly define their expectations for those whom they lead.

Third, God expects the leader to be knowledgeable in righteousness. The word

"hasting"

means to be skillful. A good leader knows how to do right. In other words, a good leader knows the direction they are going. They are not experimenting with what to do, but they know what to do and they lead their people to do what they know is right. Weak leaders are always experimenting about which way to go. Friend, if something worked before, then do it again. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel and do what you know has worked in the past.These expectations God has for leaders will help any leader to lead their people in the right direction. A leader's job is to grow the follower into a leader. These instructions on leadership will turn out great followers and create a stable environment, but it will also train followers to become leaders themselves.