Leadership Lessons
Gleaned from
II Chronicles
Since this commentary on II Chronicles is about finding the solutions of leading an organization to keep that organization growing and maintaining the blessings of God, this is the most important chapter!
Learn these lessons about what to do and what not to do to be a successful leader. Also work on your character eliminating the awful tendencies and incorporating the beneficial traits that will lead you to be successful personally. After all, what will it matter if you are a successful leader professionally and your personal life falls apart!
Most of this book will tell the individual stories of these good kings and tyrants with a few other observations mixed in.
The theme of II Chronicles, when approaching it from a leadership lessons aspect, is how to lead when things are going well.
The blessing of God causes growth. As a family, church, organization, school, or nation grows, good leadership is required to maintain God’s blessing. With growth comes problems. A leader needs to concentrate his skills in these areas. These areas are repeated often in II Chronicles. Please learn these lessons as God blesses your life and when He puts you in charge.
Organize by delegating
This is taught in Exodus and Numbers as you examine the “Pastor” of the largest church in the Bible - Moses. Gather followers and turn them into leaders. Don’t run people away that disagree with you. If they are a personal enemy, use Jesus’ way to turn them into friends (See Matthew 5:44 and Luke 6:27). Either you change or change them. In Exodus 18, Moses’ father-in-law noticed his problem of doing too much and suggested a way to organize the congregation better. God later in Numbers changes and refines the qualifications of these helpers to make the job easier to handle. Learn from Moses’ mistakes and gather spirit filled, able men, to help as things grow. It is a mistake to make all of the decisions!
Have at least two. (see God’s ideal team). Organize the leaders into either two or three. Moses had Joshua. Once he had Aaron and Hur. It is important for an organization have one head, but a wise head will gather followers that can be turned into leaders. Aaron made a mess of things when he was put in charge. The Bible doesn’t tell us what happened to Hur. Joshua turned out to be a great leader and led the people into the land and helped them conquer it. Having good counsellors, not just “yes” men, is extremely important for a leader.
Anger must be controlled
Moses made a great mistake that cost him his place in the promised land because just one time he lost his temper! Anger is a part of leadership. It is important to get mad about things. It is more important to control and focus anger into action. Never let your anger take over. Temperance is the Bible word for controlling your emotions. Temperance is a fruit of the Spirit. It is listed last because it is probably the hardest to maintain. It comes after meekness. It is interesting that Moses was called the meekest man. Meekness is not weakness. It takes a strong, spiritual person to be able to control anger. Jesus is the example of meekness. His ability to control and focus His anger is exemplary.
Fight God’s battles
Fight God’s battles, stay out of battles not yours! I have found that if you fight God’s battles at His direction, God will fight your battles and will give you direction and victory. This applies to personal problems as well as ministerial and leadership challenges!
Build and train
The successful kings learned this lesson. Use the calmness to prepare for the next crisis. There will always be future problems. Learn from what went wrong during the crisis and do something different if you failed and do the same things if you succeeded. Building has to do with the physical things that will strengthen the organization. Training has to do with the spiritual condition of the people. Leaders need training. So do every member of the organization. Training has to do with people making better decisions, not just during the crisis, but moment by moment during the calmness!
People are always coming and going. When you get some trained, they will move on to successful endeavors somewhere else. Keep training the next generation so that the blessings continue after you have passed off the scene!
Repair and Restore
The calmness is not a time for relaxing. It is a time for rebuilding! It is also a time to reflect on the successes and failures of the last crisis. This is fixing the good things that were broken to make them better. It is also continuing the good things so that others will benefit from the victories!
Prepare for war
The battle rages on. As God blesses, others get envious of the success. There will always be an enemy that is trying to destroy what God is doing. Many of the good kings of Judah made the mistake of thinking the peace will last. It must be maintained and the way to keep peace is to be prepared to do battle!
Seek God
Probably the most import thing a leader needs to do is to seek God and what He wants done. A good leader can exist outside of God’s direction for a time but will eventually make major mistakes and have an ultimate failure. King Solomon is the example of a king that used his own wisdom instead of God’s wisdom. His mistake of leaving and unheeding God is the main reason the Kingdom of Israel eventually failed!
Don’t use the mistaken leadership decisions of others as an excuse to make the same stupid mistakes. You don’t live at the same time as those you follow. Don’t mistake their character flaws as strengths. You must learn from not only their successes, but also their failures!
Don’t make the major mistake of good leaders. Past decisions and victories are good training but a exceptional leader is constantly seeking God and following His leadership!
