Spiritual leadership in the Body of the Messiah is vitally important within the wider community of New Covenant believers, especially in light of the widespread spiritual deception being perpetrated within the Body of the Messiah by Satan and those who are being used by him (Matthew 7:15) (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). As New Covenant believers in the Messiah our Lord Jesus we are at war with Satan and his cohorts from Hades (Ephesians 6:10-18). In a war the snipers always go for the officers because if they can take them out then the army will be in disarray and unable to function properly.
When the Israelites were about to enter the promised land they were told by the Lord through his servant Moses that it was vitally important to choose the right kind of king they would need to oversee the Israelite congregation once they were living in the land because of a blood covenant God cut with Abraham concerning the Land of Canaan, which today is the land of Israel. God gave His covenant people many laws and commandments which were for their own protection and for their spiritual welfare and for Him to be able to meet their physical needs in every way possible.
In Deuteronomy 17:14-20 we see the qualities that the Lord required of a king. These qualities can be viewed from a spiritual perspective and in light of this we can see what God requires of any leader or shepherd over His people. Let’s now look at this…
Firstly; God’s people were to choose a king that God had chosen for them only from the Israelite community.
(Vs.14-15) “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.
In the time of the judges when the people of Israel demanded to have a king as the other nations had, they faced Samuel with this request to give them a king. Samuel told them that the Lord was their king but they insisted on having a king like the other nations. Samuel went to the Lord and the Lord said to him that the people had rejected Him as their king. So God gave them King Saul who was by human reckoning, “an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites-a head taller than any of the others.” Saul had all the outward qualities of a leader just like the kings of the other nations but Saul inwardly did not have solid spiritual underpinnings and after he had been anointed King rejected the Word of the Lord three times and was ultimately removed by the Lord. God also knew where Saul would ultimately lead the people, not to victory over their enemies, but to certain defeat which is what happened as Samuel prophesied would happen (1 Samuel 8:4-22).
Now the Lord had His own man in King David and intended to give Israel a king to lead the nation but it would have to be on God’s terms. While King David was not perfect or necessarily the ‘type’ of leader the people would have chosen, David was God’s man deep down on the inside and had proven God’s power in the ordinary affairs of his daily life shepherding sheep and all facets and responsibilities that came with this work. God used the ordinary things in David’s daily life to train and equip him to be a spiritual shepherd King over God’s people. David learnt to have spiritual victories and fight lions and bears with his faith in God and overcame all of the problems that faced the sheep and the shepherd (1 Samuel 17:34-37).
Extraordinary leaders in God’s work are for the most part trained in the ordinary affairs of everyday life. Moses was trained this way for 40 years. When God told Samuel to find the king He had appointed he said to His prophet; “Do not consider his appearance or his height…The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
Now in the New Testament we are told that it was the Lord Jesus who decided the leadership gifts needed to equip the global assembly of New Covenant believers for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:714). Both the leadership gifts and the other gifts of the Spirit are given by the sovereign will of the Holy Spirit and not by man (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). Added to this, a leader within the local Assembly of New Covenant believers must be one who has been spiritually reborn and received the Gift of the Holy Spirit and called and gifted for the ministry. Sadly, there are many ’ministers’ ordained by men who are unsaved today in the ministry.
Secondly; God’s people were to choose a king who would seek God first for both spiritual and temporal things they would need to serve the Lord effectively and not look to Egypt for support.
(Vs. 16) “Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’”
Egypt in scripture metaphorically can be applied to the world. The Kings of Israel were not to get horses from Egypt as this was seen by the Lord as relying upon the protection and resources of the world and their way of doing things, and that without God. Today many leaders in the western churches are adopting man structured, man ordained programmes for Church growth based on secular marketing strategies re-packaged in Christian wrapping and not based solely on the Word of God. It is akin to the Kings of Israel getting horses from Egypt. A good question to ask any local assembly regarding a potential leader is “Do you want one who has a theological degree or one who knows and can use the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit as skilfully as a mechanic uses a wrench?”
Now Academic ability and theological qualifications have their place in leadership as we see with the Apostle Paul but as for the other Apostles they were all working men, trained personally by the Lord Jesus, a working man Himself, in the everyday affairs of life and to deal with people of every walk of life. After they had been filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost they were able to use the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit to see souls saved and saints sanctified! When you look at the Book of Acts we see God’s blueprint for evangelism and discipleship. We also notice that the New Covenant believers were constantly led by the Holy Spirit in the choices they made (Acts 8:29) (Acts 13:1-3) (Acts 15:28).
Thirdly; God’s people were to choose a king who was “a one woman man” and not greedy for money.
(Vs 17) “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.”
Now King Solomon was God’s choice and greatly gifted with wisdom to rule over Israel but his love for many woman included marrying pagan wives who led him astray and into idolatry (1 Kings 11:4). He also brought horses from Egypt which metaphorically showed his spiritual decline in relying totally upon the Lord for all of his spiritual and temporal needs as a king and that of the people God had entrusted to him as their king. When you compare Joseph he had only one wife even though at that time kings took multiple wives and concubines. It has been often said to leaders starting out in their ministry for the Lord “watch out for the girls, the gold and the glory!” In the New Testament we are told that an elder (the same word used for a shepherd, a pastor, an overseer or a bishop) in the local assembly must be the husband of but one wife (1 Timothy 3:2). In other words he is to be “a one woman man” and the language in the Greek conveys this idea. In other words he is to watch his life and his doctrine especially in relation to the way he approaches other women in the local assembly over which he has oversight. He is to be above reproach in this matter.
Today we see just the opposite happening in many churches where the leaders are dressed trendily, and have personalities that they develop that actually attracts women to them which they find boosts their egos if the truth be known. Scripture warns about these kinds of leaders which are a very conspicuous mark in the wider Body of the Messiah today especially among the hyper faith prosperity preachers who are not only enamoured by women but are also given to pride and to greed for money (2 Peter 2: 14-18). They have a form of godliness but deny the power of that godliness to rule their lives and are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions, who are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 3:5-7).
These it would seem are unsaved or apostate church leaders enslaved to the passions and lusts of the flesh and who in reality feed only their sinful passions and desires, an accursed brood they are called in the New Testament. As the apostle Peter writes; “They are blots and blemishes, reviling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!” (2 Peter 2:13b-14).
Fourthly; God’s people were to choose a king who sought to obey and to teach only the Word of God and who was living not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).
(Vs18-20) “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.”
When Joshua was about to take over the leadership of the Israelite assembly from Moses God said to Joshua; “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success” (Joshua 1:8). Someone once said something like this that “a Bible falling apart is a mark of a person who isn’t.” Joshua was Moses General and from the outset of his ministry was told by the Lord through Moses that the secret of success in ministry was to meditate day and night continuously upon the Word of God.
Assembly leaders are to be servants of the Word of God and have no licence to change it, to modify it, to add to it, to take away from it or to only focus on certain parts of it while neglecting the “weightier matters of the Torah” so as not to offend others. This is a trend that has not only been a conspicuous feature of past Church history but is very conspicuous today within wider Christendom which is a subject in itself but not the purpose of this post. To meditate on the Word is to chew over the Word as a cow chews over and over on the cud. This is the way for all New Covenant believers in the Body of the Messiah, but more so for those leaders charged by God with the ministry of the Word combined with prayer (Acts 6:3-4). One can be busy at his work but be meditating on the word of God within his spirit as he works. To be a servant of the Word of God is to be a servant of the Lord Jesus who is Himself the Living and Eternal Word of God (John 1:1-2).
The Kings of Israel were to write down the Word of God on papyrus and to read it every day so that he might rule over their countrymen and women well, and in doing this to humbly serve God’s people and not lord it over them, a spiritual mandate endorsed in the New Testament. As the apostle Peter wrote to his fellow shepherds, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away” (1 Peter 5:2-4).
When a leader is in submission to the Word of God and completely open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in his life, he will learn to reverence the Lord as the Holy Spirit infuses the engrafted word progressively deeper into his spirit that will continue to save his soul and empower him to shepherd the flock under his care (James 1:21).
To sum up: Unless a man is called and gifted by the Holy Spirit to be an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist or as a pastor and teacher ordained by the Holy Spirit to prepare God’s people for works of service, he should stay out of the ministry. Sadly, there are many graduating out of theological colleges in these days who may be academically qualified and have a great deal of knowledge about the Bible and are able to make all of the right noises in all of the right places and even have persuasive personalities and the approval of man, but do not have the power of the Holy Spirit resting on their service for the Lord. It does need to be said that some are called to the ministry but have never received the power of the Holy Spirit for that ministry and find a lack of spiritual power in their preaching and teaching, however, it is their privilege to know this enabling and to experience the power of Pentecost! (Luke 24:48-49) (Acts 1:4-8) (Acts 2:4, 39) (Acts 4: 8)
To desire to be an overseer or shepherd having spiritual oversight is a good and commendable thing in God’s sight but one has to be first and foremost a servant of the Word of God, seeking to obey it in his daily life, to be called by the Lord to the work of the ministry, to be recognised by the local assembly as called and gifted for the work, and to be anointed and sent out by the Holy Spirit for that field of service to which God has called him (Acts 13:7-5).
