1 Samuel 8 and 12 bring us something vital about leadership. These chapters help us see two kinds of leaders (or indeed parents, teachers, managers) that we can be.
It’s so relevant in a world that doesn’t know what leadership is, and indeed (at least looking at British politics) seems no longer to produce real leaders. This applies in other areas too. We have a crisis in teaching, because (quoting an Open University lecturer) teachers are told they shouldn’t see themselves as instructors with knowledge to give, because that implies unequal power relations – it’s like being a boss or dictator. And that attitude makes discipline illegitimate – but without the ability to discipline, teaching (or parenting) becomes impossible. The Bible makes clear that discipline is part of a healthy relationship; that adults have a God-given calling to serve children precisely by leading, instructing, and disciplining; not however as bosses or dictators, not treating the kids as playthings or tools; servant leadership, not dictator leadership.
Another example: Genesis 1 says we’re called to rule over the earth. Ah, say some people, that’s just what’s been wrong with our attitude to the environment. No: we’re called to responsible, active care, farming wisely, fishing wisely, using the earth’s resources wisely. If not – if instead we exploit and abuse the earth – there will be disaster. Again, two types of leadership. The biblical doctrine of headship in the family, with all that that embodies of caring, serving, sheltering, is another (very very different) example.
So: 1 Samuel 8 shows us Israel making the disastrous transition from judges (servant-leaders) to (too often) dominating kings. It’s a key moment. Israel decide they want a king – so as (8:5,20) to be just like the pagan nations around them. And we’ll see what a disaster this is: Saul and David both end up badly, Solomon even worse. If there is to be a king, we realise, only one person will do, and that’s Messiah.
What marks godly leadership is that it’s about serving, rather than dominating and using those we lead for our own interests. This is Samuel’s repeated point in 8:9-17: `The king who will reign over you… will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots…He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants`; and so on. It’s also Jesus’ point in Mark 10: ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them… Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve!` (Matthew 23:5-11 is also very striking.) Unlike secular leadership, Jesus is saying, spiritual greatness is to serve. Loving servant leadership is giving rather than taking, rather than feeding off those we lead and feeding our own needs for power and status. Management guru Peter Drucker says the manager’s task is to uncover God’s glory in those we manage. The issue for the leader is who you can bless by caring for them, equipping them, and empowering them. Indeed only the Spirit-trained servant is really fit for leadership, and God sometimes takes us through a servant-training so that we are ready to be leaders; humbling us so we can be exalted (Matt 23:12).
Elitism is a big issue here. Judges like Gideon, Jephthah or Samuel were not from some kind of elite: they were ordinary, often raised up out of nowhere. So there’s an issue here of faith in God’s giftings; in our context a fundamental awareness (here it starts to be so relevant to church life) that church should not be just an audience for a few elite specialists, because God walks with each of us and equips each one of us. Other nations had a king-system; there was a special elite, they ran things and it was their problem. But that was not what God wanted. God wanted a whole `kingdom of priests` walking with Him (Ex 19), and He might gift any one to be His deliverer at a particular time; rather than everything being centralised on one human king. Now this isn’t easy. They had had a king, Samuel reminds them in 12:12, `The Lord was your King` – but He was unseen. So they had to trust God to raise up the next judge or deliverer, and it could be any one; God might pick anyone out of anywhere. (And He had, 12:8-11.)
So this needed faith. Without top-down leadership control it could go wrong, and in the judges era, it did. Admittedly, and crucially, the nation as a whole didn’t then have God’s Spirit as we do, and that’s the key lesson there, a lesson so typical of the old testament: the system God wants will only work if we’re indwelt by His Spirit. But it’s like what Paul did, appointing young local believers as elders in the churches he started around the Mediterranean, rather than importing elite elders from Jerusalem; the result was that a percentage of the churches were off the rails at any one time, Galatia and Corinth for example; but the consequence was also remarkable growth. (Incidentally, this is why in IFES we’ve always fostered student leadership in CUs.) It’s always easier if there’s an elite who run everything for you, and the other way, trusting God’s gifts in everybody, is riskier; but it’s God’s way, and it’s fruitful. But doing things this way, God’s way, depends on each of us having a close walk with God. Otherwise things can go astray.
And that perhaps is why the Israelites wanted a king like the other nations (8:5, 20). And indeed in time the Church made the same mistake, going for a secular-style system of centralised control. The new testament church was marked by freedom and flexibility, faith in God who gives His gifts to all people (1 Cor 12:7, Eph 4:7); and there were snags, but Paul swam with them, taught biblical truth and so set them right. A century later, however, the church lost its nerve and copied the secular imperial model, setting up bishops to control things; and then setting up a supreme bishop in a Roman palace to control the bishops. Of course this didn’t solve the problem; the bishops and the supreme bishop became the problem and led the church astray. We need faith: faith that God knows what’s best. God gives gifts to all His people and raises up the unexpected, and if we’re leaders we must be looking out for those gifts from God and fostering them. (The leader’s job is to `prepare God’s people for works of service`, to mobilise other people’s gifts, Eph 4:12; even if temporarily it would work better to do it all ourselves!) Remembering, too, that those whose gifts we foster may turn out more gifted than us! But that’s also a key part of leadership; multiplying gift, working ourselves out of a job, passing on all we know to people who will maybe do it better than us, while we can go and do something elsewhere for God; and so His kingdom grows….
At the same time, let’s note, there’s still genuine and very clear authority here, and a responsibility, for the servant-leader, to teach what is right and wrong. This is not a wishy-washy kind of leadership where anyone can do (and believe) whatever they like. Jesus was the ultimate servant leader, but He led clearly and taught very clearly. Samuel is the same; alongside his heart of loving servanthood he preaches very clearly, preaches truth. So the leader is a servant, not a dominator, yet there is genuine spiritual authority. And the art of leadership – for us as parents, managers, teachers, youth leaders – is to learn the skill of interweaving the two. It’s not easy, but we can hold God’s picture in our minds, and pray for the Spirit to help us grow closer to it. The servant-leader must be a person of prayer. As Samuel says (12:23), it would indeed be a sin not to pray for those we lead and care for.
Most of us will be called to be leaders somehow at some time or other. And we can be the kind who serve, or the kind who dominate. Let’s trust the God who gives His gifts to everyone, and lead in the light of that; giving, equipping, fostering gift, empowering, rather than taking and always controlling. And yes, we must still teach truth, we still exercise authority; but let’s hold firmly to the servant heart as we do so, rather than dominating; praying and trusting God to look after the consequences. We will grow as people, and as leaders, as we grow like Jesus the Servant King who washed His disciples’ filthy feet in John 13.
PS It’s fascinating how Samuel copes with this disastrous change – what you do when your heart is breaking over what people you care for are doing: he prays (8:6), he repeats it all before the Lord (8:21). We also watch with amazement and worship how God respects the people’s freewill; even though their choice is explicitly to ignore His warnings – warnings that came all too true in Solomon’s reign. God loves us, God gives us freedom, God sometimes lets us have what we want, even though He sees what the results will be. Lord – please save me from getting what I want when what I want is wrong…
