Vol.5, No. 21 – June 7, 2020
Leadership in a Time of Crisis — 2 Chronicles 27:1-9
Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.. –2 Chronicles 27:1
There is a gap – a tantalizing gap – between desire and fulfillment. There is also that same gap between goals and performance.
Psychologists write that usually the difference between success and failure is not so much caused by intelligence, personality, or appearance. It is rather motivation. It is not money; most can be classified as millionaires in terms that include natural ability, talent, opportunity, and possibility. However, many do not amount to anything. They are failures. Whereas many others of mediocre ability and limited opportunity become tremendous successes rather than the afore-mentioned. Why? Motivation. –C. S. Woods
Jotham is the leader of Judah for sixteen years. Jotham can assume the picture of “an oasis in a leadership desert.” He begins well. He keeps stride for the duration, and finishes with honor. He has a secret.
- The infrastructure of his life is the phrase: before the Lord (27:6). The bottom line, the cause to the effect, and the wellspring is exactly the same command given to Abraham. Walk before Me (Genesis 17:1). Literally it is Coram Deo (in the Latin, before the face of God). Under God’s daily gaze, an obedient leader does not crush easily, does not easily find defeat, does not debase, but encourages, quickens, calm, and gladdens others.
- Jotham orders his ways. He sets his heart toward steadfastness, and being established. The ordered life is the established life. He eliminates the negatives of his father, Uzziah. He accentuates the positive through building the gates and walls of Jerusalem, as well as cities in Judah. He erects fortresses and towers upon the wooded hills. Jotham is a doer.
- Jotham is willing to become mighty in the name of the Lord. The outward blessing for an inward motivation is being a mighty person in the face of God. God is not our “big brother.” He is not gazing at us with a sinister gaze, holding secret microphones. He does not curb and curtail the development of those who belong to Him. Submission to God shows in the realization of Jotham’s God-given potential.
How is it going for you, your walk before God?
Life Application
A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Our whole life should be transformed and glorified, such that we should be different men and women; if but we would carefully follow the path we walk as in the face of our Lord and God.
This walk entails choices:
- Understanding our walk is always before the Lord
- Understanding that the current commands are the same as given in history
- Understanding that we are not to crush, defeat or debase
- Understanding that we are to encourage, quicken, calm, and gladden
- Understanding that God intends our lives to be ordered
- Understanding the importance of eliminating the negatives, accentuating the positive
- Understanding the importance of being a doer
- Understanding that outward blessing comes through inward motivation; we think, speak, and do from the heart
- Understanding that submission to God is the realization of God-given potential
- Understanding that God has a plan and a purpose for each created being
So, neither he who plants, nor he who waters, is anything, but only God who gives the growth (1 Corinthians. . . .For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (3:7, 4:7)
O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping Your statutes! –Psalm 119:5
We live in perilous times, in a world in which most choose their leaders at the polls on a selected date. It is not just the one leader we choose; we choose multiple leaders. Most are not leaders at all. They are carriers of their party agenda. They are not leaders, nor are they representatives of the people. They are in place to control people who do not agree with their agenda, their philosophy. What if the people chose their “leaders” on the basis of who walks before the face of God?
What if we evaluated our votes on the basis of what God expects of us, our lives? After all, we are indeed responsible for who is in office.
Leadership in a time of crisis is always available—if we would but ask our Almighty God!
