God commanded Ezekiel to criticize the nation’s leaders while also presenting His standard for leadership excellence.
The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them:
To the shepherds—thus says the Lord God: Woe, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?
You eat the fat; you clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatted calves, but you do not feed the sheep.
You have not strengthened the weak; you have not healed the sick; you have not bound up the injured; you have not brought back the strays; you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them (Ezekiel 34.1-4).
Leaders who exploit their roles of service and power for personal gain are subject to God’s condemnation.
Thus says the Lord God: I am against the shepherds, and I will hold them accountable for my sheep and put a stop to their feeding the sheep; no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves (Ezekiel 34.10).
In Nahum’s prophecy regarding the Assyrians, he highlighted that God’s judgment on the nation would render their leaders ineffective.
Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with no one to gather them. Nahum 3.18
On a different occasion and in a different place, God announced His judgment on Israel, stating that He would transform their leaders into children.
And I will make youths their princes,
and children shall rule over them. Isaiah 3.4
Leaders – A Symptom or Cause
While studying the Prophets and observing current world history, I have wondered whether bad leaders are a symptom of a decaying world or the cause of it.
In “The Atlantic,” David Frumm notes that the current Speaker of the House delivered a powerful speech 100 days after the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas.
“The Republican speaker delivered a heartfelt speech. ‘We must stand together in solidarity with the Jewish people,’ he said.
“‘And we will, from the synagogues in Brooklyn to the country churches of my home in northwest Louisiana, from the Senate to the House—we support Israel, believing that we can overcome the darkness with light.’
Frumm continues, “This weekend, Congress sees another 100-day anniversary go by—this one dating from when President Joe Biden requested $106 billion in emergency defense aid for Israel and Ukraine, as well as additional funding for border enforcement.
“For those 100 days, Congress has refused to act on Biden’s request.”
Republicans have made it clear why they are stalling on helping Ukraine, Israel, and immigration in the United States. They want to score political points in an election year and don’t want to give the current president any room for a victory.
David Frumm didn’t write a one-sided article. While he criticized the inaction of a small group of Republicans, he also gave President Joe Biden and his administration a level of criticism.
Are they sleeping, and behaving like children, or are they self-serving shepherds as described by the prophets? Alternatively, are they simply a symptom of a decaying society?
Using the tree analogy, one might question whether our poor leaders in America and globally are the root of the tree yielding bad fruit, or if they are merely the fruit, influenced by the decaying roots of society.
As Rudy Ross and I have studied the prophets over the past few months, I have concluded that I believe bad leadership is a symptom of internal rot in society. One of the ways God disciplines His disobedient people is by giving them bad leaders.
Below are selected verses from Isaiah 5 that indicate a society’s need for discipline and repentance. This chapter is an analysis of why God gave Israel “children” for leaders.
(1) Symptom: Greed and excessive accumulation of property reveal the pursuit of personal gain that leads to social inequality and the displacement of communities.
Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land! Isaiah 5.8
(2) Symptom: The priority of entertainment and pleasure to the neglect of spiritual and moral knowledge.
Has society at large lost direction, purpose, and well-being? Have we lost the balance and the integration of spiritual or Christ-like values in daily life?
Note especially how the people “do not regard the deeds of the Lord or see the work of his hands!”
Woe to those who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
to be inflamed by wine,
Whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute and wine,
but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord
or see the work of his hands!
Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
and their multitude is parched with thirst. Isaiah 5.11-13
(3) Symptom: They persistently engage in wrongdoing and deceit, as if pulling their sins behind them with strong ropes.
Woe to those who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
who drag sin along as with cart ropes Isaiah 5.18
(4) Symptom: Humans manipulate ethical standards, blurring the lines between right and wrong in society and politics.
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5.20
(5) Symptom: Self-righteousness and overconfidence in one’s own wisdom and abilities.
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and shrewd in their own sight! Isaiah 5.21
(6) Symptom: Injustice in the courts.
Who acquit the guilty for a bribe
and deprive the innocent of their rights! Isaiah 5.23
Don’t Take My Word for It.
What I have written is my belief about world events, but I hope you won’t take my word for it. Please search the scriptures yourself.
Take time to pray. Ask God to reveal to you what He is doing in the world today.
It is very easy to join the crowd and criticize leaders. They deserve some of it, I believe.
However, as we look at the world and the sins of America, the words of Billy Graham are still true: “If God doesn’t judge America, then He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
In the face of the prophet’s declaration of judgment on the nations, what can we do? We need to align our lives with God’s will.
Then, we need to pray that God will grant us repentance and a turning to Him.
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross and I discuss Nahum today on YouTube. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
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