Guest Blogger – Audra Rheaume

I am blessed with a beautiful wife that loves Jesus, loves our kids, loves worship and is an excellent writer.  God placed some stuff on her heart and I thought it would make a great blog post…so here it is.  Leadership thoughts from Audra.

Lessons on Leadership from the book of Judges

Judges chapters 6&7

Gideon’s story doesn’t make sense – at least to someone who hasn’t read it before. So many times when we read familiar stories, we overlook details. We forget to ask why. We are blind to the context and unwritten elements.

There are many truths in his story that we can live by – God knows who we are even before we do, God can be trusted, He is patient with our doubt, and on and on. However, I’d like to focus on an untold portion of the story. Allow me to set the stage…

Gideon has rallied an army of 32,000 men to fight the Midianites who had been heavily oppressing the people of Israel for 7 years. God tells him he has too many men, so those who are afraid are allowed to return home. Twenty-two thousand leave. The result? An army of 10,000 unafraid to fight! God says there are still too many for Him to receive credit for the victory, so He has Gideon take them to a river to drink a little water. Those who kneel to the water are sent home, those who drink from their hands get to stay. This slims the crowd down to 300.

Here is where I want to pause. God’s purpose in creating this tiny army was to intentionally make the situation impossible. That way the people would know that any victory won was only because God was with Gideon and his men. He wanted all of the credit.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of a man who was cut in Round 2. Imagine what was going through his mind… Gideon called men together to fight. You came. It was the right thing to do, to stand up for your people, your family, your homeland. When Gideon told those who were afraid that they may return home, you stayed. It was the right thing to do! Too much was at stake for you quit just because you might be afraid. You believed in your leader and you stood by him, ready to fight for him. He took you to the river with the other men and proceeded to “dismiss” you based on the way you drank your water. Wait – the way you drank your water!? Listen, you can almost hear it…

“You’ve got to be kidding. You’re sending me home?? But I want to fight! I am ready! I stood by you when those other men left you! I stayed!! I can’t believe this! And all because of the way I drank water!? I didn’t do anything wrong! Why do I have to go? You know, you’re setting yourself up to fail. You are making a terrible decision. There’s no way you can win now!”

And there wasn’t, if God had not been with Gideon. That was the point.

Have you ever felt this way about your leader/boss/supervisor/pastor? Gideon had a difficult job to do. It was hard enough believing what God was telling him (remember the fleece?). Letting people go is not easy. Letting them go when they don’t trust what you are doing is even harder. The men didn’t necessarily know that Gideon was following God’s orders. He must have appeared to be a fool.

Have you been “dismissed” in some way? Relieved of some responsibility? Removed from a position of leadership? Not allowed to participate in some activity that you feel you are most qualified to do? Do you feel you should be allowed to do this thing because of your record, your history with the organization? Remember, folks – it’s not always about you! Those men that were sent home did not do anything wrong! They were not poor fighters. They had not offended Gideon. He had not lost faith in them. And they were not lesser men because they had been cut. The picture was much larger than individual people. God had chosen this as an opportunity to display his might! Stop taking everything personally and find out which role is meant for you to fill in your situation. Work for the good of the whole. Trust that God’s ways are higher than yours.

If you are serving under a Christian leader, you must allow that even when his/her decisions don’t make sense, even when they seem to be a set-up for sure failure, there is a possibility that your leader is doing what they think is right. God has placed that person (not you) in that position of leadership. It is their job to listen for His voice and execute commands. It may or may not be explained to you, but it is your responsibility to follow. Make it a pleasure for them to lead you.

Hebrews 13:17 – Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.