Insights on the Journey

Americans hate that word “submit.” By its very nature it seems to indicate defeat. In the new fighting craze (names like Mixed Martial Arts, Ultimate Fighting, and so on), a match can end before the final bell without a knock-out if one fighter submits. They keep a statistic on defeats by submission. Many women cringe at the thought of submitting to their husbands.

It just sounds wrong.

Besides, what if your leader is a jerk? What if you think he or she is getting too high and mighty?

Today I was reading Numbers 16 and got an idea of God’s thoughts on the subject. Remember that the Levites were specifically set apart for God’s work. They were the only ones allowed to transport the tabernacle. They represented the firstborn of all other tribes, and were the “sacrifice” to God from every family–the ones presented as holy to God. So in verse 3 a few of them united against Moses and Aaron and said, “You have gone too far! The whole community of Israel has been set apart by the Lord , and he is with all of us. What right do you have to act as though you are greater than the rest of the Lord ‘s people?”

In our churches, this is much like an associate pastor or someone else in leadership rebelling against the senior pastor. The rest of the chapter goes on to describe how God demonstrated who was the leader and what he thought of their rebellion; the world’s first earthquake opened up the ground in such a miraculous way as to swallow up all of the rebels and their families without harming anyone else.

This should get your attention.

So how did the rest of the Israelites react after seeing God at work? Verse 41 says the very next morning the whole community of Israel began muttering again against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord ‘s people!”

This is like the members of a church getting angry with the senior leadership for relieving someone else of their responsibilities because of disagreement. God responded by bringing a plague on the people that killed 14,700 of them in the time it took Aaron to load a censer and purify the people from their sin.

Am I saying that the senior leadership of a church is always right? No, certainly not. But before you rebel against them you had better make sure it’s a legitimate sin issue, and not just your own desire for more power, authority, or glory. Examine yourself and your motives thoroughly and prayerfully.

No one is beyond submission. The most senior of leaders had better be thoroughly submissive to God. Failure to do so is the only real justification for a rebellion.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 2:53 pm and is filed under leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.