Micah 3:11 If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people
Leaders are readers, or so we have been told. Is that true? I think generally that is true, but the bigger point is that leaders are people who have themselves been influenced. Leaders are people who know things and they know things from a perspective. They have a passion and conviction about something.
If you look at presidents of the United States, oftentimes you can look at particular books that were very influential in the way they led. In other words, they were being led as they came into office where they led. If you want to understand Barack Obama, you should read Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals because, as I understand it, he was greatly influenced by that book. If you want to understand Ronald Reagan, you go to a book he read as a kid called That Printer of Udell’s. The bottom line is knowing what is animating the people who are leading.
Good leaders may be readers, but good leaders are good followers. More specifically, good leaders are followers of good leaders. You find this in Micah 3 as God is speaking through His prophet to His wayward people. You find that good leaders are good followers. There are two questions you might ask yourself when considering what kind of leader you are. By the way, everyone is influencing and leading someone.
The first question is, “Who is speaking?” Micah 3:1 says, “And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob.” Then he addresses specifically the princes and prophets, the leaders, of the people. This is the second “hear” in Micah. The first one is found in Micah 1:2, “Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the LORD GOD be witness against you, the LORD from his holy temple.” Who is speaking? No good shepherd will lead with lies. That was the problem with God’s people. They were being led by people who were lying to them, misleading them, leading them astray.
Micah 2:11 says, “If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.” Here is a prophet who says, “Everything is good. Eat, drink, tomorrow we die. Just have a good time.” Those were lies. They were gaining from the people who heard their message; they were lying to the people who were hurt by their message; and they were leading with lies. In consequence, in Micah 3:4 and 7 God says, “I will not hear.”
Maybe you are called upon to do a Bible study or give a word at a prayer breakfast or some such thing, and think, “What am I going to say?” The authority comes from what God has already said. So, who is speaking today? Is it your selfish ambition? Or are you speaking the truth that God has already given you? I Peter 4:11, speaking of difficult days and how God’s people are to pull together and be hospitable, God says He has gifted each of us for the benefit of all. “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.” In other words, if you want to know what to say, you have a whole Bible sitting in your lap. Don’t try to be creative or come up with your own psychology. Just see what God has said, understand it, and translate to that to the people who hear you. So, who is speaking? Is it you and your ambition or God and His authority?
The second question is, “Who animates and gives life to what you are doing?” Micah 3:11 says, “The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.” These people were cheating their countrymen and prophesying falsely. False nothings always seem to lead the liars to gain. In verses 3 and 5 you find they were like cannibals. They were devouring God’s people by telling them lies.
In contrast, Micah was a true prophet. In Micah 3:8 he says, “But truly I am full of the power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and Israel his sin.” It was not a pleasant message, but it was God’s message for their good.
So, who animates you? You may be charismatic, have a gift, be full of energy, vitality, and great words, but if God is not animating your life, you are not the kind of leader God wants. Good leaders are good followers. They speak what God says. They do what God animates them to do. You have a contrast here between leaders speaking for their own profit and gain and God’s prophet speaking for God.
When you get to chapter 4, Micah begins by saying, “But in the last days.” He talks about the days to come, perhaps the millennium. How did Micah know so many things that are far in the future? It is because in verses 7 and 13 he says that the Lord reigns over the whole earth. When that God gives me the power that I lack and the words that I do not know, then I am a good leader, not because of what I am innately or intrinsically, but because I am leaning upon the God who gives me all that I need. Good leaders may be readers, but good leaders are always followers of good leaders; they are good followers of God.
Today, whom are you following and how are you leading?