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The northern tribes of Israel had been defeat by the Assyrians and gone into exile because of their persistent and unrelenting sins against God. You would think that this would be a vivid enough warning to get the attention of the people of Judah, but sadly it wasn’t.
King Manasseh sinned and then doubled-down on his sinning. The prophets thundered their warnings, and Manasseh not only kept his sins going but he kept pulling more and more people down into sin with him.
Isaiah pointed to the example of Israel’s sin—
Woe to Samaria the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim [the ten tribes], and to the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome and smitten down with wine! … But even these reel from wine and stagger from strong drink: the priest and the prophet reel from strong drink; they are confused from wine, they stagger and are gone astray through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble when pronouncing judgment. (Isaiah 28:1, 7 AMPC)
Notice the words like reel and stagger, as though intoxicated by alcohol.
A mark of an ungodly leader is one who is so intoxicated by his own power that he makes others drunk too.
Look at this description of Manasseh: “But the people [of Judah] would not listen; and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations did whom the Lord destroyed before the Israelites!” (2 Kings 21:9).
The Hebrew word translated “seduced” is the same Hebrew word that Isaiah used for the staggering and going astray of a drunkard.
This is the power that leaders have for both good and evil. A sober-minded, godly leader can encourage people toward righteousness, but an ungodly leader who is intoxicated by his power seduces people to join him in his unrighteousness. Manasseh was described as “making Judah sin, by doing evil in the sight of the Lord” (v. 16).
Certainly there are people who choose a sinful lifestyle during the tenure of a godly leader, and there are people who steadfastly choose righteousness during the tenure of an ungodly leader. But the Bible issues strong warnings to those leaders who misuse their God-appointed positions of leadership to lead people astray (see Ezekiel 3:17-21, 33:1-9).
Leaders, be on guard that a position of leadership doesn’t seduce you to stray from righteousness. Don’t forget that God chose you for this role, so to Him you will have to stand to give an accounting of your leadership. I pray you can say that you soberly and sincerely pursued righteousness and led your people in that pursuit as well. I want you to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant” and not, “Depart from Me.”
This is part 86 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts in this series by clicking here.
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Craig T. Owens 