Have spiritual leaders failed you? Have you been hurt by Christians you trusted? Have you been the victim of corruption or abuse at the hands of people who claimed to serve (or even speak for) God? How should we handle such situations? What do we do when there is corruption in the church or among our spiritual leaders?
If you follow the news, it seems that a big-name Christian leader falls into scandal or disgrace almost every week. And these are just the ones that make the news.
There are thousands of people – dare I say, hundreds of thousands? more? – who are the victims of corrupt, abusive, or hypocritical Christian leaders. Many more have suffered from dysfunctional, toxic churches.
The problem is epidemic. And yet, as we will see, it’s nothing new.
A little over a thousand years before Christ, the elders of Israel confronted an elderly man who had been serving as God’s prophet and judge over the land. They were ready for a change.
We read about this confrontation in I Samuel 8:
And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.
I Samuel 8:1-6, KJV
“Give us a king,” the elders of Israel demanded. And thus ended the period of the judges — the theocratic system of government that God had ordained for the children of Israel since the time of Moses.
This is a story of course that many of you have heard before–especially if you’ve grown up in church. And typically, it focuses on the people’s sinful and tragic rejection of God. Indeed, this is the lesson emphasized in I Samuel 8:
And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.
I Samuel 8:7-9
Yet when one reads I Samuel 8, the people don’t seem to be explicitly rejecting God, nor are they engaged in any kind of violent resistance toward Samuel (or his corrupt sons). I mean, they are at least coming to Samuel with their request (okay, demand). This shows they recognize him as the judge over Israel. And presumably as God’s prophet.
So is God misinterpreting their motives or overreacting when He says the people have rejected Him?
No.
God is not misinterpreting the people of Israel and He’s definitely not overreacting. In fact, God is being very gracious and kind to both the people of Israel and their representatives (the elders).
The Jewish people are God’s chosen people, and the Israelites had a special covenant relationship with their God. That covenant relationship extended to matters of state. In ancient Israel, there was no separation of church and state. Everyone in Israel – at every level – was expected to follow God and obey His Law.
When the people of Israel came into and (partially) occupied the Promised Land, they had no king because they were set apart by God. They were to be different. God provided for them according to His will and usually based on their faith and obedience. This would include God calling prophets and raising up leaders (judges) as needed.
That was God’s system.
The other nations of the world had a different, more traditional system: monarchy.
In ca. 1050 B.C. (or B.C.E. for the politically correct), the people of Israel wanted to jettison God’s system and adopt the same system the other nations of the world had. They wanted a king.
Even though judges functioned, in some respects, as a king, they were different because they were raised up by God for specific times of need. Otherwise, Israel functioned as a loose confederation of tribes led by elders and spiritually overseen by priests (all of the tribe of Levi)–and guided periodically by prophets.
A monarchy would remove God’s direct role in calling up leaders. Instead, a generational lineage would rule. It would be a permanent, ongoing institution that would hold absolute civil, legal, and military authority over the entire land of Israel.
While no human being is capable of thwarting the sovereignty of God, or of preventing His providential intervention, the fact remains that what the people of Israel were demanding in I Samuel 8 was to do things their way and not God’s way.
They were done with God’s system.
So, yes, they were quite emphatically rejecting God.
But why?
They were doing so because they believed God’s chosen leaders had failed them.
Let that sink in.
The trigger to the confrontation in I Samuel 8 was Samuel’s sons being corrupt. When Samuel put Joel and Abiah over Beersheba (and most likely the surrounding region), and then those sons became corrupt, the people lost faith in God’s system.
So it is today. So it is happening all around today.
The more church leaders become corrupt, the more Christian leaders hurt others, the more people are losing faith in God’s institutions–including (today) His church. When God’s representatives no longer walk in God’s ways, the people have a hard time appreciating (or even seeing) God’s ways.
So… what do we do?
First, the church (and, by that, I mean the overall Christian community) needs to clean house and hold itself accountable. We have to do a better job of picking our leaders and holding our leaders accountable.
We desperately need more leaders of integrity and character in the Christian world today.
And second, when Christian leaders do fail you, when they do hurt you, it’s crucial you keep your focus on the Lord. As the psalmist says:
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
Psalm 118:8-9, KJV
People will let you down. People will hurt you. And you will hurt others. Yes, there are degrees of hurt and pain. And sometimes, the hurt is quite grievous. But we must not let people hurting us cause us to think that God is hurting us.
We must not let the pain of this world cause us to turn away from the God who created this world.
The Bible warns us there are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” And the church has a responsibility to police its ranks and protect the Lord’s sheep. But we sheep have a responsibility too.
We must always listen for our Good Shepherd — our Perfect Shepherd — who lays down His life for His sheep.
God bless you.
