You wouldn’t think you would see a leadership bestselling book titled Leadership Lessons from King Ahaz. Everything about the legacy of King Ahaz in 2 Chronicles 28 speaks of paganism, failure, and covenant unfaithfulness. Yet, when we see what King Ahaz did we will see that we often find ourselves following in his ways.
From church leadership to Christians being in any leadership positions, we must learn from the negative example that we see with King Ahaz. 2 Chronicles is a book that is all about good kings and bad kings. It is the record of God’s covenant faithfulness to David despite the covenant unfaithfulness of His people.
Even though the Southern tribes of Judah had several good kings they eventually fell full-scale into godless leadership which resulted in exile. When Judah had godly kings they flourished. But, when they had ungodly kings they floundered.
Ungodly Leadership
What does a bad leader look like?
Don’t do what is right in the LORD’s eyes (28:2).
If you want to be a bad leader, forsake the LORD. Forsake His covenants. Flee to other idolatries. Don’t learn from godly leaders of the past. Think that you don’t need to listen to good lessons from the past because you know everything. Follow your own heart rather than the heart of God.
Seek to win the world by the world’s ways.
Ahaz didn’t merely forsake the LORD. He sought to adopt the religions and ways of the surrounding nations. He built images to Baal (28:2), he practiced child sacrifice (28:3), he sought for help from godless nations (28:16), he went from one set of idols to another (28:22-23). He did these things “according to the abominations of the nations”. In other words, if you want to be a bad leader adopt the ways of the world rather than the ways of Scripture. If you want to be a bad leader you don’t have to totally abandon Christianity. You can try to tack on “Christian” to any of the world’s ideologies (but you don’t have to really abide by a Christian worldview). Rather than truly interacting with, giving appropriate pushback, and speaking the truth in love, if you want to be a bad leader then all you have to do is functionally adopt the strategies of the world rather than of Scripture.
Don’t respond to the God’s fatherly discipline.
Instead of totally wiping Ahaz and Judah out, the LORD sent Syria and Israel to defeat Judah. But, this was not annihilation. Instead of responding like the Ninevites in the book of Jonah, he sought the help of Assyria (28:16). Instead of confessing his sins and repenting, he turned to other idolatries (28:22-23). Godly leaders are not leaders who never sin and mess up. They are those who confess and repent. They respond to being humbled. If you want to be a bad leader then don’t respond whenever godly men and women wisely and graciously rebuke you.
Godly Leadership
What would be the lessons we could learn from Ahaz’s tragic leadership? Here are a couple:
Seek the LORD above all.
Don’t commit “chronological snobbery”. Don’t think that you only find wisdom in today’s age or even merely the past 100 years. Seek godly wisdom from across the ages. God’s truth is always true for every era and every people.
Stay faithful to God’s ways…even when it’s most difficult. You might even have apparent failure. This is not because there is something wrong with God’s ways. God, in His strange providence, can sometimes allow us to go through seasons like this to test our faithfulness. We must stay tethered to God’s ways despite cultural temptations, demands from other Christians, and trending tactics. This does not mean we have nothing to learn from God’s common grace. Godly leadership does not put its head in the sand. But, godly leaders have God’s Word as the sufficient standard. God’s Word is what should be sought most. God’s Word should be what is consulted most. God’s Word should be what is studied most. God’s ways are sufficient for reaching the world. We don’t need to adopt the world’s ways. We need to be faithful to God’s ways.
Repent of idolatry. Idolatry is anything we functionally treat as God instead of treating God as God (Rom. 1). It is elevating the creature above the Creator. All idolatry is taking good things and making them ultimate things. Eventually, this turns into warping and perverting God’s creation. And this can result in taking good things and twisting them into evil things. All idolatry must be seen, confessed, and repented of. This takes being in godly community. We cannot live in our own bubble. We must surround ourselves with Scripture-saturated & Gospel-centered men and women who will bring us back to God’s Word.
Treat God’s Word as sufficient. Nothing rivals the Bible. We must be biblical, creedal, and confessional (and in that order). Even if there might be insights we can find elsewhere, nothing rivals the insights of the Bible. Yet, the Bible is more than insights! It is timeless and eternal truth. It is truth that changes us (Rom. 1:16-17). Other insights might be interesting but they lack the power to transform our souls. God’s Word does what it says. In our day, we must get back to the sufficiency of Scripture for counseling, ethics, sanctification, unity amidst diversity, leadership, and the image of God.