Jeremiah 38:1-28

Leadership is essential to the well-being of any nation or group of people.  Part of the reason Judah has fallen into their current mess is a lack of leadership that is clearly on display in this chapter on the part of King Zedekiah.  Leaders are supposed to set direction with confidence and then call others to fall in step with that direction.  Zedekiah is living in the midst of crisis as are his people but he does not seem to know in which direction to turn or what to do.  There are four attributes he displays that every leader must thrive to avoid.

PASSIVITY: Zedekiah is approached by a group of angry and assertive men who believe Jeremiah is being a detriment to the nation so they go to the Zedekiah to ask for permission to kill him.  Jeremiah has been Zedekiah’s adviser for years but instead of defending Jeremiah or condemning Jeremiah Zedekiah takes a passive approach as simply says that he cannot stop them from doing whatever they want to do.  The men end up taking Jeremiah and lowering him into a muddy cistern where there is no food or water and their intention is to just let him starve to death.  Leaders must accept responsibility for making decisions and not just standing by and letting others do as they please in hopes of escaping blame.

REACTIONARY: When one of Zedekiah’s other servants hears what has happened he goes and informs the king and pleads with him to give him authorization to take Jeremiah out of the cistern.  The king grants the authorization and Jeremiah is pulled out of the cistern with the help of many men.  This is simply a reactionary response to what is happening around him.  He gives in to whatever the people around him request even when they are contradicting one another.  Leaders take action so they don’t have to be reactionary and swayed by the people they are supposed to be leading.

INDECISIVE: Zedekiah is being told buy one group of advisors to stay and defend the city and be victorious.  Jeremiah is telling Zedekiah that his only hope of survival is to surrender along with the people of Jerusalem.  Naturally being victorious would be the preferred choice for any king; but God has made it very clear that Jerusalem is going to burn and all who stay to defend it will but killed by the sword, famine and disease.  There are two clear options that are very distinct from one another.  He seems frozen in time and cannot make a decision one way or the other.  Leaders must be able to make the hard choices in life because the lives of many people depend on them.  The pressure cannot freeze us.  We must be able to set direction and make decisions.

FEARFUL OF MEN: One of the biggest reasons Zedekiah cannot make a decision is because of his fear of men.  He knows that Jeremiah is God’s prophet and he knows that what he has said will come true.  However, he is not willing to follow Jeremiah’s counsel because he is afraid of looking like a coward and the response of the people who disagree with him.  Leaders often think that they must be popular, but it is far better to be right than popular because wrong decisions will always lead to criticism and rejection.  Right decisions may be unpopular at first but one they are proven to be right the popularity will eventually come.  The lives of thousands of people rest in the balance of Zedekiah’s decision and he is worried about his ratings in the polls.  Leaders must have the courage to go against the flow of popular opinion.