The Responsibility of a Leader (1 Kings 12:28–32)

So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one. He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
—1 Kings 12:28–32

The reason I read 1 Kings 12:28–32 is because they are a sober reminder that the first responsibility of a leader among God’s people is to lead the people to worship God alone. That is the first responsibility. It’s the first commandment: to worship God alone. And when it comes to this commandment and this responsibility, Jeroboam here—and Rehoboam, for that matter—utterly fail.

The king sets up calves of gold and leads the people of God to worship these calves instead of God, and to worship in ways that God has not prescribed, in places that God has not prescribed. And so I want you to think about your life. Specifically, think about any leadership or influence you have in others’ lives in any different role or position. The first responsibility of a leader in a church is to lead people to love God and to worship God alone.

But this is also the first responsibility of a dad in a home or a husband in marriage—and, obviously, that includes a wife or a mom in a home. When it comes to leadership in children’s lives, this is your first responsibility. It’s more important than putting food on the table or providing for their safety or security in this world. More important than anything else in this world is leading them to worship God alone.

When we think about other positions of responsibility or influence that God may put us in—maybe even just in an informal way in relationships with others—to what extent do you have influence and leadership in others’ lives? And your responsibility, more than anything else in that position of influence and leadership in their lives, is to exalt God alone and, to the extent that you are able, to lead those around you to worship God alone.

So, God, we pray for each other in this. God, I pray for every single person listening right now with any level of influence or leadership in others’ lives. We all, for the most part, have some kind of level, even if it’s just in the context of friendships. But, God, in families, in your church, may the fruit of our lives be pointing people around us to worship you alone.

God, we pray that you help us to lead our homes in such a way that you receive worship above all; that false gods and idols in this world—whether it’s money, sports, sex, success, fame, or whatever it might be—God, we pray that you help us to lead our homes in such a way that you receive exaltation by those in our homes above all. God, we pray for that in your church. We pray for leaders in your church.

Even as I pray for my own leadership in the church: God, help us to lead in such a way that you are worshiped alone, that you would remove all idolatry from our churches. God, that you would use our lives to point other people to your supremacy above all. Please, please, please, oh God, use us to lead others to worship you. Use us to share the gospel with others today, this week, that they might worship you.

A Prayer for the Nuristani People of Afghanistan

God, we pray that you would hear our prayers right now, and that the Nuristani people of Afghanistan would come to worship you. God, help us to live every moment to spread the worship of your name through our lives, through our leadership positions, right around us and far from us in the world, that your name might be hallowed in all the earth through us. In Jesus’ name we pray, according to 1 Kings 12:28–32. Amen.