… but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel. – 2 Chronicles 17:4

Today's Scripture Reading (January 5, 2023): 2 Chronicles 17

In Jim Collins's book "Good to Great," Jim Collins tried to find the underlying policies that allowed or prevented companies from making the leap from being good to great. Collins discovered that very few companies could make that leap. And his original instructions were that his researchers were to ignore the leaders of a company. After all, Collins surmised that any company could go out and hire a charismatic leader to bring effective change to the organization. But his researchers kept coming back into his office with the news that there was something different about the leaders of these good-to-great companies. They weren't some of the dominant leaders that we might have expected. No Lee Iacoccas nor Donald Trumps were leading these companies. The leaders of these companies were strange animals. They were men who were more comfortable eating a bag lunch with the workers rather than they were eating in the executive cafeteria. Collins wanted to call them "Servant Leaders," but somehow, that sounded weak. So, he settled on "Level Five Leader;" these leaders were an odd mix of personal humility and professional determinism.

There is always a temptation to look at what someone else is doing and think that maybe we should do the same things. Business Church growth experts tell us that we can be successful if we will do certain things. And Collins's study agreed with that idea to a certain extent, but it also saw a real difference in who the leaders were of these companies. The CEOs who led these companies could be found using their vacation day to get out and work on the family farm, and many of them donated significant time to their churches or other non-profits. These people were different.

Asa had been a good King for Judah, but he didn't finish well. Jehoshaphat would follow in his father's footsteps. He wasn't concerned about what other countries were doing. He had no desire to follow in the footsteps of Israel or any other nation. He wanted to follow the dictates of the God of Abraham, as his father had tried to do. Jehoshaphat also seemed to understand that Israel was a threat in more than one way. He was a threat militarily, and as a response, Jehoshaphat strengthened the northern cities. But Israel was also a threat spiritually to Judah. The Kings of Israel were laying an evil foundation for the nation. And Jehoshaphat refused to allow the spiritual depravity of his cousins to affect his people. And so, he began to set up the guard rails that would keep his nation from following the path of the Kingdom of Israel. Maybe Jehoshaphat understood what we sometimes miss: that a successful country or company often depends on a different kind of leader, one who is unabashedly willing to follow God. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 17