(Hebrews 13:7, 17)
Leaders among the people of God can have a very marked influence for good or ill, as has been evinced in the Scriptures. Moses was outstanding in his day and generation, leading God’s people according to God’s will; and suffering long under numerous and gross provocations. Joshua who succeeded Moses, to lead the people into the land of promise, was also a faithful leader, and successful in the task given to him by Jehovah because of his dependence upon Him. It is true that these leaders were men of like passions with us, and had their failures; but in spite of failures their leadership was marked by devotion to God and to His people.
In the days of the Kings of Israel, the kings were the leaders. David was outstanding in his devotion and fidelity; Solomon starting well, and finishing very badly; his weakness and idolatry being the cause of the division of the kingdom. Among the succeeding kings of Judah there were some faithful, and some unfaithful; the infidelity and idolatry that marked the unfaithful, both of Judah and of Israel, leading to their expulsion from the land into which God in His goodness had brought them.
It may be that the writer to the Hebrews had the apostles specially in mind when he wrote, “Remember your leaders”; but they may not have been exclusively in his mind. At any rate, the leaders of whom he wrote bore the features that God desires in all who in any way take the lead among His people; and it is well for us, even in this day of ruin and failure in the church, to understand what God would have in those who, even in a feeble way, and in a day of brokenness, seek to help the saints of God.
“Who have spoken unto you the word of God.” In speaking to God’s people His word, the leaders recognised their duty in presenting for simple obedience the will of God. Leaders who desired to lead God’s people astray, or to make them followers of their own selves rather than disciples of Christ, might speak their own words, or words that perverted God’s word; but true leaders speak what God has spoken, and present God as the source of all their communications.
The leaders of Israel, when the Lord was upon earth, did not answer to God’s mind according to this Scripture, for they, by their traditional teaching, set aside the word of God. Moreover, when the Son of God came, speaking only the things He had received from His Father they rejected Him and His words. The traditions of the elders bound their hearers to themselves; the reception of God’s word would have brought them into divine liberty.
Alas! the condition of things in Christendom today is little different from that in Judaism when the Lord was here. The traditions, or teachings of men are still substituted for the word of God. Religious philosophy and political opinions are often ministered in place of God’s word; and all kinds of subjects relating to the world and its things are preached by men who take the place of leaders in the professing church. Many of these leaders deny the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, and undermine the foundation truths of Christianity. Such belong to the same moral generation of whom the Lord said, “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Matt. 15:14).
“Whose faith follow.” The leaders commended by the writer to the Hebrews were men of faith. Their manner of life was affected by the object upon which their eye and heart was set. In the previous Chapter, the exhortation had been given, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith;” and many features of faith had been shown in the great cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 11. All these Old Testament worthies were men of faith; but Jesus is the perfect example for us, and the object for our faith. The leaders of the Hebrews, like the great cloud of witnesses, were men whose faith could be followed.
It is possible to be very correct in doctrine, but defective in faith; but these leaders were not so; theirs was a living faith that others could take account of. How very distressing it is to see men who profess to be leaders in the church without real faith in God and His Christ! Even if they exhort those who listen to them to live the Christian life, the life that is in their minds must be a life without a living faith in the Son of God. How different from the great apostle to the Gentiles who could say, “I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). This was the faith that marked the true leaders: they lived with their eyes on the Son of God in heaven; believing that He had died for their sins upon the cross.
“Considering the end of their conversation.” The manner of life of the true leaders evinced their faith in Christ, for the object of their pious lives was to please the Christ in whom they believed. In their measure, according to the grace given to them, they sought to express in their lives the teaching of God’s word that they brought to others. This was seen in its perfection in Jesus. When the Jews asked Him, “Who art thou?” Jesus answered them, “Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning” (John 8:25). His life was the perfect expression of His teaching; there was not the slightest disparity between what He said and what He did. If He asked His disciples to “Love one another,” He could add, “As I have loved you.” He never asked His own to do anything but what He Himself was the perfect example.
The Hebrews leaders could not attain to the perfection found in their Master, but the measure in which they followed Him is here commended. To Timothy, Paul wrote, “Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith…” (2 Tim. 3:10); his manner of life was consistent with his teaching, and with his purpose was affected and coloured by his faith. Paul not only ministered the truth, but in his life manifested the truth, even as he wrote to the Corinthians, “But by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor. 4:2).
Such a manner of life does not engage souls with the leader who is faithful, but leads them to “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.” In their teaching, by their faith, and so that they might be engaged with Him, the unchanging One; their hearts resting in all that He is in His greatness and glory, in all His moral perfections, in the acceptance of His accomplished redemption, in the place that He now fills in the presence of God, and in all that shall soon be His in the world to come.
“They watch for your souls.” True leaders are not only to be remembered, they are to be obeyed. They are not pressing their own claims, but the claims of God; so that obedience to them would be obedience to the word of God which they faithfully ministered. The submission enjoined is not to the will of man, but to the will of God. It is not only the good of the saints that dictates their words and actions; they know the day is coming when they must give an account of all they have done and said to their Master.
A true leader is not looking for what he can get out of his service, but rather for the spiritual prosperity of those the Lord has put under his care. Sometimes there is joy in seeing the saints walking in the path of God’s will through communion with Christ; but sometimes there is grief when self-will in the saints refuses the will of God, and brings distress and sorrow among the people of God. Whether in joy or in grief, the true leader must act for God, edifying the saints by the rod of God, and correcting whatever is inconsistent with it.
So often the people of God have been led astray by leaders who did not have their welfare at heart, and who had not the faith and manner of life consistent with God’s word. How good it was for Israel, and for the church, when the leaders were men of God. In the Song of Deborah, one translation reads, “For that leaders led in Israel, for that the people willingly offered themselves, Bless Jehovah!” (Judges 5:2). The leaders were faithful to their charge; and in answer the people willingly offered themselves to carry out the will of God. There must be fidelity in the leaders, and willingness to do God’s will in God’s people, if there is to be spiritual prosperity among them.
R. 25.10.63