Are you paying attention to how God, the ultimate leader, leads? (115-1)

The simple definition of a leader is a person who has influence. Most of us will have influence in our family, our workplace and maybe, if God decides we can be trusted, we may be given some degree of greater influence up to national leadership like the President or world leadership such as Billy Graham. By contrast, God is the only influencer of the universe. Read Ezra 1:2.

The Jewish people would not turn from idol worship, a violation of their covenant with the one true God, and as a result, God withdrew His protection. The Babylonian army captured Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and carried most of the people into captivity in Babylon. The Babylonians were ultimately defeated by the Persian army and the exiled Jews were now under the rule of Cyrus the Persian king. The book of Ezra picks up near the end of their 70-year exile when God is about to move in the hearts of national leaders and allow his people to return to the land of Judah.

It seems impossible, from our limited understanding of influence, to believe that any king who had finally harnessed the creativity and business prowess of the Jewish people to make the king’s land prosper would allow them to leave and go back to self-rule and worship of a God that was totally against their own deities. God, the ultimate leader of the universe, made it look easy by simply using life experiences of some leaders i.e. Cyrus King of Persia to shape their core values and thus direct their actions.

Cyrus’ ultimate goal was to protect his homeland, the core of his captured territory. Cyrus believed his best line of defense for Persia was to have people, who were indebted to him, living on the kingdom’s borders. By allowing the Jews to return to their land and rebuild their temple and by supporting that effort with his authority and resources, he would have allies on his border that would serve as a buffer to delay and deplete opposing armies that might move to conquer Persia.

Using a leadership principle that He created, namely inner beliefs drive outward actions, God motivated Cyrus to allow His people to return to Judah.

God is the ultimate model of leadership. He directs the events of history in a way that His plan will be completed. God had the leader with the needed core values in the right position at the right time for the job that had to be done. Effective leaders pay attention to how God leads.