Wise leaders keep a position of humility as they steward God’s resources that have been entrusted to them. Read Hosea 14:1-9.

The leaders of Israel lacked humility because they had forgotten the true source of their prosperity. God assigns leaders to be in charge but wise leaders remember that God remains in control. Hosea’s recommendation for the people of Israel was that they “return to the Lord. Say to him: ‘Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in You the fatherless find compassion.’” The people of Israel needed to admit that the One True God was the source of their prosperity and protection not the Assyrian army or the hand-crafted gods. Hosea wanted the people to know they were stewards of their prosperity not the creator of it.

God-honoring leadership requires humility and a clear understanding that it is God who promotes one and demotes another. Read Hosea 11:1-4 and 12:1-9.

Through the prophet Hosea, God reminded the people in ancient Israel that He was responsible for their prosperity. He reminded them that He is the one who raises one up and tears another down. The foolishness of the people of Israel is clearly stated in 11:3 when it says, “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.” The height of human arrogance is to assume they are responsible for their own success when all human history shows God protected, cared for, and prospered them.

God-honoring leadership requires basic integrity or it will not be sustained. Read Hosea 5 focusing on verse 10.

Through Hosea God was pronouncing judgment on the people in the Northern Kingdom. In chapter five, He focused on the failure of the leaders in their assignment to live a positive example of integrity before the people. In verse 10, God condemns the leaders of the tribe of Judah for emulating the actions of the Northern Kingdom by moving the boundary stones. Boundary stones were legal markers placed generations earlier to identify property lines for each family’s God-given plot of land. These defined boundaries were not to be moved because they helped protect the inheritance of widows and orphans when something happened to the head of the family.

God often requires leaders to reconcile difficult relationships. Read Hosea 2:1- 3:3.

Hosea’s leadership task, assigned to him by God, was to predict the Northern Kingdom’s exile and later restoration. In order to illustrate God’s message that He loved Israel, an unfaithful, covenant breaking people, Hosea was asked to marry a prostitute. Hosea obeyed God’s command and married Gomer only to have his heart broken when Gomer proved unfaithful and eventually left him. Later, Hosea was asked to seek out Gomer, an emotionally broken, financially destitute, unhappy person and forgive her and restore their marriage relationship. Hosea’s love for Gomer was meant to be a picture of God’s love for an unfaithful people.

Leaders are stewards of God’s resources including power and influence. Read Daniel 4:34-37.

God had used the king of Babylon and his armies to bring judgment on several nations including Judah. God gave the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar so much power and authority that he was known as the most powerful man in the world. When Nebuchadnezzar determined in his heart that he had generated his power from his own wisdom and strength, God humbled him with seven years of insanity where he lost all power and influence; he went from living in a palace that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World to being homeless and even ate grass with the animals. When Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself and acknowledged that God was the sovereign of the universe and his source of power and influence, God restored him to his position of authority.