When leaders stop learning their leadership becomes less effective. Read Zechariah 1:2-6.

Like Haggai, his older contemporary, Zechariah was a post exilic prophet who led the people from 520-480 B.C. Zechariah gave the people many visions but he had only one priority and that was for the people to finish the temple. Concerned about the exiles’ apathetic response to finishing the temple, Zechariah shared his visions to encourage the people in their rebuilding project and give them hope in a future King and His eternal kingdom.

Being an effective leader requires careful thought that leads to wisdom. Read Haggai 2:10-19.

The Hebrews that returned from exile in Babylon with the mission to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem were struggling in their day-to-day life to have success with their crops. Three times in today’s Scripture Haggai recommends the leaders give careful thought to their situation. When they stopped construction on the temple and focused on their own needs they were lacking in both food and wine. When they stopped giving careful thought to God’s priorities they forfeited the wisdom they needed to find God’s blessing.

Each generation of leaders must help the next generation understand that no matter how much power they accumulate they are still accountable to the One True God. Read Nahum 1:1-10.

Just a little more than a century before Nahum’s prophecies, Jonah had taken God’s demand for repentance to the Assyrian capitol of Nineveh. The king and all the leaders had responded immediately by humbling themselves before God and God spared them from destruction. That generation failed to leave any legacy of humility or repentance and the nation returned to the wicked treatment of people that first brought God’s wrath. Unfortunately, children and grandchildren cannot inherit spiritual life so the attitude of repentance was not automatically passed on to the next generation of leaders.

Good leaders build organizations that learn from the past so they don’t make the same mistakes in the present or future. Read Jeremiah 26:1-19.

God sent Jeremiah to prophecy in the temple so the priests, prophets and all the people who came to worship could hear His judgment against the temple, Jerusalem and Judah. The prophecy was that if the leaders and people did not change their evil ways, God would make the city an object of cursing among all the nations.

Wise leaders learn from both positive and negative stimulus. The leader who errs and then punishes the one that points out their error commits a double fault. Read Jeremiah 18:18.

Jeremiah delivered a harsh message from God. He told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to repent, change their ways, and return to God or the Lord would empower Babylon to capture Jerusalem, pillage the home of the king and the temple, create great hardship during the siege of the city, kill many during he assault and take the rest of the people into captivity to Babylon to serve as slaves. The people of Judah were in great danger because they were living in disobedience to God. Their response was not to learn from Jeremiah but to attack the one leader who had enough concern and courage to tell them the truth.