What limitations may be holding you back as a leader? (91-1)
As we prepare to leave the examples of King Saul’s leadership behind and move on to David and other leaders in 2 Samuel, it seems it may be wise to do one last comparison of the differences in leadership between Israel’s first and second king. Read 2 Samuel 5:1-4.
From the studies of previous weeks the following are some similarities of Saul and David:
- Both were anointed king of Israel by God.
- Both men started with great potential to become successful kings of Israel.
- Both men were gifted soldiers and had loyal troops.
- Both received council from godly men i.e. Samuel.
- Both faced great military challenges from the surrounding nations.
- Both men had great failures they were called to account for.
- Both men had an opportunity to repent of their actions and return to a servant heart before God.
Some of the areas in Saul’s life that limited his leadership:
- Saul began his reign with fear hiding among the equipment. All through his time as king, fear motivated his decisions.
- Saul didn’t honor lines of authority and was impatient and refused to wait for Samuel to arrive to make an offering for the people. Saul pushed forward with an illegal offering.
- Saul was arrogant and self-centered and denied his own culpability even after Samuel confronted him for a bold faced lie when he disobeyed God’s orders.
- Saul was impulsive and made a foolish oath that almost cost him the life of his son Jonathan.
- Saul was deceitful when he offered his daughter Michal to David, hoping that David would die in battle trying to meet the criteria Saul had established to win her hand.
- Saul harbored jealousy and became depressed when people compared him to David after David had defeated Goliath.
- Saul had an anger problem and actually threw his spear at David trying to kill him and even worse, if that is possible, he threw his spear at his own son in a fit of anger trying to kill him.
David also had some areas that could have easily limited his potential as a leader:
- David’s family put him down several times. His father did not believe David had the potential Samuel was looking for in a king so did not call him in from the field. David’s brothers put him down when David asked questions concerning Goliath and the reward the king was offering to the man who killed Goliath. His nephew Joab openly challenged David’s judgment when David made an alliance with Abner, leader of Saul’s army.
- The leaders over David did not make his life or transition to the throne easy. Saul repeatedly tried to kill David and had spies all over the nation who were willing to turn David over to him at every opportunity.
- David did not come from an aristocratic background. He came from a family of shepherds, people who worked everyday to make a living from the land. His father lived in an obscure village and did not have a royal lineage or powerful position and David wasn’t the oldest son.
- David was just a boy when anointed king. He had no experience in leading anything but sheep. He was underestimated by everyone from Goliath to his own brothers. Some even verbalized the lack of respect for him.
- David had priority problems that put him in a terrible position when raising his sons and when he stayed behind from the army and found himself involved with another man’s wife.
David did not become a great leader because he lacked limitations and Saul’s leadership didn’t fail strictly based on his limitations. Also, when both men received the title of king and became the undisputed leader, their limitations and issues didn’t disappear. Effective leaders are not without limitations, it is how they handle them and their attitude toward them that allows them to become effective.
One other item about these men’s leadership potential, did you notice that Saul’s issues were more character based and David’s limiting issues were more circumstance based? Like Saul, when David’s issue was character based he had major failures. In the process of becoming a great, God-blessed leader, character issues are more debilitating than circumstances.
Have you ever evaluated what limitations may be holding you back from becoming the effective leader God designed you to be? How are you dealing with both the circumstantial and character issues that are limiting your leadership effectiveness?
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