The Sulky Leader

 

     We all have had not so great leaders in our lives, whether it is church, school, work, club, or in government.  We don't have to imagine what it is like to be under someone we wish would just disappear.  There are the bad leaders, but then you add in the sulky character and it becomes almost like a joke.  How can a leader ever be respected when they act like a child.  

    There is a difference between transparency and showing emotion and being sulky.  We get to see that in Ahab and Elijah.  Elijah was transparent.  He felt things deeply and they affected him, but he always persevered.  He always tried to honor and serve God.  Ahab was a selfish spoiled man-child.  He never grew up.  He never knew what it meant to take responsibility for his actions.  He expected the world to do his biding with out question.  

    King Ahab decided he wanted Naboth's vineyard to make it his personal vegetable garden since it was beside his palace.  This was Naboth's livelihood.  It was his land which he had inherited.  Of course he did not want to sell, let alone just give it away, not even to his king.  This made King Ahab angry and resentful, so he went home to sulked.  he refused to eat to get attention and it worked with Jezebel.

    His wife Jezebel was an evil woman, but I am sure that she found his mood swings exhausting.  I believe that it was only a political marriage and no love loss between them.  They were allied for their needs, but that was it.  To make him a more pleasant companion, she contacted the people for a feast.  She was always the real leader in that union.

    She arranged the feast to implicated Naboth in cursing God.  A very serious crime.  It led to him being stoned to death when all he really did was not give up what was rightfully his to the king.

    King Ahab immediately took Naboth's land like a victor.  Elijah heard what happened and went to confront King Ahab on God's behalf.  He apparently was the only person not too afraid to cross the royal couple.  King Ahab had already been cursed, now he was cursed to a horrible death and his whole family would be literally consumed.  

    He had devoted his life to evil and the consequences were deaths that I would not wish upon anyone. This got the kings attention and he humbled himself, so God held back the disaster on his family until he was dead.  

1 Kings 21