Great Leadership Starts with Us
Yael Eckstein | February 24, 2023
But the Israelites said to the LORD, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer. —Judges 10:15-16
This month marks the fourth anniversary of the passing of my father, Fellowship Founder Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. In his honor, I offer you a selection of devotions on the spiritual importance of legacy and leadership.
Over these past few tumultuous years, one subject that comes up in conversation everywhere I go is leadership. People everywhere are yearning for great leadership to emerge. Of course, alongside this yearning is an ever-present media culture that highlights every flaw of every potential leader. Many people have almost given up hope that we will ever have great leadership again.
One thing we must never forget, even as we continue to pray for righteous leadership, is that whether a given leader will be successful has less to do with the quality of the leader than it has to do with the spiritual state of the people who are being led.
We see this lesson clearly in the Bible in the story of Jephtah in the Book of Judges. The story begins by telling us that Jephtah was born from an illegitimate relationship and was exiled by his half-brothers, becoming the leader of a gang of outcasts from society.
When Israel fell to the Philistines, the elders came to Jephthah to ask for his help. Jephthah reluctantly agreed and then triumphed over Israel’s enemies, becoming the ruler of Israel. Then the story ends with Jephtah making the tragic and controversial decision to sacrifice his own daughter due to an ill-advised oath.
Great Leadership Starts with Us
It might look as though Israel’s fate rested in the hands of this very flawed leader, but if we read carefully, we see that Jephtah was not the reason that Israel triumphed over the Philistines.
In Judges 10, the chapter before Jephtah’s story begins, we read that the reason Israel was subjugated to the Philistines was that the Israelites had turned to idolatry (vv. 6-7). But then, Israel repented: “But the Israelites said to the LORD, ‘We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.’ Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.”
Once they repented, their salvation was a sure thing. Perhaps God’s choice of Jephtah was meant to teach us the lesson that it’s not the credentials of the leader that matter. When the people merit it, salvation will come — even through a leader with glaring flaws. We merit successful leadership when we, the people, are in right standing with God.
Great leadership starts with us.
Your Turn:
Don’t lose faith if you don’t see great leaders on the horizon. Remember that God will provide the leadership we need, if only we turn our hearts back to Him.