The Feast of Tabernacles is a high-level international governmental summit, far more important than a G-8 or United Nations conference. We attend in an official capacity as rulers in training for top positions in the government that is about to assume control of the world.
God’s people are king-priests—so God says in Revelation 1:6.
We are unlike the kings and leaders of this world—important individuals with specialized knowledge in government, diplomacy, jurisprudence, economics and military matters. The collective efforts of all those people with impressive credentials have not solved the towering problems of this world.
We are being trained for a different type of government—a perfect government. To build His Kingdom, God isn’t calling the governors and presidents and kings of this world—those with great experience in planning cities or in running nations. He plans to build a new civilization from the ground up. To do that, He is raising up a new type of world leader!
What qualities are the world leaders of tomorrow expected to develop?
Qualities of Christian Leadership
Notice this proverb about godly leadership: “Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy” (Proverbs 20:28). The word mercy in the New King James Version is translated lovingkindness; it can mean good deeds or kindnesses. Truth refers to trustworthiness. The Living Bible renders this verse, “If a king is kind, honest, and fair, his kingdom stands secure.”
Do you suppose many individuals in government have been trained in being kind to others? Trained in loving kindness? If you asked 100 world leaders the most important qualities contributing to the longevity of a kingdom, how many would answer honesty and loving kindness?
As leaders for God, you’ve embarked on a training program quite different from any leader in the world.
Other leadership qualities God considers important can be ascertained by examining the scriptural instruction on ordaining ministers. God looks for men who are “blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly” (Titus 1:6). In other words, God’s leaders are family men—they place great importance on family relationships. The best leaders are also the best sons, brothers, husbands and fathers.
What is your family life like? Is it happy, uplifting and positive? Is it a good example of teamwork? Is it preparing you for leadership in God’s Kingdom? Consider: The sermons we hear on family relations are instruction on being a king-priest for God! God’s Church provides the education to solve family problems and to make family function beautifully. If we are applying it, the results will be evident in our homes.
Notice how different this list of leadership qualifications is from what the world would consider most important. Paul focuses above all on the character of the man: “For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre” (verse 7). Blameless means unaccused, or, by implication, irreproachable. A godly leader cannot be someone with zero credibility because of his glaring faults.
Now study verse 8: ‘But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate.” You see, the job of a Christian leader revolves around people! All the leadership qualities God emphasizes revolve around people. A leader for God must be a lover of hospitality. He must love having people around and extending kindnesses to people. He must be a lover of good men.
How much do you love people? To be leaders in God’s Kingdom, we must become “people people.” This is a Kingdom of God quality.
A Family Feast
Consider how much this lesson is embedded within the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast pictures the Millennium. Is it a private little vacation where we go off by ourselves? Far from it: The whole spiritual Family comes together at the Feast!
“And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates …. [T]hou shalt surely rejoice” (Deuteronomy 16:14-15).
Verse 14 in the Living Bible reads, “This will be a happy time of rejoicing together with your family and servants. And don’t forget to include the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows of your town.” Not many of us have servants. But imagine if you did! God says bring the whole family—servants too! No one is to be excluded from the Feast. Everyone rejoices together.
Don’t forget to include the Levites, or those in the ministry. The ministers don’t spend the Feast off by themselves. We get right into the activities and rub shoulders with the rest of the Family.
Don’t forget the foreigners. At the Feast we often meet people from other countries. Go out of your way to spend time with them. They’re part of the Family too.
Don’t forget the widows and fatherless. These are people who don’t have family with them. Let’s include them in our plans. Make sure no one is neglected.
Matthew Henry’s commentary states about this passage, “It is the will of God that his people should be a cheerful people …. When we rejoice in God ourselves, we should do what we can to assist others also to rejoice in Him, by comforting the mourners and supplying the necessitous, that even the stranger, the fatherless and the widow may rejoice with us.”
God wants to demonstrate the grandeur of life in His Family. So He uproots us all from our normal lives around the world, draws us together and requires us to spend eight days together. He challenges us to break out of our comfort zones and expand our peer groups. We have the opportunity to spend time with brethren from different parts of the country, different parts of the world; of different ages, different races, different backgrounds, different personalities—yet all of one spirit.
Truly, at the Feast we congregate together and spend time in close quarters—with people!
What are we picturing by doing so?
We’re picturing a whole world living together in harmony, under God, for eternity!
God’s whole plan revolves around people. As God’s future leaders, that means our jobs will revolve around people. That is what being a part of God’s king-priesthood is about. We must love people. We must love to be around people—love to fellowship with people—love to help people and serve people and get to know people.
We can’t remain socially backward recluses and hermits. We must develop our people skills. A leader for God cannot be a recluse. He must enjoy people—because people are what God’s plan is all about!
God is creating a Family out of people!
What God’s Love Is
Jesus Christ was asked which commandment was the greatest. He responded, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). That is how Christ summed up God’s way of life: essentially, love God and love people.
Herbert W. Armstrong defined love as “an unselfish, outgoing concern for the good and welfare of the one loved. Love is primarily on the giving, serving, sharing side of the fence …. True love combines the rational aspect of outgoing concern—desire to help, serve, give or share—along with sincere concerned affectionate feeling” (The Missing Dimension in Sex). Godly love means having an outgoing concern and an unselfish, genuine interest in people.
The Bible says about godly love, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). In other words, if I am the greatest speaker in the world but don’t have an unselfish, outgoing concern for people, my speaking skills are worthless. Is being a minister or a king-priest just about giving great sermons? Paul says that without love, big talk is just noise.
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (verses 2-3). If I do all these “loving” things but don’t have, from deep within, a God-inspired, unselfish, outgoing concern for people, I’m nothing!
If we don’t like dealing with people, we’ll never be a leader for God. We’ll never make much of a contribution in God’s Kingdom!
Christ Was a People Person
Jesus Christ traveled all over Galilee and was very much around people. Throughout His ministry, He gave and gave and gave. He was around people almost constantly—people who were asking things of Him.
Mark 6 shows one occasion when Christ and His disciples were so busy that they hadn’t had time to eat! Yet when Christ began to lead the disciples to a private place to rest, a mass of people followed.
Christ could have said, Enough! We just need some space! Instead, He was moved with compassion because they were “as sheep not having a shepherd” (verse 34).
So what did He do? “[H]e began to teach them many things.” What an attitude! Christ was a genuine people person!
Then something else happened. After spending all day with the people, Christ’s disciples suggested He send them away to get something to eat, because they were getting hungry—seemingly a reasonable idea. But what did Christ do? He told His disciples—almost certainly to their exasperation—“Give ye them to eat” (verse 37). Christ then miraculously fed that great multitude with a few loaves and fishes.
What a powerful lesson for them—and us.
A People God
God created people as a means of expanding His Family. When we talk about people, we’re talking about family. Our physical families are only a type—an analogy. The reality is God’s Family.
And God wants to invite every member of the human race into that Family.
In Galatians 6:9-10, Paul gives us an idea of what that transcendent truth means for us: “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”
That’s a tall order! God wants us to do good unto all men—all people—all potential members of His future Family! It truly takes a people person to follow this instruction.
Barnes’ commentary states about this verse, “This is the true rule about doing good. ‘The opportunity to do good,’ said Cotton Mather, ‘imposes the obligation to do it.’ The simple rule is, that we are favored with the opportunity, and that we have the power. It is not that we are to do it when it is convenient; or when it will advance the interest of a party; or when it may contribute to our fame; the rule is, that we are to do it when we have the opportunity. No matter how often that occurs; no matter how many objects of benevolence are presented—the more the better; no matter how much self-denial it may cost us; no matter how little fame we may get by it; still, if we have the opportunity to do good, we are to do it, and should be thankful for the privilege.”
Paul says we should be especially willing to go out of our way for those in “the household of faith,” or those in God’s Church. Household in the Greek connotes an intimate, blood relationship. In the Church, we are part of God’s Family of faith.
It makes sense that God’s leaders would have to be strong family men. Being a family man requires selflessness. You have to love being around your family. There are times you may not want to—you may want a break—but for the good of the family, you must discipline your emotions and direct your energies away from self and toward them.
We need to think the same way toward the people in the Church.
That is, after all, how God thinks about the whole world! Are there times God gets disappointed, even angry, because of people’s failings? Of course there are. But He remains positive because He is committed. He is committed to His Family.
God is a people God! After all, the Father and Son are dealing with Christ’s Bride-to-be—and all their future children!
God’s plan is a people plan—turning people into God. God loves people! And to be leaders in God’s future world-ruling government, we must love people. We’re going to be working with them intensively for at least the next 1,100 years!
Let’s become people people, so we can be better king-priests for our loving Father God.