God's Leadership in the Old Testament: A Loving Manager

Part 1: The Many Warnings of Zedekiah

Part 2: Humanity's Disobedience

What many individuals do not understand is that God was practicing the art of progressive discipline in management thousands of years before text books ever described the process. The act of progressive discipline as outlined by Heathfield (2014) is as follows: counseling or oral warning, verbal warning in employee’s file, suspension, and termination. Fallon and McConnell (2014) further add that documentation is key throughout the whole process to ensure a successful and legal process of discipline.

God used every one of those steps to correct His people as Israel worked their way toward termination (Babylonian Captivity). He provided oral warnings in the form of oral commandments from prophets like Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, Jeremiah and many others.

And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. -2 Chronicles 36:15-16

Then, God provided verbal warnings to be placed in Israel’s employee record, namely the Law outlined in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the Law: for I had not known lust, except the Law had said, Thou shalt not covet. –Romans 7:7

He suspended the Israelites multiple times from the land but saved them each time through chosen judges, prophets, priests, and kings throughout the Old Testament. This all culminated in the final act of placing Israel and Judah under captivity. To show all His actions as a legal proceeding, God provided countless documentation through His Word. Therefore, God was being a very good Leader when thinking from the point of view of a manager. So, from this angle, we can think of God as a good, kind, and merciful Manager rather than what the atheists would have us believe: God as a monster.

My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: for whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.  –Proverbs 3:11-12    

Heathfield, S.M. (2014). Discipline (progressive discipline). About Money. Retrieved from  http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryd/a/discipline.htm.

Fallon, L.F. & McConnell, C.R. (2014). Human Resource Management in Health Care Principles and Practice (2nd ed.). Jones & Bartlett: Burlington, MA.