Proverbs 25:1-5 – Wisdom in leadership

Proverbs 25:1 tells us that King Hezekiah had his men retrieve Solomon’s wise counsels, probably from the national archive, and had them transcribed. The reasons why Solomon wrote these sound advices was to provide tips for a king and his subjects to build better relationship. But for our purpose, we will see this in the context of leadership and their followers’ perspective. From the inspired and wise counsels of Solomon, valuable principles can be gleaned to help cultivate a more fulfilling relationship between leaders and the people who follow their leadership. There are also wise tips for followers so that they can rightly relate with their leaders. The objective of these counsels is to ensure godly leaders as well as godly followers.

The glory of God is found in the way He governs the universe. He operates from the invisible realm and hence His inscrutable ways are not patently clear. It requires much searching and discerning in order to rightly apply His ways for the precise moment in life. A godly leader and wise leader will spare no effort to search the wisdom of God and clearly implement them in their leadership. Thinking of verse 2, some obvious questions any reasonable person will ask of are: “Why does God conceal things from us?”  “Won’t it be much easier if we can see His ways more clearly?” The reason is obvious. The things that we do not take the time or the effort to uncover, we often treasure less. They will not be held with the same value as things we make the time and spare no effort to uncover. Things we make time and effort to discover are usually richer and more meaningful. We will treasure and cherish them more deeply when we have to discover them.  

From verse 3, we surmise that human leaders, unlike God, operate in the physical realm. Dealing with humans, unclear and unintelligent policies are not helpful to one’s leadership. If a leader does not make clear his policies, it is hard to fully fathom his heart and his thinking. Hence a wise leader will make his policies clear, so that his followers will know where he is leading them to and need not second guess his intentions. Meanwhile a follower must not presume on the kindness of a leader. Do not take things for granted. A leader may change at any moment. The call is to be flexible and adaptable to changes.

Proverbs 25:4-5 tell leaders that their principles and policies must be righteous and in keeping with divine principles revealed in God’s Word. To have a pure silver ware, a silver smith will have to remove the dross from the silver in the process of making that pure ware. In the same way, a good leader must be free from wicked influence. One’s leadership can never be wholesome, when the advice a leader has, comes from wicked advisers. What wise counsel for effective and sound leadership!  When wicked influences are removed from a leader, righteousness in the way he leads will be the obvious. In exercising our leadership, Psalms 55:22 urges us to “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”