What Does God Look For in a Leader? An Exploration of נביאים ראשונים

(18) And the LORD answered Moses, “Single out Joshua son of Nun, a man with spirit in him, and lay your hand upon him. (19) Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission him in their sight. (20) Invest him with some of your authority, so that the whole Israelite community may obey. (21) But he shall present himself to Eleazar the priest, who shall on his behalf seek the decision of the Urim before the LORD. By such instruction they shall go out and by such instruction they shall come in, he and all the Israelites, the whole community.” (22) Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community. (23) He laid his hands upon him and commissioned him—as the LORD had spoken through Moses.

(2) אלהי הרוחת GOD OF THE SPIRITS [OF ALL FLESH] — Why is this expression used? (i.e., why does it not state simply אלהי כל בשר?) He said to Him: “Lord of the Universe! the personality of each person is revealed to you, and no two are alike. Appoint over them a leader who will tolerate each person according to his individual character (Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 10; cf. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 776). (1) אשר יצא לפניהם ONE WHO MAY GO BEFORE THEM — not as is the way of the kings of the nations who sit at home and send their armies to battle, but as “I” have done — I who fought against Sihon and against Og, as it is said, (Numbers 21:34) “Do not fear him: “[for I have delivered him into thy hand … and thou shall do to him as thou didst unto Sihon, etc.]” and as is the way that Joshua followed, as it is said, (Joshua 5:3) “And Joshua went to him and said, Art thou for us [or for our adversaries]”. And so, too, in the case of David, it says, (I Samuel 18:16) “For he went out and came in before them” — went out at their head, and came in at their head (Sifrei Bamidbar 139:2). (2) ואשר יוציאם AND WHO WILL LEAD THEM OUT, safely through his merits, (3) ואשר יביאם AND WHO WILL BRING THEM IN, safely through his merits (Siphre). Another explanation: ואשר יביאם AND WHO WILL BRING THEM IN — I ask that You should not do to him, as You have done to me' for I may not bring them into the Land. (cf. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 776).

(1) The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (2) “Send men to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite people; send one man from each of their ancestral tribes, each one a chieftain among them.” (3) So Moses, by the LORD’s command, sent them out from the wilderness of Paran, all the men being leaders of the Israelites.

(1) Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, reconnoiter the region of Jericho.” So they set out, and they came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there.

(15) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. (16) And you lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground. (17) And I will stiffen the hearts of the Egyptians so that they go in after them; and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his warriors, his chariots and his horsemen.

(14) When the people set out from their encampment to cross the Jordan, the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant were at the head of the people. (15) Now the Jordan keeps flowing over its entire bed throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the bearers of the Ark reached the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the Ark dipped into the water at its edge, (16) the waters coming down from upstream piled up in a single heap a great way off, at Adam, the town next to Zarethan; and those flowing away downstream to the Sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea) ran out completely. So the people crossed near Jericho.

(1) The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, on the first new moon of the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: (2) Let the Israelite people offer the passover sacrifice at its set time: (3) you shall offer it on the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, at its set time; you shall offer it in accordance with all its rules and rites. (4) Moses instructed the Israelites to offer the passover sacrifice; (5) and they offered the passover sacrifice in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai. Just as the LORD had commanded Moses, so the Israelites did.

(10) Encamped at Gilgal, in the steppes of Jericho, the Israelites offered the passover sacrifice on the fourteenth day of the month, toward evening. (11) On the day after the passover offering, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the country, unleavened bread and parched grain.

(4) When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the bush: “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.” (5) And He said, “Do not come closer. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.

(13) Once, when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him, drawn sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked him, “Are you one of us or of our enemies?” (14) He replied, “No, I am captain of the LORD’s host. Now I have come!” Joshua threw himself face down to the ground and, prostrating himself, said to him, “What does my lord command his servant?” (15) The captain of the LORD’s host answered Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

In a similar manner, you can say that God said to Moses about Joshua: “And you shall put of your honor upon him” (Numbers 27:20), which indicates that you should put some of your honor, but not all of your honor. The elders of that generation said: The face of Moses was as bright as the face of the sun; the face of Joshua was like the face of the moon.

(2) There was a certain man from Zorah, of the stock of Dan, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren and had borne no children. (3) An angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “You are barren and have borne no children; but you shall conceive and bear a son. (4) Now be careful not to drink wine or other intoxicant, or to eat anything unclean. (5) For you are going to conceive and bear a son; let no razor touch his head, for the boy is to be a nazirite to God from the womb on. He shall be the first to deliver Israel from the Philistines.”

(24) The woman bore a son, and she named him Samson. The boy grew up, and the LORD blessed him. (25) The spirit of the LORD first moved him in the encampment of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

(6) The spirit of the LORD gripped him, and he tore him asunder with his bare hands as one might tear a kid asunder; but he did not tell his father and mother what he had done.

(19) The spirit of the LORD gripped him. He went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of its men. He stripped them and gave the sets of clothing to those who had answered the riddle. And he left in a rage for his father’s house.

(14) When he reached Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Thereupon the spirit of the LORD gripped him, and the ropes on his arms became like flax that catches fire; the bonds melted off his hands.

(6) In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did as he pleased.

(25) In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did as he pleased.

(3) His father and mother said to him, “Is there no one among the daughters of your own kinsmen and among all our people, that you must go and take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson answered his father, “Get me that one, for she is the one that pleases me.”

(7) Then he went down and spoke to the woman, and she pleased Samson.

(10) In her wretchedness, she prayed to the LORD, weeping all the while. (11) And she made this vow: “O LORD of Hosts, if You will look upon the suffering of Your maidservant and will remember me and not forget Your maidservant, and if You will grant Your maidservant a male child, I will dedicate him to the LORD for all the days of his life; and no razor shall ever touch his head.”

Why does it mention they were prophets in Be'er Sheva? To show how they did not go in the ways of their father (Samuel) who used to go on a route through all of the cities so as not to trouble the Israelites to come to him to be judged.

And then, as though that were not bad enough, they set themselves up in Be'er Sheva which is at the very *edge* of Israel. It would have been one thing if they would have split up and one of them had judged in the territory of Dan and the other in the territory of Be'er Sheva, but they did not do that.

Instead, they made all the Israelites travel all the way to them in Be'er Sheva which was difficult for the people. (There is an approach that they had good intentions and wanted to provide incomes for the people they employed as scribes etc but still it was at the cost of the people's welfare so t his was not good).

The Rabbis ask why the women give such a lengthy reply...they say it was because the women wished to look upon the handsome appearance of Saul.

(5) Saul was just coming from the field driving the cattle; and Saul asked, “Why are the people crying?” And they told him about the situation of the men of Jabesh. (6) When he heard these things, the spirit of God gripped Saul and his anger blazed up. (7) He took a yoke of oxen and cut them into pieces, which he sent by messengers throughout the territory of Israel, with the warning, “Thus shall be done to the cattle of anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel into battle!” Terror from the LORD fell upon the people, and they came out as one man.

(33) When it was reported to Saul that the troops were sinning against the LORD, eating with the blood, he said, “You have acted faithlessly. Roll a large stone over to me today.” (34) And Saul ordered, “Spread out among the troops and tell them that everyone must bring me his ox or his sheep and slaughter it here, and then eat. You must not sin against the LORD and eat with the blood.” Every one of the troops brought his own ox with him that night and slaughtered it there.

(17) And Samuel said, “You may look small to yourself, but you are the head of the tribes of Israel. The LORD anointed you king over Israel,

(6) When they arrived and he saw Eliab, he thought: “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands before Him.” (7) But the LORD said to Samuel, “Pay no attention to his appearance or his stature, for I have rejected him. For not as man sees [does the LORD see]; man sees only what is visible, but the LORD sees into the heart.”

Either Samuel said this to himself or aloud because he thought this (Eliav) was the king that he had been commanded to anoint because he was tall and strapping and handsome and similar to Saul. He thought that God chooses handsome and tall men for the kingship so the nation will accept him (similar to when Saul was appointed).

But God

But God said- don't look at his appearance. God is a searcher of hearts and innards; he knows the heart of Eliav and that it is not straight. Therefore God said to Samuel "Don't look at his appearance because even though he is handsome and looks regal according to his appearance I know his heart and he is not fit to rule."

(36) Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and that uncircumcised Philistine shall end up like one of them, for he has defied the ranks of the living God. (37) The LORD,” David went on, “who saved me from lion and bear will also save me from that Philistine.” “Then go,” Saul said to David, “and may the LORD be with you!”

(45) David replied to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied. (46) This very day the LORD will deliver you into my hands. I will kill you and cut off your head; and I will give the carcasses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. All the earth shall know that there is a God in Israel. (47) And this whole assembly shall know that the LORD can give victory without sword or spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and He will deliver you into our hands.”

(16) All Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came back before them.

(1) David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s house heard, they joined him down there. (2) Everyone who was in straits and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was desperate joined him, and he became their leader; there were about four hundred men with him.

(7) He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my lord—the LORD’s anointed—that I should raise my hand against him; for he is the LORD’s anointed.” (8) David rebuked his men and did not permit them to attack Saul. Saul left the cave and started on his way.

(3) When David and his men came to the town and found it burned down, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive, (4) David and the troops with him broke into tears, until they had no strength left for weeping. (5) David’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail wife of Nabal from Carmel. (6) David was in great danger, for the troops threatened to stone him; for all the troops were embittered on account of their sons and daughters. But David sought strength in the LORD his God.

(17) When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “I alone am guilty, I alone have done wrong; but these poor sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house!”

(2) God tested David with sheep and he found him to be a fine shepherd. It says in Psalms 78:70 "He took him (David) from the sheepfolds." What are the sheepfolds? It is like "and the rain from heaven was restrained" in Genesis 8:2. "And he restrained the rain"- he (David) restrained/ penned in the larger sheep as opposed to the smaller sheep. First he would find for the smaller sheep to graze, so that they could eat the soft grass, and after that he would let the older sheep graze so they could eat the in-between grass and finally he would take out the young, strapping sheep so they could eat the hard grass. God said, "Someone who knows how to shepherd the sheep each according to its nature/ strength shall come before Me a

nd shepherd My people."

(7) And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David; but I am a young lad, with no experience in leadership. (8) Your servant finds himself in the midst of the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to be numbered or counted. (9) Grant, then, Your servant a listening heart to judge Your people, to distinguish between good and bad; for who can judge this vast people of Yours?” (10) The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. (11) And God said to him, “Because you asked for this—you did not ask for long life, you did not ask for riches, you did not ask for the life of your enemies, but you asked for discernment in dispensing justice— (12) I now do as you have spoken. I grant you a wise and discerning mind; there has never been anyone like you before, nor will anyone like you arise again. (13) And I also grant you what you did not ask for—both riches and glory all your life—the like of which no king has ever had.

(2) Absalom used to rise early and stand by the road to the city gates; and whenever a man had a case that was to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call out to him, “What town are you from?” And when he answered, “Your servant is from such and such a tribe in Israel,” (3) Absalom would say to him, “It is clear that your claim is right and just, but there is no one assigned to you by the king to hear it.” (4) And Absalom went on, “If only I were appointed judge in the land and everyone with a legal dispute came before me, I would see that he got his rights.” (5) And if a man approached to bow to him, [Absalom] would extend his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. (6) Absalom did this to every Israelite who came to the king for judgment. Thus Absalom won away the hearts of the men of Israel.

(26) Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, the son of a widow whose name was Zeruah, was in Solomon’s service; he raised his hand against the king. (27) The circumstances under which he raised his hand against the king were as follows: Solomon built the Millo and repaired the breach of the city of his father, David. (28) This Jeroboam was an able man, and when Solomon saw that the young man was a capable worker, he appointed him over all the forced labor of the House of Joseph. (29) During that time Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem and the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh met him on the way. He had put on a new robe; and when the two were alone in the open country, (30) Ahijah took hold of the new robe he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. (31) “Take ten pieces,” he said to Jeroboam. “For thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hands, and I will give you ten tribes.

Achav was aware of the idea that even when humans sin and are punished with lack of rain, God has mercy on the animals...and thus he goes with Ovadiah to search for water "for the animals" but the ultimate purpose is to find that water to sustain his people.

(34) Then a man drew his bow at random and he hit the king of Israel between the plates of the armor; and he said to his charioteer, “Turn the horses around and get me behind the lines; I’m wounded.” (35) The battle raged all day long, and the king remained propped up in the chariot facing Aram; the blood from the wound ran down into the hollow of the chariot, and at dusk he died. (36) As the sun was going down, a shout went through the army: “Every man to his own town! Every man to his own district.”

Achav did not let on that he was wounded so that nobody in his nation would lose heart (and, the implication is, fall in battle).

(6) So [Jehu] arose and went inside; and [the disciple] poured the oil on his head, and said to him, “Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: I anoint you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel. (7) You shall strike down the House of Ahab your master; thus will I avenge on Jezebel the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of the other servants of the LORD. (8) The whole House of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off every male belonging to Ahab, bond and free in Israel.