The Temptation to Think That the Scriptures Can’t Help You Discern Between Good and Bad Leaders or Role Models

To the law and to the testimony:

If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

(Isaiah 8:20)

     To the law and to the testimony - The “law and the testimony” refers to the scriptures.  The scriptures in Isaiah’s day were separated into the Law of Moses and the testimonies of the prophets, and that’s how they were referred to back then.  Isaiah is saying we should look in the scriptures for help in discerning whether someone is a good leader or not. 

     If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them - The test of a good leader or role model is whether they act according to the true principles (light) that are taught in the scriptures.  If they are leading in ways that the scriptures approve of, then they are good leaders and there is light in them.  If not, then there’s no light in them. 

     This chapter contains scriptures from the Book of Isaiah that we can use to discern between bad leaders and good leaders.  It also helps us discern between good and bad role models. 

The Temptation to Think That One Person Would Be as Good a Leader as Another Out In The World

     There’s a whole bunch of repeated and related ideas in these verses that describe five different types of bad leaders you have to watch out for.  I have indented the similar ideas the same distance from the left margin so that you can see which ones are related to each other. 

10 His watchmen are blind:

     they are all ignorant,

          they are all dumb dogs,

          they cannot bark;

               sleeping,

               lying down,

               loving to slumber.

11                  Yea, they are all greedy dogs

                    which can never have enough,

     and they are shepherds that cannot understand:

                    they all look to their own way,

                    every one for his gain,

                    from his quarter. 

12                       Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine,

                          and we will fill ourselves with strong drink;

and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

(Isaiah 56:10-12)

     Now what do we have?

     His watchmen are blind. . . .tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant - Here’s a particularly insidious kind of bad leadership - blindness disguised as optimism.  They say “Life will be easier in the future” frequently coupled with “when we finally get through this stage”.  They might say things like “Life will be better when cars can fly” or “Life will be better when we have elected a new president”.  Some examples on the teenage level would be something like “Life will be better when I get this report done” or “Life will be better when I get my driver’s license” or “Life will be better when I can date”. 

     This is blindness, because it prevents you from seeing that the future will have its own special problems, and so you are kept from preparing to handle them.  For instance, thinking that life will be better when you get your driver’s license would prevent you from confronting the problem of what you will drive and how to pay for gas and insurance. 

     The prophet is NOT a blind watchman.  He is always reminding us to keep the commandments, and doing so will help us deal best with our future problems, no matter what they are.  He also gives us wise counsel that hints as to what kind of problems we will face in the future, and following his counsel will enable us to solve them.  For instance, while the world moans, “Oh, things will be soooooo much better when I’m finished with school!”, the prophet tells us to get all the education that we can, which is a hint that the world will face the problem of ignorance.  (Ignorance is a very serious problem for a person trying to get a high-paying job in a technologically advanced society.)  If we do what he says and diligently educate ourselves to the highest level of attainable knowledge, instead of struggling to find a job, we will be in demand.  Will our problems be over?  No, they will just be different, perhaps even more complex, but we’ll be prepared for them if we keep following the prophet. 

     [T]hey are all ignorant. . . .and they are shepherds that cannot understand - In these phrases, “shepherds” refers to church leaders who are supposed to feed and watch over Christ’s flock of church members.  The ignorance and lack of understanding Isaiah is referring to is a lack of knowledge that the gospel is true.  It’s his way of saying these leaders don’t have a testimony.  If you’ve ever heard a teacher trying to teach a church lesson about something, like “tithing” or “scripture study” or “fasting”, when they don’t have a testimony of it, you’ll know why Isaiah is so contemptuous.  Without a testimony, teachers say things like “Um, we’re supposed to pay tithing.  It’s kind of a drag to not be able to use the money, but they say we’ll get blessed for it...”, whereas with a testimony, teachers say things like “I know that tithing is a true principle, because I do it.  Let me tell you about the blessings that were poured on me from the windows of heaven!”  It is easy to see that a leader without a testimony is wishy-washy and unconvincing, and his or her lack of enthusiasm almost drives people away from the truth instead of leading them to it.  A leader with a testimony, however, can set you on fire to do the right thing. 

The shepherds’ ignorance and inability to understand also represents leaders who are ignorant of their duty and won’t take the trouble to learn it so they can do it better.  They prefer to stumble along on their own and they wouldn’t think of asking anyone for help, least of all the Lord.  Just like King Lamoni’s servants were woefully ignorant of how to gather scattered sheep or prevent them from being scattered (see Alma 17: 27-33), ignorant leaders don’t know how to gather scattered Israel or prevent it from getting scattered again by Satan. 

They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark - Although the word “dumb” has come to mean “stupid and ignorant” to us today, it also means “unable to vocalize”, which is the sense it means here.  Isaiah is talking about dogs that are supposed to guard the sheep and bark the alarm when danger is near.  The lesson for us is that good leaders must warn us when we are in danger, instead of saying nothing.  They can’t be afraid that people will think they are a spoilsport or a killjoy.  Just like a guard dog is useless if it doesn’t bark the alarm, a leader is useless if they don’t warn of danger. 

     The fact that our parents tend to annoy us with warnings all the time indicates that they are not “dumb dogs”.  You may think that your parents are “noisy dogs” instead, but that’s actually a good sign that they are doing their job well. 

     Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber - These leaders are asleep at their posts.  They’d rather not do what they are supposed to do; it is too much hard work.  They’d rather lull themselves into a spiritual slumber of carnal security, saying to themselves, “Everything is well in Zion; there is no need for me to be anxiously engaged in a good cause.”  They’re also the ones who say “There is no devil and no hell”. 

     Anyone who tries to lull you into a false sense of security over any issue is not doing you any favors, because now is always the time to face facts, get to work, and/or nip problems in the bud before they mushroom into Godzilla-sized problems that wreak havoc on your life.  (“Attack of Sin-zilla!”)

     Here’s an illustration.  Let’s say that you are about to work on your homework and then a friend calls and wants you to come over and hang out.  “I was just going to get started on my English paper”, you say.  Your friend says, “It can wait.  I don’t intend to get started on it until a few days before it is due.”  Hmmm.  Does this friend really know how much work the English paper is going to take?  Of course not!  The only way you can know that is by getting to work on it!  The lesson here is this: JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE SAYS EVERYTHING IS FINE DOESN’T MEAN IT REALLY IS.  Don’t use that as an excuse to put your brain on screen saver.  Make doubly sure that you find out the truth. 

     I’ll give you an example from my own life of a way someone tried to lull me into a false sense of security.  My husband and I went to a restaurant and as I looked at the menu, I thought a bowl of chili might be yummy.  Out of curiosity I asked the waitress what the chili had in it.  She pulled out this little booklet that had a list of the ingredients for all the food on the menu, which was very convenient.  But I got a nasty surprise when at the bottom of the list of ingredients for the chili was “Budweizer beer”.  YIKES!!  (Michaela runs screaming out of the restaurant)  Okay, so I didn’t really run screaming from the restaurant, but I did make disapproving noises, whereupon the waitress made this excuse: “The alcohol boils off when it is cooked”.  I’d heard that one before, and I wasn’t going to swallow it, if you’ll pardon the pun. 

     After finding out a harmless-sounding entree item had beer in it, do you think I was going to assume that the rest of the menu items were okay?  Of course not!  I made sure the chicken wild rice soup was “Mormon kosher” first before I ordered it. 

     I got to thinking afterward about the waitress’s effort to reassure me with the excuse “the alcohol boils off when it is cooked”.  It seemed to me that reason was meant to pacify cautious people like me. 

     Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough. . .they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter - You have to watch out for this type of leader.  They are the ones that lead with a selfish, ulterior motive.  For instance, can you really trust a sports star’s product endorsement on TV when you know they were paid oodles and oodles of money to do it?  I can’t.  Notice, they are content with the idea that people will follow their example and buy the products they endorse, because they can use that to get money.  However, the instant anyone reminds them that people follow their moral (or too often immoral) example as well, these same sports stars start getting very uncomfortable and insist that they never meant to be any kind of example to anyone and that they are only there to play sports.  What is this?!  Are they saying they don’t want to be an example if they can’t make any money from it?!

     Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink - These are the leaders that party and say “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us” (2 Nephi 28:7).  A prison inmate put it this way: “If we’re going to be resurrected with a perfect body someday, why not party now? Why not get drunk and high and all that?”  Nephi warns of another variation: “And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God - he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Nephi 28:8).  As you can see, this demonstrates a lax attitude towards eternal consequences of sin.  They don’t understand that no unclean thing can enter into the presence of God without getting fried to a crisp in a sea of flaming guilt.  No chance to enjoy a perfect body when you’re busy suffering the pains of a damned soul for abusing the laws of God. 

     How much trust can you put in the guidance of a leader who doesn’t see anything wrong with breaking the Word of Wisdom or other laws of God?  Not much; if they don’t see anything wrong with it, they aren’t going to tell people not to do it, and everyone they lead may fall into the same sins.

     This phrase of Isaiah also describes teachers who goof off with those they teach, instead of having a lesson.  “Come ye,” say they, “I will fetch ice cream and we will fill ourselves with dessert instead of a lesson!”  My husband had a teacher like this at church when he was a teen.  He also had an algebra teacher in high school who would show a certain Monty Python movie over and over in class instead of teaching algebra.  This kind of thing is really insidious, because while you (and they) think they are doing you a favor, they are really hurting you by depriving you of knowledge necessary to pass future school tests or life tests.  It takes a lot of maturity to be able to see it. 

The Temptation to Follow the Bad Examples of Your Older Brothers and Sisters

13 The princes of Zoan are become fools,

the princes of Noph are deceived;

they have also seduced Egypt,

even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.

14   The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof:

     and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof.

     as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

(Isaiah 19:13-14)

     We can compare your family to a kingdom.  At the top is Dad and Mom.  They are like the king and queen of the house.  The oldest child is like a prince or a princess with all the younger children beneath them.  Each child thinks of themselves as prince or princess over all those who are younger than them.  If you’re the youngest child, you boss around your family’s pet wombat.  If you have older brothers or sisters, it is more than likely that you look up to them and think they are royally cool.  (Or you may think they are a royal pain.)   

     What happens when the prince or princess of your family becomes deceived and starts acting like a fool by rebelling against the gospel?  In the scripture above, the princes of Egypt seduced the people they ruled, all of Egypt, into the same folly and perverse spirit.  In our families, a rebellious prince or princess tends to seduce those younger than them into the same kinds of rebellion.  Why is this?

     First, admiration.  We tend to imitate those we admire.  (Indeed, imitation is the sincerest form of worship.)  Also, when we admire, we tend to do it wholeheartedly; it is hard to admire someone with reservations. 

     The second reason a bad example seduces us is that Satan whispers lies to us.  One lie that Satan tells us when we see someone setting a bad example for us is, “They got away with it.”  He follows this lie up with another lie, “You can get away with it too.”  Why are these lies?  First, just because we don’t see them suffering any bad consequences for their behavior doesn’t mean that bad consequences won’t come.  Second, it wouldn’t be wise to bet your salvation that the things you think you can “get away with” won’t come back to haunt you on Judgment Day. 

     If you look up to an older brother or sister (or anyone for that matter), you need to be very careful that you don’t follow any bad example they might set.  The best way to keep from being deceived is to transfer your admiration to Christ.  After all, He’s everybody’s older brother, the Prince of Peace.  His life gave us a perfect example to imitate; all of the things He was and did were perfect.  Keep your eye on Him.  Admire Him.  Follow Him.  Worship Him by imitating Him. 

The Temptation to Follow Someone Just Because They Are The Descendant of a Wise Leader

11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools,

the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish:

how say ye unto Pharaoh,

     I am the son of the wise,

     the son of the ancient kings?

          Where are they?

          where are thy wise men?

               and let them tell thee now,

               and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

(Isaiah 19:11-12)

     Here we have “wise” counselors of Pharaoh saying “I am the son of the wise, and the son of ancient kings” in an attempt to boost up their credibility, so that Pharaoh will believe them and do what they suggest.

     I have a story that is a lovely illustration of this.  I got into a discussion (well, okay, it was an argument) with one of my religion teachers at BYU one day about some doctrine and I was utterly shocked when he said to me something like this: “I’m the son of an apostle.  I’ve been around apostles and prophets all my life.  I should know what’s true doctrine and what’s not.”  There was something about this reasoning of his that seemed very wrong to me, and I couldn’t tell what it was until I read these verses of Isaiah.  When I did, I realized that he had attempted to borrow authority and credibility from his ancestry and bludgeon me over the head with it.  But he wasn’t an apostle.  I would have been stupid to take his ancestry as a legitimate reason. 

     Don’t ever let a person’s pedigree awe you, and don’t let other people’s awe of someone’s pedigree make you feel like there’s something wrong with you for not sharing their awe.  Hear and judge each person by the merits of their message and by their works, not by their family tree. 

     Where are they?  where are thy wise men?  and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt. - Isaiah tells you how to know when you can start giving the same respect to descendants of great people: if they can accurately tell you what the Lord is going to do to your nation and what is coming for the future, then they are also great.  That ability is called “vision” and “prophecy”. 

The Temptation to Think That Good Leaders Don’t Need Witnesses to Back Up What They Say

Let all the nations be gathered together,

and let the people be assembled:

who among them can declare this,

and shew us former things?

let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified:

or let them hear, and say, It is truth.

(Isaiah 43:9)

     This verse brings up another important point about good leadership - a good leader must have witnesses that back up what they are saying.  I can think of three kinds of witnesses of which a good leader can make use:

   1) The witness of visible evidence

   2) The witness of examples in the form of stories

   3) The witness of one or more people testifying to the truth of the first

There’s one more witness that we can obtain, and that is the witness of the Spirit to our souls that what a leader is saying is true.  It is the most powerful witness.  Isaiah tells us how the Spirit backs up good leaders:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold;

mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth;

     I have put my spirit upon him:

     he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

(Isaiah 42:1)

     This verse shows us that the Spirit is a witness to the authority of the leaders themselves, not just the truth of their message.

     Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth - This sounds very much like what Heavenly Father says when He introduces Jesus Christ to people.  “Behold my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

     This is also true when we watch general conference and hear from the prophet and the apostles.  The Spirit will testify to us that they are the servants of God and that God is pleased with them.  Not only this, the Spirit will testify to us that the Lord approves of our ward and stake leaders. 

     I have put my spirit upon him - Christ had a full measure of the Holy Ghost upon him during his mortal ministry.  Our church leaders receive special guidance from the Spirit about how best to lead us. 

     I challenge you to obtain a personal witness of the Spirit of whether your leaders really have authority from God.  Examine your feelings as you listen to them.  Look for a happy feeling inside, look for a feeling of wanting to become more righteous, look for a feeling of enlightenment and inspiration.  Look for a feeling that what they are saying is right.

     I also challenge you to examine your feelings as you read through the rest of this book.  If what I have written is true, the Spirit will witness to you with a good feeling that it is true. 

The Temptation to Think That Good Leaders Must Keep Their Goals Secret to Achieve Them

The Temptation to Think That Strong Reasoning Isn’t an Important Part of Good Leadership

Produce your cause, saith the LORD;

bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.

(Isaiah 41:21)

     Produce your cause - This shows God wants good leaders to be open about what they are working for.  “For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness” (2 Nephi 26:23).

     [B]ring forth your strong reasons - Leaders need to have really good reasons for what they decide to do.  They can’t be wimpy reasons either, because many times peoples’ spiritual well-being is at stake.  Not only do they have to be strong reasons, but they have to be the right reasons.  “Because I’m the (insert-any-office-of-authority-here)” is not a good enough reason.  I have a hunch the Lord wants leaders to produce their reasoning so that leaders can be held accountable for the quality of their reasoning, and so that the rest of us can be held accountable for whether we accept good reasons or not. 

     I’ll give an example of producing strong, righteous reasons.  When I was sixteen, a fifteen-year-old, non-LDS boy asked me to go to his school’s homecoming dance with him.  My parents would not let me go.  I told them I had tried to make sure that we were chaperoned at all times and that everything was structured, but they said that wasn’t the issue.  They said the issue was that he was fifteen, and the prophet had said not to date until age sixteen.  I told them it was rather unfair to hold him to the same standards to which I was held, since he wasn’t a member.  My Mom countered with this reason: if the prophet is the prophet for the whole earth, his counsel is for everybody, whether people believe in him or not, and our job is to help people obey him.  That reason was what made me shut up and stop arguing; I knew she was right.  I already had a testimony that the prophet had authority from God over the whole earth.  But do you think I would have been satisfied by any “because-we’re-your-parents-and-we-say-so” reasoning?  No way!  A snowball had a better chance on the sun than a reason like that had of being accepted.

The Temptation to Think That Righteous Leaders and Role Models Always Have Everything Planned Out and Know Exactly What They Are Doing

And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not;

I will lead them in paths that they have not known:

I will make darkness light before them,

and crooked things straight.

These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

(Isaiah 42:16)

     Earlier in this chapter, I pointed out a scripture where Isaiah comes down really hard on leaders who are blind.  Now we have a scripture that says “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not” and the tone makes us think that blindness is a quality that the Lord will compensate for.  What is the difference between those two kinds of blindness?  Well, in the other scripture, the blindness is characterized by the attitude of “tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant” which is basically burying one’s head in the sand and refusing to face facts.  In this scripture, the blind are those leaders who want to (and must) get to a certain destination or reach a certain goal, but can’t see the way.  Many times the Lord leads them from moment to moment without them knowing what they are going to do next, like Nephi, when he went up to Jerusalem to get the plates.  “And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do”  (1 Nephi 4:6).

     A modern example of the Lord bringing his servants by a way that they knew not is when President Hinckley received guidance of the Lord to make temples more accessible to the peoples throughout the world.  In the past, temples were made with capacity for many people, because they were meant to serve a very wide geographic area.  Yet he knew more temples were badly needed, especially in places where people couldn’t afford to travel so far.  How could the church afford to build so many temples?  The Lord inspired him with a solution - build smaller temples.

     There’s another way that your parents or leaders may lead you, it really will seem to you as if they are blind, but you have to be particularly careful.  They may use a special reason in trying to convince you not to do something.  It doesn’t sound like a reason, but it is one.  It is the “I-have-a-bad-feeling-about-this” reason, which I like to call IHABFAT.  It is particularly frustrating when it is used when you want to do something fun, and it is annoying when you are used to having your parents reason with you logically, however, those feelings are just as important as logic, because it means that the Spirit is trying to warn of something.  The Spirit won’t tell what will happen unless it is absolutely necessary, so parents may not be able to say, “I have a bad feeling about this, because the Spirit says you will get in a huge car wreck and become a quadriplegic for the rest of your life if you go out joyriding with your friends tonight.”  The best thing you can do if you are given the IHABFAT reason is pray about it yourself and ask for Heavenly Father to confirm it with you.  You have a right to be given a testimony of that kind of thing.

. . .yea, do good, or do evil,

     that we may be dismayed,

     and behold it together.

(Isaiah 41:23)

     This is one of the main things I used when I was a teenager to figure out who I would look up to.  (Granted, I didn’t know about this scripture then, but it articulated what I looked for.)  I watched to see whether my teachers or leaders were doing good things or doing bad things, especially when they weren’t “in the spotlight”, because it showed what kind of person they were.  For example, a math teacher I admired had posted a picture of herself on her website in which she was drunk or pretending to be drunk.  Yes, she was one of the best math teachers I ever had, but I realized that some of things she thought were fun were not things that I should try.  Another example - every once in a while, I would go looking for my mother around the house, I’d notice my parents’ bedroom door was closed, I’d open it just a crack, peek in, and see my mother kneeling at her bed praying silently.  Seeing that helped me trust her leadership at home. 

     However, examining what leaders are doing is half the story.  Christ taught that we could tell what kind of leader we have by examining the results.  “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.  Ye shall know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit”  (Matthew 7:15-17).  This helps us because it keeps us from making hasty judgments when something one of our leaders do rubs us the wrong way or one of their foibles or quirks is revealed. 

     So what have we learned from Isaiah about leaders and role models?

1) The scriptures help us discern whether a leader or role model has light in them.

2) You have to watch out for leaders who are “dumb dogs” and don’t “bark” the alarm.

3) You have to watch out for leaders and role models who are ignorant of the gospel.

4) You have to watch out for leaders and role models who are blind and can’t see what the consequences of their actions will be.

5) You have to watch out for leaders who are asleep at their posts and think there is nothing to worry about or prepare for.

6) You have to watch out for leaders who are greedy for recognition or power or money.

7) You have to watch out for leaders who are enslaved by addictive substances.

8) Leaders who go astray tend to lead everyone else astray.  This is true for princes of countries, and princes of families (older siblings)

9) Just because a person is a descendant of a wise leader doesn’t mean they are a wise leader too.  They have to have vision and prophecy.

10) Leaders need witnesses to back up what they say.

11) Good leaders have to make their goals known, and have good reasons for what they do.

12) Good leaders may have to blindly follow the Lord.

13. 13)You can tell whether a person is a good leader or role model by watching how they behave.  If they do good, they are good to follow.