There is this popular Latin saying which goes like this: Vox Populi, Vox Dei, meaning: “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” But in this podcast, I want to debunk this assumption in leadership by saying the voice of the people is not always the voice of God. And so, a leader who runs aimlessly after the voice of the people every time without having a system in place that adequately examines whether what the people wanted are legitimate enough or not would run into errors and mistakes all the time and may not finish well. It is good for leaders to listen to the clamors of their people; however, a good leader would sit down and sieve through them and analyze in order to ascertain which is legitimate and which is not. Amidst the clamor of the people, a leader must be able to hear the voice of God by himself or herself and so be able to know what to do per time.

Now, there are a number of occasions in the Scripture where the children of Israel people misled their leader and in turn made them to incur the wrath of God. In these occasions, the leaders were so docile to follow the voice of the people, not going back to God to ask for directions. One of those accounts is documented in the book of Exodus 32 and I am going to read a couple of verses there to us. The Bible says:

“Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us [a]gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

In the previous chapter, the Bible had recorded that Moses had gone to meet with the LORD on Mount Sinai to receive a couple of instructions that would guide the children of Israel in their relationship with God. As a matter of fact, the Bible says: God gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18). Now, because Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain where he had gone to meet the LORD, the people gathered to Aaron, Moses second in command and said to him: “Come, make us [a]gods that shall go before us…”

Let us read from verse 2-6:

“And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³ So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” ⁵ So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” ⁶ Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”

So, Aaron did just exactly what the people wanted him to do. He made a golden calf and the people recognized the rulership of that god over them immediately. They even said: “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Now don’t forget, the whole thing started from the people and not from Aaron or God. But see what God said from verse 7-10 when He saw all that had taken place:

“And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. ⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’” ⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! ¹⁰ Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”

Noticed that God was angry with the situation, isn’t it? If the voice of the people is always the voice of God as postulated, God shouldn’t have been angry because the people would have acted out the mind of God. But that was not what happened. God was angry with their actions because it never emanates from him. And Aaron was so unprofessional in his leadership assignment to have ask the LORD if what the people wanted should be done. Now, what is the point that I am trying to make? It would be a total disaster if a leader doesn’t double check before doing what the people says all the time.

That is why we said last week that it is a costly assumption for leaders to assume they do not need God in their leadership. Even though you are the leader, you also must be led by another superior leader and that leader is God. So, the voice of the people is not always the voice of God. But this does not mean you should not hear the people out as a leader, know what they want and where they need to be helped, but don’t always let them push you to act against the direction that God would want you to follow in your leadership.

See from verse 21-24:

“And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” ²² So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. ²³ For they said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ²⁴ And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So, they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.”

Did you see that? There are times all the people want is just to get their own selfish and evil desires met, not necessarily because they want the leader to succeed, but they just want to carry out their own evil enterprise. And this is why as a leader, it can't always be the voice of the people is the voice of God and follow them to commit evil all the time. You must be able to read in-between the lines and know exactly the motive of the people.

I believe you got that!

Alright! This is where we are going to draw the curtains on this week’s edition of Leaderview. Please don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends, drop your comments in the comments section and let me know your thoughts on what we have shared with ourselves today. Till next time on Leaderview, I remain Abiola Obayomi; stay blessed and God bless you

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

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