Leadership matters.

And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the LORD.

Numbers 14:36-37

Leaders are important and God holds them responsible because leadership exerts influence upon the moral outcomes of many. And that influence can be used to lead people to honor God. It can also very clearly lead people to disobey God. Leaders are held accountable by God precisely for this reason. And leaders can influence people, can lead people, to sin. 

Ten of the twelve spies who were sent to bring back a report on Canaan were men with sinful influence. They were driven by selfishness, fear, power, and peer pressure to reject God’s will and to recommend that Israel do the same. Their report was a sinful rejection of God’s promise. They led Israel, by their recommendation, into a fearful, faithless frenzy of rejection of God’s will. In short: their leadership led the nation to sin against God. The text could be no more clear: they “made all the congregation grumble against” God. This is God’s verdict. The spies led others to sin against God.

The consequence for Israel was intense. The bad advice of the spies was magnified a million-fold by people who had never even seen the land. Israel had already struggled to trust God in the wilderness. The leadership of these ten led the nation to set their complaints in concrete. The bad counsel confirmed a consistent choice and tendency Israel already struggled with so that the nation rejected God. Their influence on Israel became a massive rebellion. Leaders can tip the scales toward awful sin and bring about God’s consequential judgment.

The consequences God brought upon those ten bad leaders were severe. Their judgment was swift. They all died of a divinely directed plague while Joshua and Caleb lived on. They were the first to die in the wilderness for their unbelief because of their bad influence. And as a faithless generation whom they made to sin fell dead one by one over forty years, the reverberating consequence of bad leadership that led others into sin stretched on for four entire decades. So does leadership matter? You bet it does!

Never think leaders and their influence are amoral. Leadership is vital! God judges those who lead precisely because leaders can influence people both for good and for evil.