The state of God's people depends on the quality of their leader. Most of today's leaders in Christendom are not strong enough to keep God's people on the straight and narrow path because the leaders themselves do not know God and are compromisers. They seek to please men and to be popular like Aaron, and therefore God cannot endorse their leadership. Moses and Joshua never sought to be popular.
"The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work the Lord had done for Israel" (Judges 2:7). But by the time Joshua and his fellow-elders died, there were no God-fearing men available to replace them. And so "all that generation also died and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor the work which He had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10). There was nobody who knew God.
After many years of moving in many Christian groups, I have to say that I have met very few Christian leaders who really know God, and who can say like Elijah, "I stand before the Lord God." Most people in Christian work today are professional preachers. They study the Bible and get a degree, get someone to support them and then go out to "serve God". There may be some sacrifice in their lives and even zeal. But zeal, sacrifice and knowledge are of no use, if a person does not know God. The statistics of their work may be impressive, but the quality of their converts will be poor, because they don't know God. They may say that they have born-again believers in their church. But are these "believers" disciples of Christ? There is a vast difference between spiritual believers and carnal believers. Any man of God knows that it is better to have a small church of spiritual believers, than a large church of carnal ones. That's like saying that it is better to have a few 1000-watt bulbs than a hundred zero-watt bulbs.
We are to be the light of the world. But the intensity of our light depends upon how much we know God. If the leader does not know God, the people will not know God either. You can study the Bible and teach it to your church-members, and they will know the Bible. But that would be like teaching them chemistry in a classroom. That won't help them to know God. People cannot know God by getting Biblical information. You can know God only as you go through trials and testing. You have to humble yourself in those trials and have to have a yearning in your heart for God. That is how you can know God, not by sitting in a meeting. We certainly need to know the Scriptures, but we need to go beyond the Scriptures and get to know God. "The people who know their God will be strong" (Dan.11:32). The Israelites did not know God and therefore "they did evil in the sight of the Lord and served other gods." (Judges 2:11) That was because Joshua had died, and now there was no God-fearing leader to lead them.
The history of Christianity in the last 2000 years is replete with numerous examples of men whom God raised up to start a church or a movement that brought revival in their lifetime. But once they died, their church (or movement) declined just like the churches and movements before them. The new generation holds the same doctrine as their founder and the same theory of sanctification, but they are not holy as their founder was. Many of them claim to have the same "baptism in the Holy Spirit" that their founder had. But their life and ministry do not have the same anointing. Something is missing. Then God has to raise up another man and start something altogether new.
God has always done His greatest work in the church through individual men whom He has raised up in different generations in different lands. Around such a man God gathers together a few people who are concerned not so much for size as for quality - for a pure testimony for God in their generation. I believe the church needs many such men and women.
