Leading from Behind - Jonah and the King

I recommend this link for your browser home page - http://dailystudybible.com/todaybib.php. It changes every day to lead you through the Bible. Today I was reading Jonah and noticed something typical of weak leadership. See if you catch it:

Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:5-9

First, the greatest miracle in the book of Jonah is not the big fish, it's the immediate repentance of the wicked city of Nineveh! But did you notice - everyone in Nineveh repented, then the king got wind of it and decided to decree that everyone had to repent. That's called "leading from behind". But at least the king "got with the program" and didn't attempt to thwart God's purposes. That's more than I can say for our leadership today. The only thing the king added was that animals had to repent too. Isn't that typical of lawmakers...LOL.

Well maybe I'm being too hard on the king of that wicked city; he did call them to turn away from wickedness and violence. Oh wait, what about our current leaders? As Jesus said: The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here. (Luke 11:32) OUCH!