The Brother’s Plot

Reuben failed to lead. It’s easy to say – someone failed to do this or that thing. But I’m caught up in thoughts of how incoherent and disunited these brothers really are.

Reuben was the first born; the “heir apparent” to the mantel of leadership. He was the de facto leader. However, he wasn’t really the leader. Otherwise he wouldn’t have begged the brothers to consider an alternative plan. He would have simply told them to stop their grudging talk and murderous conspiracy.

No one accepted his leadership.

He was disqualified because he laid with Bilhah, his father’s concubine. But it wasn’t just that he had done this wrong. Like their father, his brothers recognized and despised his weakness.

You can say a great leader is born charismatically. There are skills and gifts that cause a leader to be able to induce the followership of others – and that these can be used for good or for evil. But even Hitler, the poster child of such observations, could not have led the Nazi’s into a love for Jews. Moral weakness always makes impotent the possibility of real good.

Try not to forget this when you’re driven by the urge to eat that second pack of Twinkies. The world desperately needs the good possibility of your life-leadership.