Leaders Evince a Sense of Destiny (Part 1)

Louisiana State University is known for its football program, but there are a few legendary basketball stories, one involving coach Dale Brown.

In the 1990s, several German basketball players met with success in the NBA, and college coaches extended their recruiting across the Atlantic.

On one trip, Dale Brown was giving lectures at U.S. Army bases on the importance of teamwork. Brown met what he thought was a soldier interested in basketball. Standing at 6’6”, the soldier wanted some tips from Dale Brown.

When Brown asked his rank, etc, he discovered that the “soldier” was actually 13 years old. He had just dominated a pick-up game with adult men, and Brown knew he had something special.

Before the age of social media, Brown recruited the young man on the spot, and there began a lifetime friendship with Shaquille O’Neal.

By the time his father, a sergeant, was deployed back to the U.S., O’Neal was already committed to LSU! Brown knew at age thirteen that O’Neill was a unique talent with an enormous future. That turned out to be an understatement.

The sports world is filled with stories about young athletes who evinced a sense of athletic destiny. This is true in spiritual terms and is one of the characteristics of great leaders.

Reading through the Bible each year, I am struck by the leaders who evinced a sense of destiny.

In fact, there are so many that you can characterize them into groups: the birth narratives, childhood events, calling, and early ministry miracles.

Some leaders have a story in every category. What they had in common was giving a sense of destiny in God’s great plan.

Birth Narratives

The birth narratives found throughout the Bible are routinely designed to announce the “destiny” of the newborn. This is clearly the case with Moses in Exodus 2.

Moses

As the curtain comes down at the end of Genesis, the story of the Patriarchs ends with the descendants of Jacob living in Egypt. Joseph and his brothers pass away, and after some time, the Israelites go from preferred guests to slave labor.

They grow in number, and the size of their population becomes a threat to the Egyptians. This leads the Pharaoh to institute a draconian policy, the killing of all male Hebrew babies. This is the backdrop for the birth of Moses in Exodus 2.

The reader is alerted immediately to the importance of the newborn, as the parents and older sister are not even mentioned by name. To avoid the death sentence of being a male baby, the child is slipped into a tar and pitch-coated basket and floated into the Nile.

This leads to the baby’s life being spared certain death, and miraculously, the infant ends up in the hands of the Pharaoh’s daughter, who draws the basket out of the Nile.

Through the certain hand of God, the Pharaoh’s search for a nursemaid leads back to Moses’ birth mother. The child ends up being nursed and nurtured by his actual mother and then raised in Pharaoh’s palace. Reading this passage, the sense of destiny is palatable. 

Samuel

I Samuel begins with a story of family conflict with Elkanah favoring his wife Hannah over his other wife Peninnah.

Unfortunately, Peninnah had given Elkanah many sons and daughters, and Hannah remained childless. In her state of despair, Hannah prayed and experienced a miraculous encounter with Eli, the priest.

That encounter led to God’s intervention and Hannah’s pregnancy with Samuel. Samuel’s miraculous conception and birth make it clear that he is a child with a kingdom-of-God destiny!

Jesus

The most famous birth narrative in the Bible and human history is that of Jesus. Although the Bethlehem story is well-known, several elements point out the “destiny” nature of Jesus’ birth.

First, in Luke 1:26-38, the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and announces her “immaculate” conception and the coming birth of “the Son of the Most High”.

Second, her cousin Elizabeth, also pregnant, has her baby “leap” in her womb, again a sign of Jesus’ destiny. Third, the birth is announced to the shepherds through a heavenly choir of angels (Luke 2:13-15).

Finally, in Matthew, the visit of the Magi indicates the infant’s uniqueness and then the miraculous angelic guidance to take the baby to Egypt, protecting Him from Herod’s death threat (Matthew 2:13-18).

And this list does not include the angelic appearance to Joseph (Matthew 1), urging him to take Mary as his bride and Jesus as his son.

Taken together, these features make Jesus’ birth narrative memorable. It creates a sense of destiny and expectation. After reading the gripping passages, the stage is set for the life of the world’s greatest leader.

There are other birth narratives, such as John the Baptist, which communicate a sense of destiny. These three serve to show the way in which a leader's birth can be a harbinger of their leadership destiny.

Childhood Events

Another “sense of destiny” indicator is the memorable childhood events that often accompany the life of a leader.

Joseph

In Genesis 37, Joseph is introduced as a favorite son of Jacob. A beautiful robe symbolized his front-runner status, and that role was further emphasized through dreams.

Joseph experiences two separate dreams that clearly indicate his unique status among the brothers. One involving sheaves of grain and the other celestial objects both allude to his future leadership role among his brothers.

The brothers and the reader as well are made aware of Joseph’s destiny as a leader.

Samuel

In addition to the birth narrative noted above, Samuel experiences events as a child that cement the sense of destiny around his life as a leader.

After his birth and dedication to the LORD, he lives under Eli’s care. In I Samuel 2, he is favorably and repeatedly compared to Eli’s wicked sons.

In I Samuel 3, God speaks to Samuel directly with Eli needed to assure Samuel of God’s voice. God provides a prophetic word to the young boy that was against the house of Eli and certainly not easily delivered.

The entire nature of Samuel’s encounter with God and the courage to deliver a negative prophecy create a sense of destiny around the life of the child.

David

Two events occur in David’s young life that are indicators of his leadership future. The first involves Samuel’s visit to Bethlehem to anoint the son of Jesse to be King over Israel.

This is done secretively as Saul continues to reign as Israel’s first king. Jesse’s seven sons pass unceremoniously before Samuel. Foregoing the seven older sons, Samuel calls for the youngest, David.

Sensing God’s leading, David is anointed with the “Spirit of the LORD” coming upon him (I Samuel 16:13). Immediately following that is the encounter between David and Goliath.

In one of the most famous stories in antiquity, the young boy defeats the Philistine champion, cementing himself as someone with a destiny.

Jesus

Little is known about Jesus’ childhood after He was presented at the Temple (Luke 2:22-40), which was another “sense of destiny” moment.

That passage closes with Jesus “growing in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:40). What follows is the account of Jesus, as a child of twelve, being separated from His parents and, after days of searching, found in the Temple courts.

When Mary and Joseph found their lost son, he was interacting with the teachers of the Law, and all were amazed at His wisdom and insight. This childhood vignette serves to further indicate the “sense of destiny” associated with His life.

Closing Thoughts

Many leaders in the Bible have unique, abnormal, and miraculous events associated with their childhood.

Many of these childhood manifestations are preceded by a birth narrative. Both serve to set the stage for a leader's life of significant impact. They create a sense of expectation about what God is about to do through the life of that leader.

Some years ago, I developed a relationship with a leader in the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt. He was a Bishop in Upper Egypt and a genuine man of God.

During one of our early conversations, he told me that his father had been a highly successful businessman in Egypt. During one period of upheaval, his father’s factory was nationalized by the government, and they lost everything.

One year later, the government asked his father to return to manage the factory. They offered a pittance, but he knew that turning down the government would mean trouble. His father and mother decided to leave Egypt and seek asylum in the west. They were granted just that in Canada and made their plans to depart.

Several days before that departure, my bishop friend had a dream. In that dream, Jesus appeared to him and asked who would represent Christianity in Egypt if the Christians fled. It was a dramatic encounter.

The next morning, he shared the dream with his parents and told them he was not leaving Egypt. The parents dismissed him and insisted they emigrate as a family. However, he insisted that Jesus had appeared to him, and he had to stay in Egypt.

A compromise was reached when an aunt and uncle in Upper Egypt agreed to let him live with them over the summer. They knew after a few weeks, he would be homesick for family and join them in Canada. Summer drug on into the school year, and that young man never did leave Egypt.

Today, he is a very influential evangelical leader in the Coptic Church. I asked him how old he was when he had the dream. He told me, “I was eight years old.”

Many leaders today have similar stories of God working in their lives at young ages, creating a sense of expectation. Effective leaders evince a sense of destiny.