And to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave from Gilead as far as the River Arnon, the middle of the river as the border, as far as the River Jabbok, the border of the people of Ammon.

Influence equals power & blessing

I’m not going to pretend that I know enough about the Reubenites and the Gadites to write a blog post on them, but what I do know about the Reubenites is a little about their leader, in Genesis 37 we learn a bit about the nature of Reuben and so no doubt the nature of the Reubenites as the nature of all tribes, families, organisations tend to flow down from the leader.

Reuben was the eldest son of Jacob, Joseph’s eldest brother, he seems to of had a good heart but not enough follow through and involvement.

Verse 21 of Genesis 37 says that Reuben heard of the plan to kill Joseph and throw him in a pit and then pretend a wild animal had killed him. So clearly he was not with the rest of the brothers when they were scheming this evil plan.

Reuben upon hearing there plan decided that killing Joseph was too much and it would be counted against them, so it would be better to just throw him in the pit. Which they did, and then some Ishmaelite traders turned up.

Judah the 4^th born son had an idea to sell Joseph rather than leave him in the pit and all the other brothers went along with it. Verse 29 is rather alarming it says ‘then Reuben returned to the pit and indeed Joseph was not in the pit; and he tore his clothes.’

Reuben no doubt had Josephs interests at heart and was the more righteous of the brothers but where was he?

Where did he disappear to at these crunch times? The moment that sealed his brothers fate he went missing! Perhaps he was praying and fasting? You can come to that conclusion because the others were eating when he was missing.

The truth is, you can only be a leader if you are present and if you are a man of the people, if you never mix and walk and eat with the people you are wanting to lead, they are unlikely to follow, they need to know you! It seems Judah had built up a trust and a knowing with his brothers, even though he was 4^th down the traditional pecking order of age.

My major lesson from the life of Reuben is that you can not assume leadership because your the oldest or someone has given you the title, as one of my hero’s leadership expert ‘John Maxwell’ says “leadership is influence nothing more nothing less.”

Reuben lost his position and blessing to Judah I believe because he went missing at the crucial moments and his brothers did not see him as their leader, even though there Father Jacob would of originally wanted and set things up that way.

While Judah had his brothers doing as he wanted and ultimately received the best blessing and the blessing of the first born from his Father, even Jesus was born of the tribe of Judah! So Judah won in grand style even though he was not the most righteous son, he was the best leader and eventually fully repented of his selling of Joseph by interceding for Benjamin and taking his place in captivity.

So who are you wanting to lead? Or put another way, ‘who should you be influencing?’

Are you allowing yourself to cost along in this area? Do you need to be more intentional?

Ask yourself ‘how much time am I spending with them and is that time quality time?’

‘What interesting activities can I do to engage the people and in particular the family I lead?’

and ‘what occasions / celebrations can I be a part of to show my care for them?’