Running with Horses

It was June in the year 323 BC when Alexander the Great died in Babylon. When he fell at age thirty-three to illness and heavy drinking, Alexander left no heir. Infighting ensued to settle who would rule what was that young man’s vast empire. In Plutarch: The Age of Alexander, it says, “In the struggle for power which developed, the infantry and the cavalry, which broadly speaking represented the peasantry and the aristocracy respectively, were at first ranged on opposing sides” (p. 515).

 

Using Plutarch’s description, “ranged on opposing sides,” imagine a spectrum with infantry to the left side and cavalry to the right side. Which then places the blue-collar workers on the left side and the white-collar workers on the right side. To knead that idea out just a little more, I’m saying we have plodders on foot to the left side and horses to the right.

 

More particularly, the categories I’ve come up with to help me understand and serve people are Helpers to the left and Leaders to the right. I’d like to think this binary way of seeing people’s personalities has Biblical precedent, like Abel to the left and Cain to the right. Or Jacob to the left and Esau to the right. Or Mary to the left and Martha to the right.

 

My last three posts centered around the description of and insights into people who lean toward the left side of the spectrum—those with Helper traits. For a quick summary, Helpers tend to be creative, supportive, grace-giving, contemplative, long-suffering, forgiving, nurturing, deferential, merciful, patient, gentle, and identify with those who are or have less. I think of Helpers as being emotional processors—they think through their feelings. Consequently, because that processing is deep and entangled, Helpers are often slower to the start line and take longer to finish—on pretty much everything. Think Plutarch’s infantry.

 

With this post and likely for the next couple of posts, I want to shift attention to the right side of the spectrum—to those with Leader traits. To be clear, these two sets of traits—Helpers and Leaders—are not mutually exclusive. I’m not saying, for example, that because Helpers are known for their patience, therefore Leaders are never patient. I am saying, however, that Leaders will not be characterized by or known for their patience in the way that Helpers are.

 

What, then, would I say are the traits that characterize Leaders?

 

Let me begin by going back to ancient Babylon, where Alexander the Great died. Three hundred years before Alexander, it was revealed to the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah that God would be using the great Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar to take the kingdom of Judah into exile. Sadly, for Jeremiah, he would live to see the day.

 

In one of the exchanges that Jeremiah has with Yahweh, the God of Israel, Yahweh replies and says to Jeremiah, “If you have run with infantrymen and they have tired you out, how can you compete with horses” (12:5, NASB2020)? In context, God is warning Jeremiah by saying if you’re struggling to be ok during times of non-conflict (i.e., the infantrymen), then you’re really going to struggle when the invading Babylonians arrive (i.e., the horses).

 

What I’m going to do now is take Jeremiah 12:5 out of context by using the imagery to fit my personality profile of Helpers and Leaders. Just like Plutarch contrasts the infantry with the cavalry. We have infantrymen (Helpers) and horses (Leaders). Infantrymen cannot keep up with horses. But then they’re not supposed to since they have a different role to play. Infantrymen are designed to follow rules, stay inside the lines, and don’t talk back. They march. Horses are designed to get horsey, they jump around, they’re known for their capacity. They run.

 

One diagnostic that separates Helpers from Leaders is decision-making. At the point of crisis—are you in or are you out—Helpers will hesitate while Leaders will pull the trigger. I was reminded of this yet again in my recent Bible reading. I was working my way through the book of Judges, which provides one case study after another of those with Leader traits. And guess what? Horses show up.

 

As a quick aside, horses in the Bible mostly show up in the context of battle. They are a symbol of military strength and national security. Which is why many of the ancient pagan kings accumulated them. Yahweh, however, has a low opinion of horses and chariots. Israel’s kings were forbidden to accumulate horses (Deut. 17:16) because, like men, horses are made of “flesh” (Isaiah 31:1-3). King David captures the essence of God’s teaching on this when he writes, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7 ESV).

 

Now back to Judges. Because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, God gave them over to Jabin, the king of Canaan. Jabin’s army commander was Sisera, and Sisera had at his disposal 900 chariots. Let’s just say that Jabin and Sisera were big horse boys. And the Bible minces no words on the way Sisera raised hell on Israel for twenty years with all those horses (4:3). When God decided to put an end to it, the Lord raised a flash flood on all those horses and washed them away (5:19-22).

 

As for Sisera, that big horsey guy, he was able to get away on foot (4:15). Which now puts him on the left side of the spectrum where he’s more vulnerable. And I have to say, at least for myself, the irony of this story from here on makes me laugh. Almost to tears. Probably as an echo of the way God laughs at the nations and kings who rage against Him (Psalm 2:4).

 

While still on foot, running but not with horses, Sisera makes it to the tent of Heber who happens to be at relative peace with king Jabin. Heber is evidently out of town when Sisera shows up, but Jael, Heber’s wife is there. And it’s soon clear that Jael has Leader traits. Partly because of her discernment (Leaders’ judgments are not clouded by their emotions like they are with Helpers) and partly because of her decisiveness.

 

Jael assures Sisera that he’s in a safe place and gets him to calm down. She is not caught off guard. She quickly sizes up the situation and formulates a plan. Jael gives Sisera a sedative and puts him to bed. When she sees Sisera sound asleep, Jael does one of the most horsey things possible—she takes a tent peg and pounds it repeatedly into and then through Sisera’s head.

 

There’s no way Jael has Helper traits. If so, she would have been pacing around the tent second-guessing whether to do it. She would have wanted to get a sharpie out and put a dot on Sisera’s temple to have a target. She would have tapped a few times on the tent peg to get it set, and then after the first real blow—and it’s doubtful a Helper could get there—she likely would have stopped to throw up.

 

But no, not Jael. When Deborah sings of the victory that day, she says of Jael, “She pounded Sisera, she pierced his head, she split and struck through his temple” (5:26 NKJV). Decisive. Determined. High yards after contact (see last month’s post). Justice-seeking. Truth-telling. Finishers.

 

And with that I will end for now. More on those with Leader traits in my next posts.

 

Because God has given leader traits to some, and for those who lead, they should lead with zeal (Romans 12:8).