Monthly Archives: May 2025

Toxic Followership: Moses and Korah

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I apologize that new blog posts are few and far between coming from my keyboard of late. And I am sorry this blog does not have a podcast yet. I have been immersed in a writing project for the past six months. No sooner had my new book been sent to a variety of editors that this new project came along. It has been extremely time-consuming and very satisfying. I have been writing a chapter in a textbook on “bad leadership” along with an international cast of researchers. It has been difficult because the editor is quite particular. But, that has been very, very good for me as a writer—I am very happy with the results—and he has become a friend (very far away in Norway). It is scheduled for release in about a year. Keep your eyes open.

In business and social science research there is a term used for Numbers 16:1-35; Toxic Followership.

Whereas a leader is good and just and effective, the follower is abusive.

I can’t say that I have written on this before. After all, my blog is said to be all about toxic leadership, not bad followers. But, this is important too.

Several years ago I read a book written by a pastor about this very topic (“The Wounded Minister”1). I wasn’t that interested—but it was a good book. My own experience was with toxic leadership.

The Sons of Korah

After the nation of Israel had departed from Egypt (the great Exodus) Moses was leading them through the wilderness. 250 of the chiefs rose up to oppose Moses and Aaron’s leadership of Israel. They said to Moses,

“You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”

Numbers 16:3 (ESV)

This is a very interesting statement. The Bible does not pull punches when it comes to leaders (and followers) in its pages. We do not see hero worship (other than to God Himself) there. We consistently see honest histories of a people who are broken by sin. It is not selective history in that way.

The Priesthood of All Believers

Moses was not a perfect leader: We know Moses had failings and sin. We know he murdered an Egyptian and ran away to be free from the consequences (Exodus 2:11-15). The Lord even kept him from the fruit of the forty years of leading His people through the wilderness, not allowing him to enter the Promised Land with the people because of his sin (Deuteronomy 32:48-52).

We believe in the Priesthood of all believers: These chiefs stated this biblical truth. They noted that God’s people are holy—set apart for God’s purposes—just as any leader is. Peter says:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)

However, these followers—sons of Korah—did not also consider the full teaching of Scripture; followers are to respect their leaders if those leaders do not disqualify themselves from positions of authority (1 Timothy 5:19).

There have been numerous cases where leaders in the church—though not perfect in character or in leadership skill—have been rejected by followers who instead wish to be the leader. The motive behind the rebellion is not that the leader is disqualified from leadership but rather the follower arrogantly assumes he or she can do it better.

Moses’ Response

As Paul notes in his epistle to the young pastor, Timothy, desiring to lead is noble. However, when it is based on arrogance and self-service, it is not so much.

Moses responded to the rebellion of the sons of Korah:

  • He went to the Lord in his anger.
  • We do not know the tone of his voice when he spoke to them, but he relied on the Lord to judge between him and those who were rebelling against him.
  • And he reasoned with them reminding them that they had been chosen for very important tasks as servants in the tabernacle.

God’s Response

But then an interesting thing happened. When they had all been gathered together for the Lord to judge, Moses is surprised by the judgment that God makes:

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 21 “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.”

Numbers 16:20

Moses, as a servant was not in favor of God destroying the lot of them.

But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God, the God who gives breath to all living things, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”

Numbers 16:21

The Lord judged these men and declared that their rebellion against Moses was rebellion against the Lord.

Not Get Out of Jail Free Card, But . . .

This is an important passage and must be considered in regards to followership very carefully. Many leaders use such passages as get out of jail free cards when followers reject their toxic leadership. They consider their leadership absolute where Scripture does not allow such a view.

However, if followers reject the authority of someone who leads them it must be because of truly disqualifying acts by the leader. Certainly, it is appropriate to leave behind a leader with whom you disagree but how we handle those disagreements and leaving needs to be in care.

It must be apparent in my pages and pages of writing that I believe toxic leadership needs to be stopped and part of that process is the rejection of it by followers. However, it needs to be said that toxic followership is also destructive and God calls it out.

Notes

  1. Greenfield, Guy, and Faulkner, Brooks, The Wounded Minister: Healing from and Preventing Personal Attacks (2001)
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How Toxic Leaders Respond to Strength: Toxic Leadership Goes from Bad to Worse

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Threatened.

The toxic leader will be threatened by the slightest show of strength from subordinates. This was the story of the new king of Egypt in the time following the death of Joseph.

As a little background, Joseph, the son of Jacob, had been taken as a slave from his family to Egypt—that is a whole story in itself. Through a variety of amazing circumstances directed by the Lord, Joseph’s ability to read the dreams of others came to the attention of the king.

Having read the king’s troubling dreams, the king appointed Joseph to oversee the nation’s food supply. The king had dreamed (symbolically) of seven years of abundance followed by a seven-year drought. God gave Joseph incredible wisdom that saved the Egyptian nation and many surrounding nations through his wise management of their agriculture.

Joseph’s family—God’s people—moved to Egypt during this time and were given good land to farm by the king. The “Israelites” grew in numbers and after Joseph died, Exodus 1:8-11 picks up the story:

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.

Exodus 1:8-11 (ESV)

You have to the ask the question, “Why would the king think the Israelites would join Egypt’s enemies and fight against them?” Egypt had proven to be a good place to work and raise their families. The Israelites were prospering because of the former Pharoah’s (king) kindness to them.

Why, Why, Why

However, it appears that the Israelites were already in the grips of the Egyptians. They did not appear to be equals in their citizenry. The king (and the other Egyptians) appeared to have power over these foreign people. This is evidenced by the fact the king could set “taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.”

This new Pharaoh would prove in the story to be a toxic leader.

The Egyptian king had the ability to rule over them in a toxic way and chose to do so. So, he chose to take toxic control. An average leader might consider how to woo his subordinates. Not the Egyptian king. . . nor a toxic leader of any sort.

Robert Hare wrote,

There is a class of individuals who have been around forever and who are found in every race, culture, society and walk of life. Everybody has met these people, been deceived and manipulated by them, and forced to live with or repair the damage they have wrought.1

If you know the story, you know that Exodus goes on to describe the destruction wrought by the king in the lives of the Egyptians and the subsequent judgments God brought upon the nation of Egypt because of the king’s horrific toxicity. As Hare notes, the Egyptians were “forced to live with or repair the damage [the king had] wrought.”

This is the way of toxic leadership. The destruction a narcissistic or abusive leader causes can be far-reaching and long-lasting. But generally, it is people in the organization, nation, business, or church that have to, in the end, live with it or try to repair it.

And it gets worse

Barbara Kellerman, the Founding Executive Director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, wrote of the common direction these toxic leaders go; down. It only gets worse. There is example after example. It is extremely rare that a bad leader becomes good. Rather their slippery slope is all downhill.

Kellerman tells the story of Volkswagen’s former CEO, Martin Winterkorn.

The effect of Winterkorn’s bad leadership was cumulative. The longer it lasted, the higher the cost to everyone adversely affected. Volkswagen’s cheating was not a single, quickly aborted instance of wrongdoing, never to be repeated. It was the opposite. It went on for eight years, the price paid by the victims of Volkswagen’s wrongdoing escalating with each passing day.2

But this should not surprise us as Christians. Sin is crouching at the door (Gen. 4:7) and without the intervention of Christ, it goes generally from bad to worse.

There are people who are truly driven by evil as Dan Allender describes (and it only gets worse):

All of us are capable of doing evil things, but evil people are driven by a self-interest that is so heartless, conscious, and cruel that it delights in stealing from others the lifeblood of their soul. Often the one who delights in evil is an ordinary, unassuming person who hides behind a facade of normalcy. Few people who are evil ever appear evil, even after the evidence of their deceit, destructiveness, and hardness is exposed.3

Keeping Clean of Defilement

It is difficult to watch the masses follow after narcissistic and abusive leaders in any organizational setting. They might think the leader holds some values they hold or promote some policies they promote. So, they think those positive traits will keep the followers clean of defilement. But, that is not how it works.

The followers of the Egyptian king suffered much the same from God’s judgment as did the king. The plagues that devastated Egypt crushed its people. In fact, it is likely that the only plague that fully affected the king was the death of his firstborn. As the king, he was likely above many of the affects of the other plagues.

Let this story be a challenge to leaders who are tempted to gain control through strength or manipulation. And let is be a challenge to followers who think they are somehow exempt from the damage such leaders bring.

Notes

  1. ‘This Charming Psychopath’, Psychology Today, http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199401/charming-psychopath, accessed 18 March 2016.
    ↩︎
  2. Kellerman, Barbara, Leadership from Bad to Worse: What Happens When Bad Festers, Oxford University Press (2024)
    (pp. 82-83). ↩︎
  3. Allender, Dan B., and Longman III, Tremper, Bold Love (Colorado Springs, CO, 2014) 233.
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