Leaders of the Bible: Moses
“You got the wrong guy. I am not a leader, a speaker, or able to do what you are asking. I am inadequate, weak, and scared. God, I doubt that it is you speaking to me and I have even bigger doubts that people would follow me. If, I am being frank I would rather have anyone else take my place.”
Any of these thoughts ever run through your mind? In the rawest moments do you have deep seeded faith issues, distrust of God’s call or overwhelmed by all that it entails? If so, there is good news for you - God works through the weak. Scratch that, the God of strength leads his people only through the weak, the fearful, the unprepared and those in need of grace. God does not always use strong leaders, but he always used faith filled leaders.
The words above summarize the thoughts of Moses in the book of Exodus (Exodus 3:11-13 , 4:1-13). There is much leadership wisdom that could be gleaned from Moses and applied to our lives, but there is one trait and two principals that stand out as hallmarks of Godly leadership.
To begin, the trait of Godly leadership Moses embodies was faith. Moses trusted God. He had a growing confidence that the God he knew was powerful and good. Imagine that you were a leaders of an entire nation, tasked with God to rebel in captivity, defy a super power and lead your nation into freedom. You had no army, no uprising, and no clear plan. This is Moses in the book of Exodus, tasked to lead the nation of Israel out of the yoke of slavery in Egypt into the freedom of the promise land.
Exodus 3:10-12 captures a dialogue between God and Moses. In that passage God say “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He (God) said, “But I will be with you.”
God’s ask is clear. Moses fear is even clearer. And what does Moses do? Despite these questions and more to come in the Exodus story, Moses responses in faith, trusting God. Exodus 7:10 say “So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded.” Here lies the first principal that a faith filled leader lives by: Moses had an increasing confidence in God and a decreasing worry about what was to come that produced risky obedience for God. That is the principal. Increase in confidence, decrease in worry that produces risky obedience.
In the course of the Exodus story, this increasing confidence lead Moses to take many risks. Opening defy Pharoah, trusting that God would pass over the killing of his people and leading Israel through the Red Sea are some examples. In all these risks God never gives a detailed plan of how it will unfold. There isn’t a roadmap, a playbook or instruction manual dropped to Moses before hand. As seen in Exodus 3, in the story of the burning bush, God ensures Moses that he will be with him and asks him to respond in faith. In this lies the second principal that a faith filled leader follows. The principal is this: that confidence in God is not found in clarity from God. Let’s read that one more time. Confidence IN God is not found in clarity from God. Confidence in God IS found in the character of God. Maybe we should stop asking God for clarity and start asking him for faith. As leaders we should emulate Moses and spend less time asking God the details of the future and more time trusting in the one who holds the future. Let us be faith filled leaders who are growing in our confidence of God, leading us to risky obedience and trusting in God’s character for the future not clarity of the future.
