Moses the Leader, Part 1
God calls whom God chooses
23rd September 2016
Moses was the greatest leader in the Old Testament, so it must be worthwhile studying the way he led. First, though, we’ll look at the time God called him to lead. It’s most important to understand that Moses was called by God to lead Israel. This is any Christian leader's most important criterion: "Did God call me?"
While Moses was working as a shepherd in the desert, God met him at the burning bush, told him how God’s heart was aching for his people Israel as they suffered slavery in Egypt, and how God intended to set them free. Then God said:
Exodus 3:10
So now go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.
So Moses knew where God wanted him to be and what God wanted him to do. There was no doubt in his mind that God had chosen him to lead.
Secondly, Moses didn’t feel able to lead. In Exodus Chapter 4, we read that when God commissioned him, he responded with a number of objections:
Moses asked, “What if they don’t believe me or listen to me and say ‘The Lord didn’t appear to you’?”
The Lord enabled Moses to use his staff to perform miracles, and said, “This is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob – has appeared to you”. Then God gave Moses a second sign; his hand turned leprous when he put his hand in his cloak, and was healed when he put it in again.
Moses said, “O Lord, I’ve never been eloquent... I am slow of speech and tongue”. I think he meant both that he wasn’t good with words, and that he had a speech impediment.
God replied “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say”.
Moses found all this too much to cope with. He said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it”.
That made God angry with Moses but, in His mercy, He gave him Aaron his brother to help him.
Numbers 12:3 tells us that Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. He found it difficult to believe that God wanted him to lead his people, and he found lots of reasons why someone else might do a better job. He would have been uncomfortable leading. But God chose him. And, despite all his misgivings, he couldn’t deny that he’d heard God tell him to lead.
With all the miracle power God had given him, and with his brother with him for moral support, and with the memory of this powerful encounter with God, Moses set out for Egypt. He went on to be the greatest leader they ever had, until Jesus. Jesus was another gentle and humble man (Matthew 11:29).
Beware a leader who thinks he’s a good leader. Beware a leader who thinks he’s the obvious choice. Actually, also beware a leader whom everybody else thinks is the obvious choice. God calls the shy, those who are not naturally good speakers, those who have little self-confidence, to lead. I’ve heard it said that:
God does not call the equipped; he equips the called
God is sovereign. He calls whom he wishes to call, and equips those whom he wishes to equip. He accomplishes his purposes through people who know they’re not worthy to represent him (Moses was a murderer) and often through people who would never be leaders of any group other than God’s people.
Great is his mercy, great is his power, great are his plans for us.
Romans 11:34 (quoting Isaiah 40:13)
Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?