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Moses the Leader, Part 2

Leading by following

30th September 2016

Last time we began looking at Moses's leadership. We saw that God who chose Moses to lead. Moses didn't think of himself as a leader, and he was very aware of his shortcomings, but God chose him, and he accepted his calling.

A second important leadership lesson we can learn from Moses is that Moses was a follower more than he was a leader. He knew that God was Israel's real leader. He did what God told him to do and he followed where God led.

God sent Moses back to Egypt to speak to Pharaoh, so Moses went. God told Moses to perform various miracles before Pharaoh, so he did. God told Moses to prophesy the various plagues that God would send, so he did. God gave Moses and Aaron precise instructions for the Israelites about what to do during the plague of the death of the firstborn, and they relayed those instructions faithfully to the people. God told Moses and Aaron to leave that night, and they did. And they told the people, who followed them.

And when they left Egypt, it was God, not Moses, who told the Israelites where go:

Exodus 13v17-18a
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." So God led the people around by the desert road towards the Red Sea.

It was easy to see where God was leading them in those days:

Exodus 13v21-22
By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

But then God told Moses to change direction, and take a route that they would never have chosen for themselves:

Exodus 14v1-2
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to camp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon."

God explained to Moses why he was commanding a change of direction. He was instructing Moses to put himself and the Israelites in danger, because He wanted to prove His existence, His authority and His power, to the Egyptians:

Exodus 14v3-4a
Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD."

Again, Moses obeyed God, but when the people realised the danger God had put them in, they turned on Moses:

Exodus 14v10-12
As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

They blamed Moses, but it was God, not Moses, who'd led them into the desert, and it was God, not Moses, who'd commanded the change in direction. Moses just heard God and obeyed Him. That's godly leadership. And it requires faith.

And Moses told the people to stand firm and trust in God. That's godly leadership, too:

Exodus 14v13-14
Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Then God told Moses to hold his staff over the sea, and he obeyed God. The sea parted, and the Israelites were saved. They sang and danced in praise of the God who had saved them. But God had required Moses to act in obedience, lifting his staff over the sea, as part of their deliverance.

Next:

Exodus 15v22-23a
Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they travelled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter.

Moses led the people into the desert, because that's where God wanted them to be - remember the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Again, the people turned on Moses:

Exodus 15v24
So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"

God told Moses to throw a log into the water, and his obedience turned the bitter waters into sweet water. The people drank and moved on to the springs of Elim.

Following the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, they left Elim and moved into the desert of Sin, where their food began to run out. Yet again, the people turned on Moses:

Exodus 16v2-3
In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat round pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

The Israelites complained that Moses and Aaron had brought the Israelites into the desert and, as a result, they were all going to die. But it wasn't Moses and Aaron that had led them - it was God. Moses and Aaron just responded to God and did what he said. Moses and Aaron told the Israelites:

Exodus 16v6b
"In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt"

And God provided food for them.

Moses wasn't perfect, but he was a wonderful example to us of leading by following. Moses saw what God was doing, heard what God was saying and came into line with God.

Jesus was the same:

John 8v28b
I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.

John 12v49
For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.

A godly Christian leader doesn't make decisions based on what will make his church comfortable, or what will make them feel safe, or what will guarantee their well-being in the future. A godly Christian leader certainly doesn't make decisions based on what seems to him to be good sense. He takes time to listen to God, he obeys God, and he tells his church what God wants them to do. And sometimes his church will turn on him.

God has a plan for your life, and for your church. God's plan is, of course, better than your plan. And God's ways are not our ways. The way of maximum comfort and security may not be God's best for you, or for your church.

God has every right to do whatever He wants. And sometimes God wants to put us in a situation where our faith and obedience are tested. If our leaders are godly men, then they will take us where God wants us to go. If we are godly Christians, then we will follow, without grumbling, and trust God.

Of course some leaders are not godly. Some will lead us where they want to go, or where they think makes sense, trusting in their own understanding instead of listening attentively to God. Each of us must prayerfully decide whether we believe our leader is called by God to lead us, and is a godly man. If not, we must find a leader who is.

A godly leader will be faithful to obey God, and to communicate God's word to us.