Servant leadership.
Moses represents to us, one in a long line of reluctant leaders of the Jewish nation, raised in luxury and with the finest schooling of the time. We might say that Moses was born to be a leader, if not that then certainly made into one by the circumstances of his upbringing. Moses however displays not the qualities of a Pharaoh, a strong hand and oftentimes oppressive leadership, but a quality we look for in all Christian leaders, servanthood.
The Christlike qualities of Moses do not end there, Moses’ leadership is a model of prophet and an uncompromising communicator of God’s word. In his own way, he is also a redemptive leader by allowing God to work through him to save his people.
Moses the servant of God
It is a well established model in Scripture, that a leader be person who is humble in his role, one with a ” This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” (Ps 66:2), “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mk 10:45)
A leader is one called to serve those under his charge, not to lord over the people or to burden them unnecessarily. The life of Moses from the time that God called him out of Pharaoh’s house into the desert to the time of his death, is one marked by dogged obedience to God. In fact the few times he strayed from this serves as a dramatic example of his servant heart. Eschewing all that the Egyptian culture had to offer, Moses learnt how to be a servant of his people by first becoming a servant of God.
” Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law” (Exodus 3:1)
This sliver of Scripture is a key to the significance of Moses’ leadership and ministry. When Joseph brought his family to Egypt to escape the great famine on the land he sternly warned them.
When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.” (Genesis 46:33-34)
Moses threw off all conventions of Egyptian society, instead seeking the occupation of his people, something he would have been raised in the house of Pharaoh to despise, however he did this in obedience and submission. It is any wonder then that it was at this time that God revealed himself to Moses?
Moses, God’s spokesperson
As leader of his people, Moses drew his authority from God alone. While signs and wonders such as the dramatic flight from Egypt as well as the daily sustenance in the desert were constant reminders of this, Moses’ giving of the law is his lasting mark of leadership. “Moses is a concrete agent of reception and proclamation, whereby Yahweh’s intention and presence were mediated effectively in, to, and for Israel” [1] and “it is only rarely in Deuteronomy that we find Moses acting as the leader who gives strategic orders…, for his real office was to pass on to Israel, in the form of a proclaimed word, the word of Jahweh[sic] which had been addressed to himself” [2]
If the law however was delivered by Moses, and Christ has come to complete the law and place us under the Grace of God, then what can we learn from Moses’ leadership in this area?
The signs, wonders, and law given through Moses are only half of the equation of Moses as God’s spokesperson. The other half is that Moses was not just an uncompromising communicator of God’s word, but he was also under this word and lived according to it. Moses was a leader in justice to his people because he lived under God’s justice and not in judgement.
If we are to learn or retain only one portion of the qualities of Moses’ leadership it should be this; that we are God’s spokespeople to the world, and our effectiveness lies only in how we model ourselves under God’s leadership of us. Living in justice and not judgement.
Moses, Redeemer of God’s people
Perhaps the most important aspect of Moses’ leadership is the redemptive nature of his leading. Already we have highlighted Moses’ servant heart towards God and his people, but the outworking of this is the communities joining to God’s covenant with them.
The picture that Israel draws of Moses is one that “tends to throw ever more clearly into relief the features of the mediator, of the servant of God who suffers and dies for his people; and this is a very remarkable characteristic of it. The people of the old covenant, in setting forth this picture of Moses who suffered and offered expiation for the sins of his people, were thereby giving expression to a secret and inward hope.” [3]
“Moses is intercessor, the one who suffers with them and for them, as in the case of Jeremiah and the Suffering Servant of Isaiah.” [4]
We see here that Moses is placed as the mediator between God and man, and as God’s spokesperson, between man and man, demonstrating God’s justice with his own life and in his mediations between men.
Ministering through discouragement
A survey of the life of Moses, in addition to the points already raised will find a leader who often leads out of discouragement. Whether that discouragement comes from man or God, the quality I most admire of Moses is the ability to persevere, learn and grow through whatever is in front of him. The beginning of Moses’ ministry started in the desert, with the despised occupation of a Shepherd, and there God allowed him to stay until he heard the words “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:10).
It is certainly not hard to find other examples of which Israel wandering the desert, opposition to his leadership from Aaron and the golden calf provide just a sample.
Moses’ response however was to rely on his calling, knowing that he was called by God for this purpose. In response to God asking him to step out in faith Moses asked: “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11) God reassures, “I AM who sends you.” (Exodus 3:14 paraphrased)
Study questions
- What do you understand to by the term servant leadership?
- There will be times in your ministry that you will be called to preform work that you may consider beneath you, or to take timeout for the sake of Character development, such as Moses tending his father-in-laws sheep. Have you been called by God to perform work you consider beneath you? How did you handle being asked to do this?
- Considering that we are often the only representative of Jesus that people we meet will encounter, is it more important for us to be a spokesperson for God or model the behaviour in our lives that he wants to see in others?
- What do you think it means to live in justice and not judgement?
- While Moses had a role to play in the redemption of his people, in fact taking on a Christ like role, we are all called through Jesus to a ministry of reconciliation between God man (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). What does that mean in you ministry?
- How do you understand the image of the suffering servant (leader) in regards to Christian leadership?
- Moses’ ministry seems to be marked with continued bouts of disappointment. Disappointment with God for not acting sooner, disappointment with his people for disobeying God’s direction and disappointed with himself over his own disobedience. Think back on a time where you were disappointed by those you lead, what would you do differently if you had your time again?
- In order to survive, Moses had to have his life grounded in the calling of God. “I AM who sends you”. What Scripture has God spoken into your life that you can draw on for your calling?
References
Brueggemann, W, Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997
Van Seters, J., The Life of Moses: The Yahwist as Historian Exodus and Numbers, Louisville: Westminster/John Knox), 1994
Von Rad, G., Moses, London: Lutterworth, 1960
