Epilogue: Moses' Leadership Legacy
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
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J. H. Hartley, "Moses Praying on Mt. Pisgah" (1922), in
James Bailie and J H Hartley (illustrator), The Bible Story a connected
narrative retold from Holy Scripture (A & C Black Ltd., London, 1923).
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Moses is revered in both the Old and New Testaments as prophet, lawgiver, and deliverer of Israel
-- and rightly so. When I try
to assess his secret from a leadership viewpoint, I see two things in particular:
- He was
chosen by God for this particular mission.
- Moses
listened carefully and then obeyed what God told him to do.
On the first point, there isn't much we can do about God's
calling. That is His business, and we have but to understand it, accept it, and
obey.
It's on the second point, however, that I want to reflect.
Moses: Leadership by Listening and Obeying
Moses practiced leadership by listening and obeying. In
this he was unique in the Old Testament. When Miriam and Aaron began
to speak against Moses, the Lord said:
"When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.
But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.
With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the LORD.
(Numbers 12:6-8)
At the conclusion of the Pentateuch we find similar
words about Moses' uniqueness.
"Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like
Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous
signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt -- to Pharaoh and to all his
officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the
mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all
Israel." (Deuteronomy 34:10-12)
But is Moses' leadership style truly unique? God, speaking
through Moses, pointed to a successor.
"15 The LORD your God will raise up for
you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him....
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I
will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.
If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my
name, I myself will call him to account." (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18-19)
Joshua was a great leader, but he wasn't the
fulfillment of this prophecy, nor was any of the Old Testament prophets. The
prophet God speaks of is Jesus himself,1
as Peter testified (Acts 3:22-23).
When we look at Jesus' leadership style, we see the same
underlying pattern that we saw in Moses -- though I don't want to oversimplify
Jesus' leadership. We see a clear, unapologetic dependence upon the Father.
"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by
himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the
Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he
does…." (John 5:19-20a)
The source of Jesus' leadership was a close relationship
with the Father nurtured by hours in prayer. Moses had his Tent of Meeting
(Exodus 33:7-11); Jesus had the hills where he would lose himself to be with the
Father.
"Very early in the morning, while it was still
dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he
prayed." (Mark 1:35 = Luke 4:42)
"And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and
prayed." (Luke 5:16)
"One of those days Jesus went out to a
mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." (Luke 6:12)
"Once when Jesus was praying in private and his
disciples were with him, he asked them, 'Who do the crowds say I am?'" (Luke
9:18)
"About eight days after Jesus said this, he took
Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was
praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as
a flash of lightning." (Luke 9:28-29)
"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place.
When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray,
just as John taught his disciples.'" (Luke 11:1)
"After he had dismissed them, he went up on a
mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone."
(Matthew 14:23 = Mark 6:46 = John 6:15)
"He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them,
knelt down and prayed." (Luke 22:41)
Can Moses' and Jesus' pattern of listening and obeying be
replicated today? Yes! Of course, Moses was unique among Old Testament prophets
and Jesus was uniquely divine. But Jesus' ministry was clearly due to the power
and anointing of the Holy Spirit upon him, not just his divinity, for he said to
his disciples:
"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me
will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these,
because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12)
What does Jesus' going to the Father have to do with
it? Because then the Spirit will come!
"I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I
am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I
go, I will send him to you." (John 16:7)
The same prophetic Spirit that was on Moses (Numbers 11:17,
25), was poured out at Pentecost upon the whole church. When the Holy Spirit
comes to dwell within us as individuals and as congregations, then nothing is
impossible to us. One of my favorite verses is found near the beginning of 1
Corinthians.
"The man without the Spirit does not accept the
things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he
cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual
man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's
judgment:
'For who has known the mind of the
Lord that he may instruct him?'
But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Corinthians
2:14-16)
The same Holy Spirit that searches the deep things of
God (1 Corinthians 2:10), also flows within us to reveal to us the thoughts of
God (verse 11), if we will quiet our hearts and listen. This doesn't mean that
God reveals everything to us. Nor does it mean that all of us have the same
free-flow of communication that Moses experienced. I've found that you must
learn to hear the Lord's voice; it is a privilege of all Christians. Of
course, God bestows on some a special gift of prophecy that allows them to have
a much greater flow of prophetic revelation for the benefit of the body,
Christ's church.2
I submit to you, my dear friends, that Jesus himself
modeled for his disciples the same sort of leadership pattern that Moses
followed more than 1,000 years previously: listen and then obey what God tells
you to do.
No one said this leadership pattern is easy. It takes
patience, a willingness to seek God, a desire for personal holiness, and a
willingness to obey when God does speak. But the resulting power is much greater
than any leadership model known to man. Nothing is impossible to the person who
obeys what God tells him or her to do. As we conclude this study, I invite you
to join me in a truly Spirit-led life.
Prayer
Thank you, Father, for the gift of your Holy Spirit. For
too long we have taken your precious Gift for granted and ignored your voice.
Teach each of us how to listen and obey. Raise up a generation of leaders who
lead by the Spirit like Moses, who walk in Jesus' own steps. In His holy name, I
pray. Amen.
Moses Bible Study - Discipleship and Leadership Lessons
Copyright © 1985-2012, Ralph F. Wilson. <pastor
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