I was recently asked to take a larger leadership role. Being asked to lead a new task no matter the size is energizing. It feels great to be asked to take on a new level of leadership. With a promotion we tell our loved ones and friends about the exciting news. We’re excited about our big dreams. We think about taking our task to a much better place. Yet after the initial joy of starting a project something changes.
Now that we have the job, there is a big gulp. We must perform. We see the challenges we missed in our initial enthusiasm. Eventually we
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experience the end of the honeymoon of our leadership. Enthusiasm becomes hesitancy. Joy becomes angst about leading. What is happening? Why do we balk at a new leadership opportunity? We may even say, “What’s wrong with me??” Well, actually nothing. We are in great company. Others before us have gotten jittery in the face of new challenges.
One person who faced these issues is the premier leader in the Old Testament. Moses was called by God to lead the people out of Egypt and to a new land that the Lord had promised hundreds of years before. He took on all sorts of challenges. He had external foes battling and wanting to harm him. He had internal foes, even foes within his family. He faced the whininess of people unwilling to endure the difficulties to reach the Promised Land. Ultimately, he did lead the people to God’s desired outcome.
But he didn’t start there. He himself had to face five big pushbacks on being a God’s leader of Israel. Let’s jump into Exodus 3 and 4 to see Moses’ wrestling with his calling.
The account begins with Moses tending his sheep when he spots something weird, a bush that doesn’t consume itself though on fire. God ushers him into his presence and makes the big ask, “Go and free my people.” This is where Moses starts his pushback on God’s call.
Pushback 1: Who Am I?
“Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring these Israelites out of Egypt?” v11 NIV
God had a crazy proposition. Take on the most powerful country in the world. Go to the most powerful leader in the world and with out an army and challenge him to free a huge group of workers in his country. This first pushback by Moses focuses on himself. It goes to his inner thoughts of being. He realizes he doesn’t have the inner character, the leadership qualities or the strength. He is a simple shepherd in a hidden corner of the world.
Moses also was aware of his failures. In the previous chapter Moses flipped out and murdered an Egyptian that was harming a Jew. He was well acquainted with his failures and not just a small mistake. He was not caught for jaywalking. Murder was in his past. He knew that Pharaoh was aware of his violent act. His failures were known probably to the whole community. He must have looked inside himself and said, “Can a criminal of the worst kind do anything for God? Can I come into the community where I committed the crime and lead in anyway the people there?” His answer was, “Are you kidding? I am not the man. I in no way have the character, the strength to take this immense project?”
We’re like Moses. The first question we ask ourselves is, “Me?? I’m not able. I’m out of my league.” Now there certainly are times we should not be leading, but when God calls, when he commands, we cannot shrink back. That said, we must face the task at hand believing God sees and knows something we do not.
God’s answer to who am I? — I will be with you.
Pushback 2: Who are you?
“If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” Exodus 3:13 ESV
Moses is a little deceptive he couches the question as if Israel is asking the question, it’s really Moses’ own question, “Who are you, God?” Moses shifts the question from himself onto God. What is your character? What is your nature? Who are you to ask such a crazy task?
Consider Moses’ situation. From his perspective God was hidden. God hadn’t shown up. It had been hundreds of years since the Lord has done anything. To make things worse, Moses saw the people’s enslavement and hardship. Things were bad and were always going to be bad for Israel. When Moses looked to his own life, he saw the same tragic outcome. He had a life of status in Pharaoh’s household only to lose it all. Now he was relegated to tending sheep. A nobody in a non-consequential place.
When we face challenges, we forget to put God in the equation. The battles before us hide God’s presence and power. All we can see is the painful situation in which we and our people find ourselves.
I was recently was speaking with my friend Ron, who was perplexed at the lack of response from a couple of his friends. Why couldn’t he help his friends? Why were they not responsive? I asked Ron if he had been praying about the situation. Ron embarrassedly said, “Oh my, I have not.” This is the issue. In the battles of life, we forget completely about God’s presence and power. It doesn’t come to mind in the present reality of our challenges.
King David however, remembered who the Lord was in the battle. In Psalm 27 he faces overwhelming odds, surrounded by his enemies ready to kill him. Yet David confidently seeks to be in God presence (verse 4), knowing that he would be delivered and protected (verse 5, 6). Moses learned about Yahweh’s power through the plagues, through the protective pillar of fire, and as God unpacked his character in Exodus 34:6, 7.
God’s answer to who are you? — I AM the self-existent one. I’ve been God to your people for generations.
Pushback 3, 4 & 5 are coming soon. 