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Chapter 6: Wandering
Wandering in the
desert would not be my idea of a fun thing to do. Yet for forty years this is exactly what
God’s people did. After spending a year
with God at Mt. Sinai
Key Question: What is the relationship between faith and obedience?
Opposition: Pages 71–74
The Israelites stayed nearly a year at Mount Sinai. There they made the items needed to properly worship God. They learned God’s laws and that if they sinned by disobeying those laws, they could receive forgiveness through sacrificial offerings.
God told them He was driving the Canaanites out of the land because they had defiled the land with sin: extreme sexual immorality and burning children as sacrifices to the god Molech. And God told them that if they defiled the land by committing the same sins as the Canaanites, God would drive them out too.
Finally the people set out for the Promised Land, where milk and honey flowed. For the desert journey, God fed them manna, a perfect food that met all their bodily needs and never carried disease. But the non-Israelites who had accompanied them from Egypt—the “rabble”—complained.
1. (a) What did the rabble begin to do, and how did that spread (Numbers 11:4–6)? (b) Were the Israelites lacking a need or a desire? (c) The desert’s lack of other food showed the necessity for manna; why do you think the Israelites weren't grateful for their needs being met? (d) How does remembering what we have to be grateful for help us to trust God? (e) List three things for which you are grateful to God.
Some Israelites wailed, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” God explained the heart issue: “You have rejected the Lord, who is among you.”
2. (a) What hardships in Egypt were the Israelites forgetting? (b) How would remembering how God had delivered them from great suffering have helped them to trust God? (c) List three ways God has delivered you.
3. (a) The Israelites compared what they currently had with what they used to have; why do you think they neglected comparing what they currently had with what God said they would have in the Promised Land? (b) How would remembering what God promised to give them have helped them to trust God? (c) Your life is often a difficult, desert-like journey on the way to the heavenly Promised Land. List two ways God promises to bless you in heaven.
In response to their grumbling, the Lord brought them meat. A great wind swept quail into the desert and the people had what they craved. But with that meat came a curse, and many who had rejected God’s purpose and provision died of a plague.
They traveled on, but soon Moses’ own family opposed him. His siblings—the prophetess Miriam and the high priest Aaron—challenged his leadership.
4. (a) How did Miriam and Aaron challenge Moses (Numbers 12:2a)? (b) Who heard (12:2b)? (c) What can we learn about God from this that can help when we’re unjustly criticized? (d) Who are some of the people God has put into positions of authority in your life?
5. (a) How did the Lord rebuke Miriam and Aaron for speaking against Moses (12:8)? (b) God wanted the people to trust Moses as the mediator of the covenant; how did he react to their exaltation of themselves (12:9)? (c) How did God humble Miriam (12:10)? (d) How did Aaron show repentance (12:11)? (e) What can we learn from this about speaking against legitimate, God-given authority?
Moses interceded for Miriam, and God in mercy agreed to heal her, but demanded she be confined in disgrace outside the camp for a week.
Rebellion: Pages 74–78
After Miriam’s confinement ended, the people encamped at Kadesh Barnea, just south of their destination. Moses sent twelve men to scout the land. They discovered the land was indeed wonderful and filled with lush grapevines and bountiful fruit trees.
When they returned, two of the scouts, Joshua and Caleb, urged the people onward. But ten scouts balked: they said the Canaanites were too strong, the cities too fortified, and the task impossible. The peoples’ faith failed. They asked why God had brought them there just to kill them, and they looked for a leader to take them back to Egypt.
6. (a) How did Joshua and Caleb try to convince the people not to rebel (Numbers 14:7–9)? (b) What evidences of God’s power were they forgetting that allowed doubt to rule them? (c) Describe a time you saw God’s protective hand in your life and explain how that should encourage you to do whatever He calls you to do.
When the people threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb, the glory of the Lord suddenly appeared.
7. (a) According to the Lord, how were the people treating Him (Numbers 14:11a)? (b) What were they refusing to do (14:11b)? (c) What had He done for them to show He would complete the work He’d begun (14:11c)? (d) How would God punish their rebellion (14:22–23)?
They had come to the Promised Land, and refused to enter. God’s judgment came: the ten disbelieving scouts died for instigating the rebellion, and those who rebelled with them would now wander the desert for forty years until they died too. Of those twenty years old and older, only Joshua and Caleb would enter the Promised Land. The rest would suffer for their unfaithfulness, and their children would enjoy the land they had rejected.
8. (a) What is God calling you to do that seems hard? (b) Will God call you to anything that He won’t help you to do? What assurance does this give you?
The Next Generation: Pages 78–83
The people wandered in the desert, their grumbling hearts still bitter. Some tried to change the Lord’s mind by going up against the Canaanites anyway, and they fell by the sword. Others refused responsibility and blamed Moses for not bringing them in successfully, instigating another cycle of rebellion, judgment, intercession, and mercy. Slowly the rebellious generation died out.
When nearly forty years had passed, the next generation of Israelites returned to Kadesh where their parents had rebelled. They found no water.
9. (a) How did this generation repeat the sins of their fathers (Numbers 20:3–5)? (b) The Lord told Moses to tell a rock to pour forth water, but instead he angrily beat the rock. What consequence did that bring (20:12)? (c) Moses pleaded with God to change His mind, but God finally told him not to ask again. Why do you think God held Moses to such a high standard?
The Israelites looked for a way into the land they were to possess. God had warned them not to provoke Edom, Moab, or Ammon, for they were not among the Canaanites God wanted driven out. They asked Edom to allow them passage, but Edom refused and sent an army against them, so they turned back.
As they traveled, a Canaanite king attacked the Israelites, and the Israelites defeated him. But as they looked for a way into the land around Edom, the people grew impatient and spoke against both God and Moses. Suddenly poisonous snakes appeared, biting and killing many.
10. (a) How did the Israelites respond to the snakes (Numbers 21:7)? (b) When Moses interceded for the people, how did God show mercy (21:8)? (c) What act of faith could someone bitten do in order to live (21:9)?
Anyone stricken by sin’s consequence could look to the raised-up image of that consequence and live.
The Israelites then asked the Amorites—one of the Canaanite peoples—for passage. They not only refused, but attacked Israel. The Israelites overcame them and captured their cities. The taking of the land had begun.
When the Israelites camped along the Jordan River, the bordering Moabites were terrified. They joined with the Midianites in hiring the pagan diviner Balaam to curse them. God warned Balaam not to curse the people, but he tried to find a way using sorcery to speak some word that would earn him pay. But God gave him only blessings to speak.
Balaam found another way to feed his greed. He advised the kings to send women to entice the Israelites into joining them in the sexually immoral worship of the Canaanite god Baal so they would bring God’s curse on themselves.
11. (a) What did the Israelite men do (Numbers 25:1–3)? (b) How can sexual temptation be an attempt to stop us from achieving all God wants us to achieve?
Israel’s judges executed some of those who broke the first two of the Ten Commandments, and a plague killed others. In all, 24,000 Israelites died. What Moab and Midian could not accomplish in war, they managed through enticement.
Moses’ Farewell: Pages 83–85
The time for Moses to pass on leadership to Joshua drew near, and he anointed him before the people. Then he gathered the people and began a farewell address.
12. (a) Why had God shown the Israelites so many miraculous signs (Deuteronomy 4:35)? (b) Why was that important considering what God called them to do?
13. (a) What did Moses call the Israelites to hear (Deuteronomy 6:4)? (b) What were they to do (6:5)? (c) How does the way Moses told them to treat God’s commands emphasize their importance and the necessity not to forget them (6:6–9)? (d) What is something you do to know and remember God’s commands?
The Choice: Pages 85–88
Moses set before the people the blessings they would enjoy if they obeyed the Lord God, and the curses they would suffer if they abandoned him. He warned them if they took on the detestable sins of the people he was driving out, he would likewise drive them out of the land.
14. (a) What was the way of life and prosperity (Deuteronomy 30:15–16)? (b) What was the way of death and destruction (30:17–18)? (c) What is the relationship between faith and obedience?
Moses climbed to the top of a mountain and God showed him the land the people would soon possess. Then he died.
2. How did Moses differ from all other Old Testament prophets (Deuteronomy 34:10–12)?
And yet, Moses said one day a prophet like him would arise. When He did, the people must recognize Him and follow Him, else they would be held accountable.
For Moses was a type of someone greater, someone yet to come: the seed promised to Eve who would crush the ancient serpent. Like Moses He would fast forty days and nights, do mighty miracles, intercede for sinners, and offer a covenant from God to people, a covenant sealed in blood. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake that all who looked to it might be saved from death, so would He be lifted up that all who looked to Him might be saved from the death brought by the serpent that deceived Eve and her children.
Are you interested
in receiving the blessings of God? Who
wouldn’t be? Like the Israelites of the
Old Testament, God has a plan for us. He
has invited us to be His special people.
We can choose life, but it will be on God’s terms.
I call heaven and
earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse. So choose
life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD
your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your
life and the length of your days. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NASB)
Well, here we are at chapter 6 and Moses is putting forth to the Israelites the same choice God gave Adam and Eve in the garden. What is the relationship between faith and obedience?
Have you ever felt as if you were "wandering in the wilderness" - spiritually or emotionally?
Well, here we are…free at last. Delivered from Egypt and on our own. God’s deliverance of His people was astonishing. Supernatural plagues. Miraculous rescue through the Red Sea. A cloud by day. A pillar of fire by night. Water from the rock. Bread from heaven. Freedom.
God’s people had known about God, but now they knew Him, and they weren’t sure they liked what they saw. He wanted them to be more free than they wanted to be. They wanted their situation to change, but God had turned His attention toward changing them.
And isn’t that the way it always is? We shop for the kind of God we prefer…the vending machine or divine ATM that gives us just what we ask for, the thing we want most. But God requires us to come to Him on His terms, to give us not what we want but precisely what we need. It’s always an uneasy relationship between a God whose terms are non-negotiable and a people who stubbornly try to dictate those terms anyway.
In Chapter 6 of The Story, God’s plan was clear: deliver His people through a series of miracles, defeat their enemies, give them a covenant and set of laws to make them a chosen nation, and provide them a land of promise. Simple, right? God speaks, the people listen. God delivers, the people believe. God provides, the people trust. Well, maybe not so much.
God always held up His end of the bargain: He always provided, always delivered, always kept His promises. It turns out the people were equally consistent: They always forgot, always questioned, always rebelled. Their lack-of-faith list was long. When daily bread fell from heaven, they craved a taste of Egypt. Even Moses’ siblings, Miriam and Aaron, grew jealous and undermined their brother’s leadership.
Then they reached Kadesh, and Moses sent twelve leaders to spy out the Promised Land of Canaan. Ten of the twelve said the cities were too strong, the people too big and God was too small. Only two, Caleb and Joshua, trusted God. They encouraged Israel to go and take what God had given them, but the people complained and failed to believe.
In fact, while evaluating the land, four times they wanted to go back (pp. 71, top 72, lower 72, top 76).
This short-term memory loss was not due to a senior moment. Not like story of the couple in their nineties who visited doctor who told them to start writing things down. So, the next morning, the husband is wandering around the kitchen, and finally he gets out a piece of paper and writes down, “Where’s my toast??”
Failure always begins with unbelief. The journey that could have taken 11 days from deliverance to the Promised Land instead took 40 years. They spent that time wandering aimlessly in the wilderness. All those without faith would die out before they set foot on the other side of the land of promise. Only Caleb and Joshua would eventually cross over into their inheritance.
Forty years later, the story comes full circle again to Kadesh, the edge of the promised frontier—and little had changed. The people needed water, so they did what they do best…they complained. And God did what He does best…He provided. The LORD pointed Moses to a rock. He told him to speak to the rock and water would pour out. Moses struck it with his staff instead. The water still gushed out, but Moses and Aaron had ignored God’s instruction and lost their right of admission to the Promised Land.
Moses then commissioned Joshua as Israel’s new leader before giving his farewell address. He reminded them of all that the LORD had done. He told them again about their special role as His chosen nation and how they would enjoy His blessings if they would simply love and obey Him. Then Moses died and was buried by the LORD.
The wilderness wanderings remind us that faith leads to life and unbelief leads to death.
In Chapter 6 of The Story, this tug-of-war between God and His people is relentless; and we see the true nature of Israel, as well as ourselves. It turns out their struggle mirrors ours to a “T”. And we learn something very interesting about human nature.
In this chapter we see at least two great confrontations between God and man. The first one is this:
A. Confronting our preference for the familiar.
Reading Chapter 6, we discover the sad fact that Pharaoh’s grip on his nation of slaves wasn’t nearly as tight as the Hebrews’ desire for the status quo. They wanted God to fix their problem without messing with their paradigm. God’s people would have chosen familiarity over freedom, but God would have none of that.
Israel had cried out for centuries, asking this God of their fathers to rescue them. The problem was, when He actually showed up, He was not what they’d expected. The sad truth was the whips of the taskmasters were no match for the shackles to which God’s chosen people had fastened themselves.
They traded a golden opportunity for a golden calf. They doubted that God could really measure up, so they weighed out their gold, melted it down, and made it into a god they could see and touch. And party with. And feel good about. An image of their own making. Their stand-in god suited them just fine. It wouldn’t descend on mountaintops in fire and smoke. It didn’t make their knees weak or their hands tremble. Their god of gold wouldn’t talk out loud or go beyond their boundaries of the predictable. They wanted a god they could control, a “preferred” god that never made them feel uncomfortable.
And guess what? As we see through the present day, nothing really changes. I would much prefer that God fix my problem without messing with my paradigm. Today we have built deities of affluence, power, adulation, busyness, and addiction. As much as we want freedom, we want familiarity more.
We talked about this last year in our character studies of Nicodemus, Jonah, and Hosea. God is a God of discomfort, who cares far more about holiness than happiness. Who would never enable dysfunctional behavior, or tolerate it, but who instead would act more like a potter with a hardened, rocky lump of clay that has to be pounded, doused, swallowed by a fish—whatever it takes.
I just got a new pair of running shoes….
Why do people wear shoes that don’t fit? Because they’ve become accustomed to them. Why do people return to the same lifeless job day after day? Because “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.” Why do so many women leave and then return to abusive husbands? Because it’s what they know.
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to that are afraid of freedom for precisely this reason: when you’re ready to tackle the familiar, to get healthy:
It will get worse before it gets better. Before you can get sober you’ve got to detox. Before the cut will heal, the Bactine will sting. It will get worse before it gets better.
It was safer and more predictable to be slaves than face the uncertainties of freedom. In fact, we learn that the faithless generation who were too afraid to take the Promised Land, who were too chicken to trust Joshua and Caleb, passed their fear on to their children. Talk about leaving a lot of baggage…The Bible says only Joshua and Caleb would survive those 40 years of wandering, but after the 40 years had passed, someone was still whining about returning to Egypt! Who could this be but the children of those who whined 40 years ago?? Look at pages 78 and 80 of The Story….
All the survivors of Egypt had died off…the only people who could be saying this were the children of those delivered from Egypt. This has to be one of the saddest chapters in the Bible, because those parents left fear as their inheritance.
This leads us to today’s Equipping Point:
To lead your family well, to lead your family spiritually…
Never leave a legacy of fear.
Familiarity is the enemy of freedom—and we must have the courage to first lay aside our own baggage, our own resentments and bitterness, before we can fulfill our call to lead our families to health and freedom. Israel left an inheritance of doubt so that their children became convinced they were defeated before they even got started!
Some of us have a backpack and some of us have a trunk, but we all have baggage. And your job as the mentors of the next generation is to take a lesson from these sad, paranoid people who left a legacy of fear and stop passing on your insecurities to your children.
Listen to the words of Jesus about pressing on to what is ahead:
Jesus said to another man, “Follow me!” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the people who are dead bury their own dead. You must go and tell about the kingdom of God.” Another man said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to my family.” Jesus said, “Anyone who begins to plow a field but keeps looking back is of no use in the kingdom of God.” - Luke 9:59-62
The problem was that they wanted to tend to a life they were supposed to have left behind. They were tending to past issues from an old life. What happens when you start to plow and field and look back? You plow a crooked field. And the greatest disservice we can do to our kids is burdening them with our baggage.
Jesus said focus on where you’re going, not where you’ve been. A godly leader will lead where it’s uncomfortable, for the sake of healing. A godly leader does not put his hand to the plow and look back. A godly leader refuses to let his past define him.
God first confronts our preference for the known, the familiar, the comfortable, the manageable. Our freedom requires us to grapple with our demons, because that freedom came at so great a cost.
Second:
B. God confronts our notions of leadership.
In my professional and pastoral career, I’ve read dozens of books on leadership…the nature of great leadership, the difference between leadership and management, etc.
But in the account of Moses and his leadership of a ragtag band of ungrateful whiners, I think we see six key lessons of leadership that every single one of us either have confronted or will confront at some point in our lives.
You know it’s easy to lead a bunch of people who agree with you. It’s easy to lead people in an autocratic, dictatorial way where every challenge to your leadership is solved by expulsion or worse. It’s easy to lead people when everything is going well and times are prosperous.
But let’s take a poll: Anyone here ever try to lead a group of people who constantly questioned your authority?
Anyone here ever try to lead a group of volunteers who aren’t motivated by a paycheck?
Anyone here ever try to lead a group of people through a time of chaos, uncertainty, or outright panic?
Then our chapter today is for you. Here are six key leadership principles directly from the staff of Moses:
1. As a leader, justice is not your responsibility.
Moses predictably gets fed up with the whining, fussing, and griping of the people. If this is my burden, just kill me, he says. But lesson #1 for leaders is that even when you reach exasperation trying to “herd cats on linoleum,” trust that a) God gets no less fed up but never fails to apply mercy and b) He will often allow the consequences of the people’s misery to be visited upon them. Look at page 73 of The Story… (until it comes out of their nostrils.)
These people became their own punishment. God took care of that and will always do so. That way, you as a leader, can take justice off your plate and focus on mercy to the ones you lead.
2. Lead in the role God gives you.
Lesson #2 on leadership is about leading in the role God gives you. Aaron and Miriam were leaders, but did not have Moses’ mantle. Most of us will not be CEO. In fact, most of us will not be called to the leadership position we think we should occupy. In our chapter today, Aaron and Miriam begin to sound a lot like James, John, and their mother in the New Testament: “What about us?” Lesson #2 on leadership is to bloom where God plants you.
3. Let God do the defending.
Leadership Lesson #3 is contained in the same story: let God do the defending. Moses’ humility was the key, and as far as Scripture records, he let God do all the talking—in fact, p. 73 says after the Lord heard Miriam and Aaron, “at once” the Lord jumped in the fray. We must focus on humility and leave the defense to God. The insecurity of many leaders immediately requires them to defend themselves and justify actions they have deemed right. But a leader who is led by the voice of God need not mount a defense—he or she can focus on humility because God is calling the shots.
4. The conventional wisdom of a leadership community is often wrong.
It’s important to remember that the 12 spies were leaders from each tribe. These leaders were called together to collaboratively assess a situation and plan a course of action. But ten of them responded in fear and only two in faith. The “road less traveled”—an out-of-the-box approach—is especially applicable to those who have the responsibility of leading others. If the rest of the world is selling, you might want to think about buying. If the conventional wisdom is doubt, consider faith as your response. Good leaders don’t follow the hordes.
5. In a leadership role, God’s expectations go way up.
You’d think Moses’ striking the rock instead of speaking to it could have been explained by exuberance and maybe a little grandstanding…but as the leader of the people, his example sent a message that no other person’s disobedience would—and so he lost the capstone of the journey: crossing the goal line. In the New Testament, Jesus talks about servant leadership and James warns teachers (influencers) as well about the gravity of authority. As this story demonstrates, we dare not take our witness and our example lightly. Because of their responsibility, leaders have a higher standard than others—and if that troubles you, you probably should be a follower.
6. As a final tribute to his humility and leadership ability, Moses saw the absolute necessity of Succession Planning.
Bad leaders build systems that depend on them. Great leaders build self-sustaining systems that are collaborative, so if I’m gone, no one misses a beat.
Real leaders never fail to equip their people to do without them, and so his prayer on p. 83 is especially poignant: “May the Lord, The God of every human spirit, appoint someone over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” He knew his work wasn’t completed without ensuring sound leadership for his flock after his departure, even in the face of his punishment. No wonder God thought so much of him.
This week, resolve to never leave a legacy of fear, to your subordinates and to your children, by exercising these six lessons of leadership. Follow these principles and you’ll start looking a lot like Moses: flawed and imperfect, but a spiritual leader that moves your family and your marketplace closer to the heart of God.
I know that each of you will be very blessed this week, as our very own, Paul Mahrle will be leading our study this week of chapter 6!
In His Love,
David & Susan
Have you ever felt as if you were "wandering in the wilderness" - spiritually or emotionally?
Freedom vs. Familiarity
Well, here we are…free at last. Delivered from Egypt and on our own. God’s deliverance of His people was astonishing. Supernatural plagues. Miraculous rescue through the Red Sea. A cloud by day. A pillar of fire by night. Water from the rock. Bread from heaven. Freedom.
God’s people had known about God, but now they knew Him, and they weren’t sure they liked what they saw. He wanted them to be more free than they wanted to be. They wanted their situation to change, but God had turned His attention toward changing them.
And isn’t that the way it always is? We shop for the kind of God we prefer…the vending machine or divine ATM that gives us just what we ask for, the thing we want most. But God requires us to come to Him on His terms, to give us not what we want but precisely what we need. It’s always an uneasy relationship between a God whose terms are non-negotiable and a people who stubbornly try to dictate those terms anyway.
In Chapter 6 of The Story, God’s plan was clear: deliver His people through a series of miracles, defeat their enemies, give them a covenant and set of laws to make them a chosen nation, and provide them a land of promise. Simple, right? God speaks, the people listen. God delivers, the people believe. God provides, the people trust. Well, maybe not so much.
God always held up His end of the bargain: He always provided, always delivered, always kept His promises. It turns out the people were equally consistent: They always forgot, always questioned, always rebelled. Their lack-of-faith list was long. When daily bread fell from heaven, they craved a taste of Egypt. Even Moses’ siblings, Miriam and Aaron, grew jealous and undermined their brother’s leadership.
Then they reached Kadesh, and Moses sent twelve leaders to spy out the Promised Land of Canaan. Ten of the twelve said the cities were too strong, the people too big and God was too small. Only two, Caleb and Joshua, trusted God. They encouraged Israel to go and take what God had given them, but the people complained and failed to believe.
In fact, while evaluating the land, four times they wanted to go back (pp. 71, top 72, lower 72, top 76).
This short-term memory loss was not due to a senior moment. Not like story of the couple in their nineties who visited doctor who told them to start writing things down. So, the next morning, the husband is wandering around the kitchen, and finally he gets out a piece of paper and writes down, “Where’s my toast??”
Failure always begins with unbelief. The journey that could have taken 11 days from deliverance to the Promised Land instead took 40 years. They spent that time wandering aimlessly in the wilderness. All those without faith would die out before they set foot on the other side of the land of promise. Only Caleb and Joshua would eventually cross over into their inheritance.
Forty years later, the story comes full circle again to Kadesh, the edge of the promised frontier—and little had changed. The people needed water, so they did what they do best…they complained. And God did what He does best…He provided. The LORD pointed Moses to a rock. He told him to speak to the rock and water would pour out. Moses struck it with his staff instead. The water still gushed out, but Moses and Aaron had ignored God’s instruction and lost their right of admission to the Promised Land.
Moses then commissioned Joshua as Israel’s new leader before giving his farewell address. He reminded them of all that the LORD had done. He told them again about their special role as His chosen nation and how they would enjoy His blessings if they would simply love and obey Him. Then Moses died and was buried by the LORD.
The wilderness wanderings remind us that faith leads to life and unbelief leads to death.
In Chapter 6 of The Story, this tug-of-war between God and His people is relentless; and we see the true nature of Israel, as well as ourselves. It turns out their struggle mirrors ours to a “T”. And we learn something very interesting about human nature.
In this chapter we see at least two great confrontations between God and man. The first one is this:
A. Confronting our preference for the familiar.
Reading Chapter 6, we discover the sad fact that Pharaoh’s grip on his nation of slaves wasn’t nearly as tight as the Hebrews’ desire for the status quo. They wanted God to fix their problem without messing with their paradigm. God’s people would have chosen familiarity over freedom, but God would have none of that.
Israel had cried out for centuries, asking this God of their fathers to rescue them. The problem was, when He actually showed up, He was not what they’d expected. The sad truth was the whips of the taskmasters were no match for the shackles to which God’s chosen people had fastened themselves.
They traded a golden opportunity for a golden calf. They doubted that God could really measure up, so they weighed out their gold, melted it down, and made it into a god they could see and touch. And party with. And feel good about. An image of their own making. Their stand-in god suited them just fine. It wouldn’t descend on mountaintops in fire and smoke. It didn’t make their knees weak or their hands tremble. Their god of gold wouldn’t talk out loud or go beyond their boundaries of the predictable. They wanted a god they could control, a “preferred” god that never made them feel uncomfortable.
And guess what? As we see through the present day, nothing really changes. I would much prefer that God fix my problem without messing with my paradigm. Today we have built deities of affluence, power, adulation, busyness, and addiction. As much as we want freedom, we want familiarity more.
We talked about this last year in our character studies of Nicodemus, Jonah, and Hosea. God is a God of discomfort, who cares far more about holiness than happiness. Who would never enable dysfunctional behavior, or tolerate it, but who instead would act more like a potter with a hardened, rocky lump of clay that has to be pounded, doused, swallowed by a fish—whatever it takes.
“My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast- the breaker and destroyer of images…Jesus is the supreme example; he leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins.”
–C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
I just got a new pair of running shoes….
Why do people wear shoes that don’t fit? Because they’ve become accustomed to them. Why do people return to the same lifeless job day after day? Because “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.” Why do so many women leave and then return to abusive husbands? Because it’s what they know.
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to that are afraid of freedom for precisely this reason: when you’re ready to tackle the familiar, to get healthy:
It will get worse before it gets better. Before you can get sober you’ve got to detox. Before the cut will heal, the Bactine will sting. It will get worse before it gets better.
It was safer and more predictable to be slaves than face the uncertainties of freedom. In fact, we learn that the faithless generation who were too afraid to take the Promised Land, who were too chicken to trust Joshua and Caleb, passed their fear on to their children. Talk about leaving a lot of baggage…The Bible says only Joshua and Caleb would survive those 40 years of wandering, but after the 40 years had passed, someone was still whining about returning to Egypt! Who could this be but the children of those who whined 40 years ago?? Look at pages 78 and 80 of The Story….
All the survivors of Egypt had died off…the only people who could be saying this were the children of those delivered from Egypt. This has to be one of the saddest chapters in the Bible, because those parents left fear as their inheritance.
This leads us to today’s Equipping Point:
To lead your family well, to lead your family spiritually…
Never leave a legacy of fear.
Familiarity is the enemy of freedom—and we must have the courage to first lay aside our own baggage, our own resentments and bitterness, before we can fulfill our call to lead our families to health and freedom. Israel left an inheritance of doubt so that their children became convinced they were defeated before they even got started!
Some of us have a backpack and some of us have a trunk, but we all have baggage. And your job as the mentors of the next generation is to take a lesson from these sad, paranoid people who left a legacy of fear and stop passing on your insecurities to your children.
Listen to the words of Jesus about pressing on to what is ahead:
Jesus said to another man, “Follow me!” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the people who are dead bury their own dead. You must go and tell about the kingdom of God.” Another man said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to my family.” Jesus said, “Anyone who begins to plow a field but keeps looking back is of no use in the kingdom of God.” - Luke 9:59-62
The problem was that they wanted to tend to a life they were supposed to have left behind. They were tending to past issues from an old life. What happens when you start to plow and field and look back? You plow a crooked field. And the greatest disservice we can do to our kids is burdening them with our baggage.
Jesus said focus on where you’re going, not where you’ve been. A godly leader will lead where it’s uncomfortable, for the sake of healing. A godly leader does not put his hand to the plow and look back. A godly leader refuses to let his past define him.
God first confronts our preference for the known, the familiar, the comfortable, the manageable. Our freedom requires us to grapple with our demons, because that freedom came at so great a cost.
Second:
B. God confronts our notions of leadership.
In my professional and pastoral career, I’ve read dozens of books on leadership…the nature of great leadership, the difference between leadership and management, etc.
But in the account of Moses and his leadership of a ragtag band of ungrateful whiners, I think we see six key lessons of leadership that every single one of us either have confronted or will confront at some point in our lives.
You know it’s easy to lead a bunch of people who agree with you. It’s easy to lead people in an autocratic, dictatorial way where every challenge to your leadership is solved by expulsion or worse. It’s easy to lead people when everything is going well and times are prosperous.
But let’s take a poll: Anyone here ever try to lead a group of people who constantly questioned your authority?
Anyone here ever try to lead a group of volunteers who aren’t motivated by a paycheck?
Anyone here ever try to lead a group of people through a time of chaos, uncertainty, or outright panic?
Then our chapter today is for you. Here are six key leadership principles directly from the staff of Moses:
1. As a leader, justice is not your responsibility.
Moses predictably gets fed up with the whining, fussing, and griping of the people. If this is my burden, just kill me, he says. But lesson #1 for leaders is that even when you reach exasperation trying to “herd cats on linoleum,” trust that a) God gets no less fed up but never fails to apply mercy and b) He will often allow the consequences of the people’s misery to be visited upon them. Look at page 73 of The Story… (until it comes out of their nostrils.)
These people became their own punishment. God took care of that and will always do so. That way, you as a leader, can take justice off your plate and focus on mercy to the ones you lead.
2. Lead in the role God gives you.
Lesson #2 on leadership is about leading in the role God gives you. Aaron and Miriam were leaders, but did not have Moses’ mantle. Most of us will not be CEO. In fact, most of us will not be called to the leadership position we think we should occupy. In our chapter today, Aaron and Miriam begin to sound a lot like James, John, and their mother in the New Testament: “What about us?” Lesson #2 on leadership is to bloom where God plants you.
3. Let God do the defending.
Leadership Lesson #3 is contained in the same story: let God do the defending. Moses’ humility was the key, and as far as Scripture records, he let God do all the talking—in fact, p. 73 says after the Lord heard Miriam and Aaron, “at once” the Lord jumped in the fray. We must focus on humility and leave the defense to God. The insecurity of many leaders immediately requires them to defend themselves and justify actions they have deemed right. But a leader who is led by the voice of God need not mount a defense—he or she can focus on humility because God is calling the shots.
4. The conventional wisdom of a leadership community is often wrong.
It’s important to remember that the 12 spies were leaders from each tribe. These leaders were called together to collaboratively assess a situation and plan a course of action. But ten of them responded in fear and only two in faith. The “road less traveled”—an out-of-the-box approach—is especially applicable to those who have the responsibility of leading others. If the rest of the world is selling, you might want to think about buying. If the conventional wisdom is doubt, consider faith as your response. Good leaders don’t follow the hordes.
5. In a leadership role, God’s expectations go way up.
You’d think Moses’ striking the rock instead of speaking to it could have been explained by exuberance and maybe a little grandstanding…but as the leader of the people, his example sent a message that no other person’s disobedience would—and so he lost the capstone of the journey: crossing the goal line. In the New Testament, Jesus talks about servant leadership and James warns teachers (influencers) as well about the gravity of authority. As this story demonstrates, we dare not take our witness and our example lightly. Because of their responsibility, leaders have a higher standard than others—and if that troubles you, you probably should be a follower.
6. As a final tribute to his humility and leadership ability, Moses saw the absolute necessity of Succession Planning.
Bad leaders build systems that depend on them. Great leaders build self-sustaining systems that are collaborative, so if I’m gone, no one misses a beat.
Real leaders never fail to equip their people to do without them, and so his prayer on p. 83 is especially poignant: “May the Lord, The God of every human spirit, appoint someone over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” He knew his work wasn’t completed without ensuring sound leadership for his flock after his departure, even in the face of his punishment. No wonder God thought so much of him.
This week, resolve to never leave a legacy of fear, to your subordinates and to your children, by exercising these six lessons of leadership. Follow these principles and you’ll start looking a lot like Moses: flawed and imperfect, but a spiritual leader that moves your family and your marketplace closer to the heart of God.
I know that each of you will be very blessed this week, as our very own, Paul Mahrle will be leading our study this week of chapter 6!
In His Love,
David & Susan
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