-This Leader Was A Servant

Not only was Moses the greatest leader in history, he was also the greatest servant!

MOSES IN THE WILDERNESS

This Leader Was A Servant

Not only was Moses the greatest leader in history, he was also the greatest servant!

 

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There has never been a leader like Moses. He was commander of more than 600,000 men 20 years old and up who were fit for military service (Num. 1:46), in addition to the under 20s, the less-than-fit, the 22,000 males of all ages from the tribe of Levi not counted with the rest, the women, and the elderly (more than two million people altogether) during a 40-year hike through the burning Sinai desert.

 

Beside dealing with the groaning, complaining and hardships during such a trek, Moses had to preside over the demise of an entire generation (as many as 1.5 million people) over the four decades, the whole time laboring under the heavy psychological burden of knowing that the deaths during this 40-year odyssey were not just nature running its course but God’s time-delayed punishment for their rebellious spirit and behavior.

Why didn’t God just strike that whole generation dead at once and be done with it? Obviously there were lessons to be learned – by the Israelites as well as their leader. Interesting thing about God’s ways: He never graduates His workers here on earth. While here, they’re always in training, always learning to be more useful and more effective. And all the time learning more about God too! Even the condemned generation of Israelites was getting to know their God to be not only a God of judgment but also of compassion and abundant provision.

Servant Leader
Keep in mind that this was the third 40-year segment of Moses’ life. He had already been through two major four-decade stages before beginning his real career at age 80. What is significant is not his age, but that the training and preparation for this mission took twice as long as the mission itself! God took his time tempering Moses.

Not only was Moses the greatest leader in history, he was also the greatest servant (apart from the Lord Himself of course), completing the most trying and difficult task ever assigned to a man. He was “faithful as a servant in all God’s house” (Heb. 3:5 NIV). Actually, it was because he was the greatest servant that he was the greatest leader.

Moses is legendary. Through-out Israel’s Old Testament history, and in the New Testament, his name is synonymous with leadership and authority. A name to be revered, his word was the ultimate criterion for settling disputes and judging matters. The Jews proudly considered themselves “Moses’ disciples” (Mt.19:7; Jn. 8:5; 9:28).

Humble Leader
What kind of man was Moses? A few Scripture passages reveal the secret of his success and stature both as man of God and as servant of God.

In Exodus 33:11, at the height of the “Golden Calf Crisis” when Moses was in emergency consultation with God, the historian comments that “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face¹, as a man speaks with his friend.” Israel could not have had a better negotiator/intercessor/advocate than this man, who was probably on more intimate terms with God than any other man in history (except for God’s own Son) at least until the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

We can see the basis of this closeness to God in Numbers 12:3: “Moses was … more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” That is consistent with Jehovah’s words in Isaiah 57:15: “This is what the high and lofty One says – He who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”

And again in Isaiah 66:1-2 we read: “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool … This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My word.”

The Numbers 12:3 statement is parenthetical, as though a disclaimer in view of the context, that is, that Moses is accused of presumptuous usurpation of leadership and of ambitiously setting himself up as the sole intermediary with God – accused by his own flesh and blood, no less! If the accusation were true, of course, it would disqualify Moses for humility-based intimacy with God and thus for leadership. But it’s not true and God convincingly vindicates him.

The truth is that this man is on face-to-face terms with God because he fully recognizes who God is and is duly humble and submissive before Him. Moses is not a great leader by force of sheer personality, personal ambition or assertiveness. He is fully conscious of his own frailty in the presence of the Almighty. The very essence of his strength and authority to lead men is his unconditional heartfelt submissiveness before God. It’s another of those seeming contradictions in matters relating to God: the world’s greatest leader is the world’s humblest man!

Prophet Leader
Moses’ career is summed up in his obituary: “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” (Dt. 34:10-12).

First in a long succession of prophets, Moses is in a class by himself. And his uniqueness is expressed in terms, not of his humility but of his mighty leadership and miraculous powers. But it all flowed from his face-to-face intimacy with Jehovah, which we know results in turn from his character as the humblest man on earth.

The Lord has a special place, and a special ministry² for those people who are willing to humbly let God be God – Creator, Owner and Master of the universe, and of the individual – and bow their whole soul before Him, trembling in reverent submission to His word. There are not too many of those people around.

Moses was of a class best exemplified by the man Christ Jesus, “gentle and humble in heart” (Mt. 11:29), who invites us to submit to His yoke and learn from Him. Jesus said the ideal servant follows Him closely (Jn. 12:24-26) and so selflessly that he is like a kernel of wheat falling into the ground and dying: “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Intimate Leader
Though Moses had never heard Jesus’ teaching, that very spirit nevertheless characterized him. In Exodus 32:32, and again in Numbers 14:11-25, Jehovah was thoroughly frustrated with Israel’s fickleness and persistent propensity to failure. He spoke of wiping out the nation and starting a new one from Moses’ descendants – offering him the chance to replace Abraham himself as the great progenitor of God’s people. But Moses replied that if God wasn’t willing to forgive His people and continue to lead and accompany them, then He might as well strike Moses from His list of favorites too. He reminded Jehovah that His own reputation would be damaged in the eyes of all the nations around if He were to abandon Israel at this juncture.

It took nerve to talk back to God that way – the sanctified nerve that only comes with the humility-based intimacy with the Almighty that Moses enjoyed. It is at once a demonstration of Moses’ intimate standing with God and of his totally selfless service to God, involving as it did a to-the-death loyalty to his people. This is the measure of greatness and usefulness in a servant. How do we measure up?

End Notes
1. In light of Exodus 33:20 – “you cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live” – we must understand Moses’ “face-to-face” intimacy with Jehovah as a figure of speech for nearness without an intermediary, not as a literal visible contact. The statement, “as a man speaks with his friend” seems to suggest what we would call a “first-name-basis” friendship, a level of communication with God to which no human could ever dare to presume were it not God Himself who initiated it. It does not say that Moses spoke with God as with His friend, but that God spoke with Moses thus.
2. The Lord Jesus promised Peter a special ministry on several occasions (Lk. 5:10; Mt. 16:19; Lk. 22:32; Jn. 21:15-17), but had to deal first with Peter’s over-active ego and self-will, even using Satan himself in the purging process. Ultimately, Peter came through and was mightily used.

By Bill Van Ryn

With permission to publish by: Sam Hadley, Grace & Truth, 210 Chestnut St., Danville, IL., USA.

Website: www.gtpress.org

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