Bible Character Spotlight: Moses Part 2

When we previously discussed Moses, we focused on his early life which included him being charged by God to lead the Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt. Because of Moses’ obedience and God working through him, Moses was able to accomplish the task even though it wasn’t something he believed he could do. If that was all that Moses did, it would still put him pretty high among the figures in the Bible up to that point. God wasn’t close to being done with him though. Moses didn’t know it, but God had plans to build a lasting legacy for Moses.

Moses’ story isn’t just about him though. It’s also about the people he led. The Hebrews or Israelites are referred to as God’s chosen people. One might think that to have been chosen by God, they must have been a pure and good people, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. What we see as favor for the Hebrews was really just God keeping his promise to Abraham. That is a testament to God’s faithfulness because he kept that promise even though the Hebrews demonstrated on more than one occasion that they really weren’t worthy of his favor. Even after seeing the miraculous things God did to get them out of Egypt, it didn’t take them long before they began to doubt and question God.

The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” - Exodus 16:1-3

Moses wasn’t allowed to just lead the Hebrews out of Egypt and then pass the reins off to someone else. He had to continue to lead them to the destiny that God promised, and that meant dealing with their lack of faith and disobedience. God was constantly present and it was Him that took care of the needs of the people, but Moses was his emissary and that was certainly not an easy job. The Hebrews had a very hard time being obedient. For example, in the case pertaining to the verses above, God provided for the people with manna and quail beyond their needs. Through Moses, God instructed the people not to try and save any food overnight, yet some people did exactly that.

Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”

However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them. - Exodus 16:19-20

God gave the people that instruction because he expected them to demonstrate their faith. He told them that he would provide for them everyday. If they truly trusted Him, they would not have felt the need to save food, but unfortunately that is what they did. Moses had faith enough in God to understand just how wrong their actions were, and as the leader, those actions angered him. In some ways, his story mirrored Jesus’. Jesus did many great things that should have easily convinced the people of God’s power and greatness, yet he constantly remarked on the weakness of the faith of those that followed him. 

It would be easy to bash the Hebrews for their actions, but are we any different? Sure, God doesn’t rain manna down from the heavens these days, but he does work in our lives in ways that should make his presence and power obvious if we truly believe. Yet for many of us, maintaining our faith is difficult.

God understands. That is why he provides leaders like Moses. Moses did the best he could and probably did better than most could. He kept the people in line. He demonstrated faith when they didn’t. He obediently followed God and acted as God’s hand on Earth. Moses was a great leader, but Moses’ story teaches us a tough lesson. No one from the generation that escaped Egypt made it to the Promised Land. That goes to show that no matter how good an earthly leader might be, it won’t be good enough to save the people the consequences of their sins.  There are a number of reasons for that.

For one, human leaders are limited. They can’t be everywhere all the time. Even now God sends us leaders, but what happens when they are away for personal reasons or doing God’s business?  We saw what happened when Moses left.

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods[a] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” - Exodus 32:1

Moses had just brought the people a whole host of laws and instructions from God. Among the first of those instructions was to stay away from idols, yet as soon as Moses went away for a while, the first thing the people did was turn to idols. Sometimes, when we put too much faith in the leaders God sends us, we conflate their presence with His presence, and when they fail or leave us, we sometimes believe he has done the same. That is wrong, and we can’t allow attachment to earthly leaders to cause us to stray from God. 

Another problem is that none of our earthly leaders are perfect. Moses went through a lot with the Hebrews and served God well, but he wasn’t immune to falling short.

“Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” - Numbers 20:8-12

Having to deal with the Israelites’ lack of faith yet again, Moses grew frustrated and did something other than what God instructed. That was enough for him to be denied entry into the Promised Land. Moses’ transgression might have seemed minor, especially in comparison to the many committed by the rest of the Israelites, but that’s the burden held by those that lead on behalf of the Lord. We all have to remember Moses story because now that we Believers have been given access to the Holy Spirit, to some extent we all have to be leaders or examples when it comes to representing God’s will.

In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. - Titus 2:7

Let us follow Moses’ example and go where God leads us keeping a mind to always be vigilant and obedient. We may not ever be the leaders Moses was, but we can do what he did in the sense of doing our best to perform God’s will. We may fall short just as Moses did, but even so, we can still build a legacy of following God, and that’s a good legacy to have.

Chris Lawyer

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