Just Like Moses?

"Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"  Numbers 12:8b

Just like Moses??
By Rev. William Dohle

A few years ago, a gentleman in the congregation I was serving asked me to have dinner with him.  He was a little upset.  Having served the congregation as their president for some years, he had a few things to share with me.

We met at a diner just down the street.  After a bit of small talk, he looked at me and said: "Pastor...I need you to be more of a leader!"

"Really?"  I said.  "What do you mean?"

"I mean... I need you to be a leader.  Like Moses."

"You want me to be like Moses?" I asked him, a bit puzzled.

"Yeah.  I need a pastor who's like Moses."

I listened to him as he described his own version of a strong leader.  A leader who is brave like Moses.  A leader who stands up in front of people.  A leader who's able to bring his people into a sort of promised land.

As we parted company, I realized something.  My friend really didn't know anything about Moses.

Why?  What gave me that impression?

Well, because if you really knew Moses, you would never want a pastor who was like him.  Never!

Moses wasn't your model leader.

First of all... he starts out on the wrong foot.  He starts out a murderer.  After his miraculous rescue from the river and his raising in Pharaoh's own palace, the next thing Moses ends up doing is murdering a fellow Egyptian!

"One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor.  He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.  Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand."(Ex. 2:11-12)

Now, you might be thinking: "Boy, pastor, it seems like Moses was just defending his friend's life." and it does seem that way to our 21st century eyes...only listen to what his own people say.

"The next day, Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting.  He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"  The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us?  Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptians. "  Then Moses was afraid..."

So...you see...Moses knew he had done wrong.  Moses knew what he had become.  Moses had become a murderer!

The next thing Moses does too is flee Pharaoh who tries to do what any rightful ruler would do: punish Moses for what he did!  So...in addition to this indiscretion... Moses also becomes a fugitive outlaw!

Murderer... Outlaw... Fugitive!  Is this the sort of man you would want as YOUR pastor??

I'm sure that many churches would dismiss a candidate right from the start if it were known they were a murderer.  Even if they claimed it was in defense of someone else.  The law is the law!  Not to mention, Moses too didn't even stay put to be put on trial.  Moses ran.  A Murderer...and an outlaw!  What sort of leader is this?!

But it's just the sort of leader God can take.  You see, God isn't put off by our sins and past transgressions.  God isn't scared away by our past.  In fact...he seems attracted to it!  The people God works with are losers, right from the start.  They have nothing going for them.  And they shouldn't be leaders.  Not from the world's standing.

But God is able to raise up such leaders and choose foolishness over the wisdom of the world.  God doesn't give up on Moses.  Not for a second.  God follows him from Egypt to Moab where Moses meets his wife.  God stays with him as Moses discovers a new life there.  And God calls Moses out of that life, back to the Egypt he had fled as a murderer to lead his people to the Promised Land.

That's what God can do...with a fugitive murderer like Moses!

Imagine what God can do with you?!  Imagine what God can do with all your flaws and foibles.  Imagine what God can do with you, weak and frail and foolish as you are.  Imagine what power can come out of your weakness.

So...if that's the kind of leader that's wanted.  The kind who is deeply flawed and yet forgiven, sinful but redeemed.  Whose only hope is the Lord!  Then I am like Moses!  And so are you!

God of the murderer Moses, you chose the weak things of this world and the things that are not to shame the things that are.  Choose us, frail though we be, that we might be instruments of your grace, through Jesus our Lord.  Amen.