What set Moses apart from all the others in Israel? Why did God choose him to lead the people out of Egypt? Was Moses so special? I wonder if I would have liked Moses as a leader or if I too would have grumbled against him from time to time.
There is nothing like someone standing out in the crowd to bring out the jealousy and resentment in people. That was true of Aaron and Miriam and it was true of many of the people of Israel. When Aaron and Miriam started talking about Moses, God didn’t take it lightly. If his own brother and sister did not have confidence in his leadership, what would happen to the rest of the people? God called a meeting and spoke specifically to Aaron and Miriam. “When a prophet to the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” Numbers 12:6-8
God made it very clear that he personally selected Moses from among all the people to be the leader. He gives us a couple of clues as to why he chose Moses. “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” Numbers 12:3 “He is faithful in all my house.” Numbers 12:7b
Soon after this, Moses, at God’s command, called out 12 leaders to explore the land of Canaan, the land promised to Israel by God. When they came back, they reported how great the land was and showed them the fruit from the land. But all but two of them also brought back a report of the ‘giants’ in the land and assured the people they could not take the land because they could never fight those ‘giants’ successfully. “And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, ‘The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size… We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.’” Numbers 13:32-33
This is a leadership nightmare! To have the leaders among the tribes frighten the people rather than encourage them was undoing everything the Lord had done through Moses up to that point. It was at this point God told Moses that he was ready to wipe out the whole bunch and start over with Moses’ family. And what leader wouldn’t agree? God offered to Moses to get rid of all his enemies, all those who were not ready to follow him. I wonder if most of us wouldn’t say, “Thanks God, go get um!” But not Moses. He was “more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” Numbers 12:3 And instead of cheering God on to their destruction, he pleaded in their behalf for God to forgive them. And God did, but not without punishment. God told Moses, “No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it [the Promised Land].” Numbers 14:23b They spent many more years in the desert until all who were 20 years old and older at the time of the uprising had died. Only their children along with Joshua and Caleb (who had tried to encourage the people that God would be with them and they could go into the Promised Land) were to go on to the Promised Land.
Four words jump out at me as I read these chapters: humble, obedience, trust, and contempt. As I study this piece of the history of Israel, I wonder that God continues to be patient with any of us. How often have I not trusted God – held him in contempt? Yet, “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.” Numbers 14:18a When I do not trust God, I cannot be obedient. I see the ‘giants’ and I run. But when I am humble, when I believe that God knows better than I do and I trust him, I can be obedient and overcome the ‘giants’ in my life. The question is, will I hold God in contempt with my distrust and end up taking a few more laps around the desert before being willing to obey and lose the blessings he has for me? Or will I take him at his word and move forward with him, trusting him to fight the ‘giants’ for me and deliver me safely to the ‘Promised Land’.
Lord, thank you for being trustworthy even when I lack trust. Thank you for your patience with me as I learn to walk in faith and trust you with every detail of my life. Thank you for your awesome love that reaches into every corner of my life and compels me to follow you. Amen
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