“Leaders are Made” (Exodus 2:1-22) | January 29, 2023
Exodus 2:1-22 | 1/29/23 | Will DuVal
Well everyone loves a good origin story, don’t we? Let me give you a few and see if you can identify them:
* “In West Philadelphia, born and raised, on a playground was where he spent most of his days…” - Who’s that? [The FRESH PRINCE of Bel-Air!]
*How about this one: After tragically losing both his parents at birth, he was confined to a closet under a staircase for11 years until he discovered that he was actually the most powerful wizard in the world - that’s… [Harry Potter]
*Last one: This poor young man actually WATCHED his parents get murdered right before his eyes, so he swore vengeance against criminals, to personally restore justice to Gotham - that’s… [BATMAN]
LOOK OUT, Parents: ALL the best origin stories start with us DYING! 😬
And our protagonist this morning will ALSO be stripped of his parents at infancy. His origin story, too, is one of inauspicious beginnings:
*Born to SLAVES. *Given away when he was only 3 months old. *Raised by the ENEMY. *To become a MURDERER. *Forced to flee the only home he’d ever known, as a fugitive living in exile.
Not the backstory you might expect for the second most important person in all the Bible, indeed, all of HISTORY: a man named MOSES.
And yet God USED Moses’ troubled past, in the way that only God CAN, to make Moses into one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known. Vince Lombardi said, “Leaders aren’t born; they’re made.” And this week, in Exodus ch2, God is gonna MAKE Moses into the kind of leader he had to become in order to pull off God’s greatest act of redemption yet: the EXODUS.
But the REASON God gave Moses such a rough backstory was to prove that it was not through MOSES’ greatness that the salvation of His people would be accomplished, but rather, through GOD’S greatness.
Because God gets GLORY when He PROVES that only HE can use extremely ORDINARY people to pull off the EXTRAORDINARY! Only GOD could take an adopted, pampered, murderous, rejected, fugitive turned shepherd OUTCAST, and use him to accomplish the SALVATION of His people, 2-3 MILLION people. Only GOD can do that!
But as we said last week: Exodus isn’t just THEIR story; it’s OUR story as well. ALL God’s people, who have been FREED to FOLLOW Him. If you are in Christ, it’s YOUR story. So we’re gonna read OURSELVES into Moses’ story this morning. And most importantly, remember: it’s JESUS’ story too. Exodus is the gospel of the OT; we have to read JESUS into every part of the story.
So in light of that, I want to do 3 things this morning as we look at Exodus 2 together:
1) I want to identify the necessary traits of a great leader that we discover here. If this is God molding Moses into the second greatest leader ever, then we would do well to recognize and appreciate the qualities that God was cultivating in Moses here. SO THAT…
2) We can personally APPLY them in our OWN lives. Just as God called Moses to lead people out of slavery into freedom, if you were with us last year for our study of the book of ACTS, you know that God has similarly called US - you and me - to help lead people out of slavery into freedom as well; out of the SPIRITUAL enslavement of SIN, and into the FREEDOM that is new life in CHRIST. Every Christian who has been set free has now been given the privilege and the responsibility to serve as an ambassador for Christ. That is leadership; to “lead” is to influence others. And we’ve been called to influence them for CHRIST. So God wants to use His preparation of Moses here to further prepare you and ME for the redemptive work He’s calling US to, as His gospel witnesses.
3) But thirdly, in closing, we’re going to read JESUS into the story as well. The greatest leader of ALL - the “better Moses”, who alone is worthy to be followed with whole-hearted devotion. ALL of these leadership principles find their UTMOST fulfillment in Christ.
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SCRIPTURE: So I invite you to stand… Exodus 2:1-22:
“Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. 9 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. 17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. 18 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” 21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.””
Acts 7:20-29 [context: this is an excerpt from STEPHEN’s testimony, just before his martyrdom; he was sharing the gospel with these 1st c Jews by showing them how all of the OT anticipated Jesus as their Messiah]:
“At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.”
[and finally, this commentary on Moses from] Hebrews 11:23-26 [nicknamed the “Hall of Faith” chapter; and Moses would certainly be on the “Mount RUSHMORE” of faith, if there was one:]
“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”
This is the word of God… Let’s pray…
OUTLINE:
1) Leaders need GOD’S FAVOR and OTHERS’ HELP. (Exod 2:1-10; Acts 7:20-21; Heb 11:23)
Moses had both. All THREE of the texts we just read HINTED at the fact that there was something SPECIAL about Moses, even from birth. His mother saw that he was a “FINE child”; he was “beautiful”. But Stephen said that Moses “was beautiful in God's sight.” And the Hebrew word used in Exodus CAN mean “beautiful”, or “fine”, physically attractive. But it can ALSO be translated more broadly as “GOOD”. It’s the word tov, that God used at the end of every day of Creation, as he looked around, and saw that it was “GOOD”. And at Moses’ BIRTH, God saw that he was good, that Moses was special. And God set his blessing on Moses, that He was gonna USE him to accomplish great things.
But PART of that blessing meant that God had to PROTECT Moses. Before God could use Moses to save his people, God had to save MOSES. And this is SOME PLAN God orchestrated to pull it off! But what I want us to notice here is how much help Moses had to receive from OTHERS along the way. There’s really no such thing as a “self-made man” or leader; we ALL stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, who invested IN us, to make us the people we are today.
Consider all the sacrifices made for Moses, in this one chapter alone - Moses is gonna receive help in future chapters from his wife Zipporah, from his older brother Aaron, from his father in law AGAIN, in ch18, when Moses learns the vital leadership skill of DELEGATING - but consider all the help he receives here in just the first 10 VERSES, from his biological parents, from his adoptive mother, and from his older SISTER, who we’ll learn later is named MIRIAM.
We start with his parents - who are anonymous here but will later be identified in ch6 (v20) as Jochebed (mom) and Amram (dad). Hebrews 11 includes THEM in the “Hall of Faith” as well, because they risked their LIVES to save Moses, by defying Pharaoh’s order from ch1 last week, to throw every Hebrew baby boy in the Nile River - “By faith Moses… was hidden for three months by his parents”. Like the Hebrew MIDWIVES from last week, Moses’ parents feared GOD more than they feared Pharaoh.
But as much faith as that took, it must have taken 1,000 TIMES that faith to then give their baby UP, and trust GOD to continue protecting Moses when they no longer could. Just imagine the heartbreak, and yet the FAITH that it must have taken in v3 for Jochebed to walk away from her crying baby there at the river’s edge.
And there are SO many interesting details to this story that we just don’t have time to discuss in depth:
*The irony of Jochebed’s “casting her son” in the Nile; Pharaoh didn’t stipulate not to use a BASKET!
*The significance of the “basket” - the Hebrew word here, tebah, is only used in one other story in the OT: Noah’s ARK. Jochebed places Moses in an ARK here. Consider the powerful symbolism: God has already used an ARK once to preserve a savior for his people, during the Flood; now He’s gonna do it again.
*And please notice that Moses did NOT take a harrowing journey all the way down the river, surviving crocodile and hippo attacks; I love “The Prince of Egypt” as much as any child of the 90s, but that’s simply not what happened. V3 says Moses’ mother placed the basket “among the reeds by the river bank” and v5 says Pharaoh’s daughter “saw the basket among the reeds”. But don’t miss the weight of THAT: consider the faith it took Jochebed not only to give her son up, but to bring him all the way to the edge of Pharaoh’s palace to do it! If Jochebed had been spotted carrying her illegal child, they BOTH would have been killed. And then she leaves her daughter MIRIAM there too, to watch OUT for Moses; SHE could have been killed! And let’s consider MIRIAM’s faith, while we’re at it, to openly SUGGEST to Pharaoh’s daughter in v7 that she ought to defy his order by rescuing the child and having him nursed by one of the Hebrews.
And amazingly, she AGREES! So Jochebed not only gets to enjoy another couple years of raising Moses until he is weaned, but now she gets PAID to DO it! That’s our God at work.
Now consider the faith it took Pharaoh’s DAUGHTER - or at least the COMPASSION we’re told, in v6 - “She took pity on Moses” - the courage to disobey her father. Imagine THAT dinner conversation, back at the palace that night! “So, Dad, you know your whole edict about killing all the Hebrew baby boys? Well, funny story…” - I’m guessing she probably WAITED until Moses was returned to her, as a toddler, to break the news to old dad. And judging from v15, where he tries to KILL Moses, Pharaoh NEVER seems to have really warmed up to the idea of having this adopted Hebrew living in his palace.
How about the significance of Moses’ NAME, in v10; we just finished our Advent series on JESUS’ names; how about MOSES’ name? From the Hebrew mashah - to “draw out” or DELIVER. As a baby, Moses had to be drawn out of the water, but 80 years later, God would use Moses, true to his name, to draw his PEOPLE out of Egypt THROUGH the waters of the Red Sea.
There’s SO MUCH HERE! But let’s return to the main point of these first 10 verses: the humble recognition that before any one of us could ever lead and care for others, EVERY one of us needed folks who led and cared for US. We needed God’s favor and others’ help. The ONLY reason you and I are ambassadors for Christ today is because we received God’s favor and others’ help. Because God, in His LOVE, not because of anything good in you, but because of His OWN goodness toward you, He CHOSE you for adoption, to belong to HIM, and set His favor and BLESSING on your life from Day 1. And then He SURROUNDED you with OTHERS who have helped bring His plan to fruition in your life. Who protected you. Who had compassion on you. Who LOVED you, selflessly. And most of all, who witnessed to you, and shared GOD’S love with you.
So CALL your parents this afternoon and thank them for all they did for you. Call your spiritual parents, those who shared CHRIST with you, and thank them. But most of all, thank GOD today, for all that HE has done for you, in Christ.
#2- Leaders need both TRAINING and SKILL. (Acts 7:22)
Acts 7 tells us “Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.” He received TRAINING, which resulted in him being SKILLED. A leader needs both CAPACITY and COMPETENCY. You’ve gotta be both teachable AND talented.
Why is LeBron James the best basketball player on the planet? (Not EVER - I know, MJ… - but currently) Is it because he’s spent 1,000s of hours in the gym, training? Or because he was blessed with freakish, natural athleticism and TALENT? The answer of course is BOTH! I could’ve spent TWICE the time LeBron spent in the gym and I still wouldn’t be LeBron, because I’m not 6’9” with a 44 inch vertical. On the other hand, there are guys out there who can outjump and outbench LEBRON who never made it to the league cuz they didn’t put in the WORK. They weren’t coachable.
According to Acts 7, MOSES was both: teachable and talented. And God would later USE the training he received and skills he developed - at the hands of the ENEMY, by the way! The Egyptians! - to free His people.
What about US? Some of you are more naturally gifted - or SPIRITUALLY gifted, I should say - at evangelism than the rest of us; you find it easy to engage others in conversations about faith, and steer them in the direction of the gospel. Others, like me, may have the gifts of teaching or wisdom. Others of you, the gifts of administration, or service. But God’s word promises us that EVERY believer has been given SOME gift, or giftS, with which God has empowered us for fulfilling our calling, AS his ambassadors, to lead others to Christ. And yet, God ALSO makes it clear that these gifts aren’t static, fixed quantities. The Bible calls us to GROW in wisdom, GROW in faith, GROW in mercy; we can - through God’s word and His Spirit - be “TRAINED” in these gifts, and grow in our capacity for them ALL. And the best leaders for CHRIST do just that.
#3- Leaders need CONVICTION and COURAGE. (Heb 11:24-26)
Even THOUGH Moses was instructed is all the wisdom of Egypt, Hebrews 11 tells us he RENOUNCED it; Moses “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter”, and identified with GOD’s people, Israel, instead. He forsook his cushy life in the palace - with all its pleasures and comforts - and willingly chose a life of hardship amongst the SLAVES.
That takes both CONVICTION… and COURAGE. Conviction - to know right from wrong - and COURAGE - to choose what’s right, even if it costs you EVERYTHING.
In the palace, Moses was no doubt raised to look DOWN on the Israelites, to JUSTIFY their enslavement. Yet whether it was Moses’ CONSCIENCE - that part in ALL of us that watches another human get beaten the way this Israelite was in v11… the way Tyre Nichols was in the video released last Friday, that causes us to say, “That’s not RIGHT! Someone STOP them!” - or whether Moses was under some sort of special conviction from God here - perhaps God Himself was reaching down from heaven and touching Moses’ heart, giving him the strength to disavow his Egyptian upbringing and embrace his Israelite heritage instead. Whatever the motivation, this took GREAT conviction and courage.
Tellingly, the word used in v11 - “Moses WENT OUT to his people…” - is the same word (yatZAH) used later in the book for Israel’s “going out” from Egypt; it’s the word EXODUS! Before Moses could lead God’s people out of Egypt, Moses himself had to be led out of Egypt, by GOD. He had to RENOUNCE it.
How about US? Perhaps the reason some of us aren’t more effective ambassadors for Christ is because we haven’t yet TRULY renounced Egypt. Renounced the world and its worldli-NESS that we’ve SUPPOSEDLY been set free from, as followers of Christ. Romans 6 says, “our old self was crucified with [Christ] in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin… So [we] must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6,11)
2 Timothy 2 says, “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” (v21)
Or if you’re confused by all this “members” and “vessels” talk, maybe the simplest metaphor of ALL comes from JESUS, who called us to be LIGHT and SALT, in a world that is DARK and DECAYING, due to sin (Matt 5:13-16). But, Jesus said, if the salt is no longer SALTY, if it has lost all of its preservative power, then it’s USELESS. If the “LIGHT” isn’t any brighter than the DARKNESS - if God’s people don’t look or think or act any different than all our LOST, unsaved neighbors and co-workers - then are we really even “light” at all?
Brothers and sisters - we need the CONVICTION to know godliness from worldliness, and the COURAGE to choose godliness over worldliness, regardless of the cost. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it is becoming less and less popular every single DAY to be a Christian in this country. Will we still stand for Christ, when it no longer PAYS to do so (“She goes to church; she must be a good person”); instead, it actually COSTS us, socially (“You’re a Christian? You must be a misogynistic, anti-science, homophobic BIGOT!”). We need conviction and courage.
#4- Leaders need COMPASSION and RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Exod 2:11-12; Acts 7:23-24)
Like both his biological and adopted mothers, Moses was filled with COMPASSION. Exodus 2 says he “looked on [his peoples’] burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew”. Philip Ryken explains (61): “This verb for watching (yara) means more than simply “to look or to see”. It means “to see with emotion”. It is the kind of watching that demands intense personal involvement with what one sees. In a word, it requires compassion… When Moses watched the Hebrews, it was more than an eye-opening experience. It was even more than a consciousness-raising experience. It was a HEART-transforming experience. When he saw the misery of his own people as they slaved away for Pharaoh, their burdens became the burdens of his very own heart.”
This is one of the most crucial marks of a great leader, and of EVERY true believer: the willingness to assume OTHERS’ burdens as your OWN. Galatians 6:2 exhorts us to “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
When it all hits the fan at work, and you gotta go to your boss and tell him, “We got a problem,” how do most bosses respond? “Then FIX it. That’s what I PAY you for. YOUR problem; not mine.”
Now a good boss will say, “Okay, what do you NEED, to help you fix it - more money? More staff?”
But the BEST boss says, “Your problems are MY problems. How can I help fix this?”
What kind of PARENT do you want to be? What kind of parent did YOU want, when YOU were in middle school? The kind who said, “Seriously, Sweety? You are this upset, over THAT boy?! With the acne and braces?! Trust me, kid: you’re gonna face REAL heartbreaks in life, but THIS ain’t one of them!” OR the kind of parent who says, “I HEAR you. I SEE your tears. And I’m here with you, in your pain.” A parent who assumes YOUR burdens, as their OWN. Compassion.
And yet, for all his leadership SUCCESSES, Moses wasn’t perfect. Because equally as essential to great leadership is RIGHTEOUSNESS, uprightness in morality. Moses may have had the conviction to know right from wrong, which is how he knew the Egyptian shouldn’t be beating this poor Hebrew slave in v11. But it’s ALSO the reason Moses “looked this way and that” in v12 before he KILLED the Egyptian. Cuz deep down, Moses knew that MURDER was wrong too.
Now, you could try and make the case that Moses did the right thing here, that sometimes you have to TAKE a life in order to SAVE a life. Stephen almost appears to make the case, in Acts 7, when he says, “[Moses] defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian.”
But the fact is, Moses was a man of POWER, Pharaoh’s adopted grandson. He could have stopped this injustice without resorting to murder. Instead, he ABUSED his power. Why? Stephen tells us:
“He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.”
“Don’t y’all GET it - I’m your SAVIOR! Here to RESCUE you!” You know why they didn’t GET it? Cuz it wasn’t TRUE. If that had been the plan - for Israel to be saved by MOSES’ hand - then MOSES would have gotten the glory. No, Moses had to learn that he was NOT in fact Israel’s great deliverer; GOD was! And they would not be set free by MOSES’ greatness and power, but by GOD’S! So that God ALONE might get ALL the glory that He is due.
Friends: it’s not enough to do God’s WILL; we must do it God’s WAY. Instead, Moses took matters into his own hands, as he will again LATER in Numbers 20, when once again, in ANGER - Moses suffered from a short fuse - and he struck the rock in the wilderness, and it cost him his ticket into the Promised Land; Joshua gets to lead them in instead. That’s how seriously God takes our calling to be “holy as He is holy”. To be righteous. Jesus calls us to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt 6:33); it is a matter of FIRST importance.
#5- Leaders need WISDOM and HUMILITY. (Exod 2:13-17; Acts 7:25-29)
In WISDOM, Moses fled Egypt to Midian; you say, “Was it wisdom, or FEAR?” Sometimes there’s a fine line between the two, isn’t there? But I think it was MORE than fear; I think like the patriarchs Abraham (Gen 12) and Jacob (Gen 28) before him, like the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 19) and the apostle Paul (Acts 9 / Gal 1:17) after him, like JESUS HIMSELF (Matt 4) - all these great leaders of Scripture who had to first BE led out into the WILDERNESS to be PREPARED for the job to which God was calling them.
Moses - this “mighty man in word and deed” - had to be HUMBLED. He had to learn complete reliance on the Lord. Before Moses could lead, he first had to learn to FOLLOW.
And Moses was a quick learner. Immediately upon his arrival in Midian, we already recognize a change of heart in him. God TESTS him, in v17, when he witnesses yet another injustice: a group of shepherds who are mistreating the priests’ daughters and monopolizing the life-giving water at this Midianite well (that’s yet another motif that runs all through Scripture, with rich symbolism; we just don’t have time to DIG into it here).
But Moses must have repented of his murderous anger, because THIS time he only uses enough force against the shepherds to defend the girls. This is true humility: the ability to admit and LEARN from one’s mistakes. And it is absolutely imperative in leadership.
But Moses goes beyond that, and humbles himself by PERSONALLY drawing water for these young women; Ryken notes (70): “In ancient times it was unthinkable for a man to perform such a menial task for a woman… Moses stooped to serve, and by learning to serve he was learning to lead, for all God’s leaders are servants.”
According to Jesus, servant-hearted humility is the very ESSENCE of leadership in God’s Kingdom: “Those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,[d] 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave[e] of all.” (Mk 10:42-44)
As the great Dwight L. Moody put it: “Moses spent 40 years in Egypt learning to be something; he spent 40 years in the desert learning to be nothing; and he [will spend his last] 40 years [after freeing his people and leading them BACK] into the wilderness proving God to be EVERYTHING” (quoted in Ryken, 71). So Ryken encourages US: “Whenever we are tempted to grow impatient with God’s timetable for our lives, we should remember Moses, who spent two years of preparation for every ONE year of [actual] ministry” (Ryken, 71).
And God prepares us, by teaching us WISDOM and HUMILITY. Finally…
#6- Leaders need both SUPPORTERS and SHEEP. (Exod 2:18-22)
We’ve already discussed our need for support - i.e. “others’ HELP” - so I’ll simply point out here that we don’t just need it when we’re helpless BABIES; Moses still needed the hospitality and generosity of Reuel’s family as a middle-aged sojourner all on his own out in the harsh desert. And as I said, we’ll see Reuel and Zipporah support Moses time and time again in the chapters to come.
So too, you and I, friends, ought to recognize our neediness, our dependency on one another, at ALL times and in ALL seasons of life. Refusing the support of your friends and family doesn’t make you TOUGH, it makes you STUPID, and proud, and God will HUMBLE the proud, He will bring you DOWN.
But lastly, leaders ALSO need SHEEP. I can’t remember who said, “The best way to tell if you’re a leader is to TURN AROUND, and see if there are any FOLLOWERS.” You’re not a shepherd unless you’ve got SHEEP. This was true in MOSES’ case quite LITERALLY! Cuz the very NEXT chapter (3:1) will open with him tending his father-in-law’s sheep. And Ryken points out (73): “This was hardly the profession Moses would have chosen, being he was raised in Egypt; the Bible says that ‘all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians (Gen 46:34b). But the Bible also shows that many great leaders got their start as shepherds… There is a lot to be learned from tending sheep. For starters, sheep are not very bright, which means they need someone to lead them to food and water. They make an easy target for predators; so they need someone to protect them. They are prone to wander; so they need someone to bring them back into the fold. In short, sheep are completely dependent on shepherds for their care, which is why the Bible so often compares God’s people to sheep. In the words of the psalmist, “we are his people, the SHEEP of his pasture” (100:3b). Like sheep, we need divine guidance, nourishment, and protection. It was by tending his flock, therefore, that Moses learned how to feed, defend, and rescue the lost sheep of Israel.”
But Moses’ sheep weren’t limited to his fluffy, four-legged followers; God blesses him in v22 with a SON as well, Gershom. And as ANY Christian parent can tell you: if you want preparation and practice for leading God’s people, just have KIDS! There’s a reason God makes good parenting one of the prerequisites for eldership in His church, in 1 Timothy 3: “He must manage his own household well… for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?” (vv4-5) SO much more to be said here, but I’m out of time, so…
IN CONCLUSION: Let’s remind ourselves, most importantly: what we need more than historical information about Moses, what we need even more than personal application to our own lives and leadership; what we need most of ALL this morning is to see how all 12 of these marks of a great leader point us to JESUS! On our own, you and I will NEVER measure up to be the leaders God has called us to be; but praise God, our salvation is a result of CHRIST’S sacrificial leadership of US.
God’s favor? He called Jesus “my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased”
Other’s help: Jesus “emptied himself, being born in the likeness of men”, allowing himself to be cared for by his mother and father in his early life, by his disciples throughout his ministry, even in his DEATH, by Simon of Cyrene who helped carry his cross. Not because he NEEDED it, but to set an example for us, of humility.
Training? As a young boy, Jesus “grew in wisdom and stature…” (Lk2)
Skill? Just read the Gospels! Miraculous healings, multiplying loaves and fishes, raising people from the DEAD. All the fullness of deity dwelt in JESUS!
Conviction & Courage? If it took conviction and courage for MOSES to leave a life of ease and comfort and power as the Son of King Pharaoh, how much more so for JESUS to leave his life of pure BLISS in PARADISE, as the Son of GOD - the High King of HEAVEN - to come dwell amongst US here in this broken world.
Compassion? Jesus looked on the crowds as “sheep without a shepherd”, but said, “I am the GOOD shepherd, here to rescue you”.
Righteousness? Jesus ALONE was righteous! It is only by his imputed righteousness that ANY of us can be reconciled to a perfect, holy God!
Wisdom? The Bible says Jesus is the “Wisdom of God”!
Humility? Though he was God in the flesh, Jesus didn’t consider his godliness a thing to be “exploited”, but HUMBLED himself “by taking the form of a servant… becoming obedient even to the point of death on a cross.”… (Phil 2)
Supporters? Jesus didn’t even NEED a family, but he DESIRES one. And he died to MAKE us God’s adopted family. But in order to join, friends: you must become a…
SHEEP: You’ve gotta FOLLOW him, AS your Good Shepherd. And He is WORTHY of following - of surrendering your whole heart, your LIFE to him! Will you do that today?