With interviews in full swing and the end of my time at Messiah approaching faster than a speeding locomotive, I've been thinking a great deal about my future. God has blessed me with some incredible gifts. There's no denying that fact. I don't think I'm being cocky, just recognizing that God is amazing and that by his grace, I am what I am. One of those gifts, I believe, is the ability to lead. I don't know how an unimpressive introvert like me could have that attribute, but others have recognized it and confirm this. As Ben Parker once stated, "with great power comes great responsibility." The power that comes from leadership and the influence one has makes this a gift that comes with the highest standards of excellence.
When looking at the world, we see a lot of leaders. Hard charging personalities that inspire and drive those who follow them to great works. Any leader takes his/her followers in a particular direction. Perhaps more than any other factor, it is this direction that determines the quality of their leadership. This fact is no more evident than in the final verses of Exodus 9.
34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35 So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. (emphasis added)
To give you some background, this comes right after the 7th plague God used to judge Egypt and its gods, hail. Pharaoh asked for Moses to pray to God that the hail would stop. Moses did this but only after calling out Pharaoh for his lack of faith. This is where the quote picks up.
Pharaoh is clearly the leader of Egypt. He was considered to be a deity by fellow Egyptians and so his words were seen as divine decrees. In short, his word was law. From the passage, we can see that once Pharaoh say the hail stopped, "he sinned yet again and hardened his heart." Perhaps, knowing his arrogant and prideful nature, he thought he outsmarted God. Maybe he thought the plague starting and stopping was a coincidence and removed God from the picture. Either way, he sinned. But what struck me about this passage is not that he hardened his heart, any reader would come to expect this, but the phrase that comes afterwards: "he and his servants." Reading this, it would seem that by hardening his heart, he also hardened the hearts of his servants. He lead them from the truth by his sin. Pharaoh's word was law so when he hardened his heart, the hearts of his servants were hardened as well, following his lead. Pharaoh's actions were driven by sin, his pride and arrogance.
In the very next verse, we see a stark contrast. On first glance, we see only that this is what God predicted. However, looking deeper, we see that God spoke through Moses. God used Moses to make God's word known. Moses, from his birth, was destined to be a great leader of the Hebrews. Many years later, we see that this is true. On the Mount Rushmore of Christianity, I wouldn't be surprised to see Moses' carved countenance. He was the one in front of the Israelites as they left Egypt and wandered in the deserts. We know that Moses is sinful--he is human. But what created such a sharp contrast between Pharaoh and Moses? After all, Moses was brought up in the Pharaoh's household.
The difference is the fact that Moses had learned to let God speak through him and use him. While Moses was indeed a great leader, he himself was being led. God was leading the Israelites through the desert (clouds by day and fire by night), Moses was simply following God and letting God use him. Had Moses been speaking his own words instead of God's or following his own will and not the LORD's, he would have ended up like Pharaoh. Taking a look at the beginning of Exodus, we see that Moses was a rash, irreverent, fearful castoff who couldn't speak if his life depended on it. How then did he turn into the great leader we see courageously confronting the most powerful man in the world?
He met God.
He
knew the LORD.
When people have face to face encounters with God, they cannot help but be changed. To be brought into the presence of such holiness and leave unchanged is impossible. At the very least, one would have gained greater insight into the Creator's being. During the course of the first half dozen chapters, we get to see the growth of Moses. He is literally being transfigured into a person foreshadowing Christ. God himself is sanctifying and setting apart Moses for the task Moses was predestined for. Through encounters, conversations, flare ups--a relationship--Moses learned that the LORD is sovereign and can be trusted. This trust allows Moses to become God's prophet, even being made as God to Pharaoh, speaking God's word and acting when God leads. It didn't happen overnight. Instead, it was a long process that required a great deal of patience on God's part as he transformed a bumbling shepherd into a man boldly confronting Pharaoh with the Truth.
Looking ahead to the New Testament, we see another great leader, Paul. It doesn't take too long to notice the same characteristics in Paul that are found in Moses. It is impossible to miss the fact that Paul gives all credit and glory to God. Also, Paul was not very eloquent either. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he admits that he spoke with them "in weakness and in fear and much trembling" (1 Corinthians 2:3). However, he was writing to the believers in Corinth, which means something amazing happened. Enough people's lives were changed that a church of great significance was formed. So if Paul was trembling and couldn't speak and Moses was an irreverent cast-off with "uncircumcised lips," something else must be at work. Words just don't seem to cut it.
Quite frankly, they don't. In that same letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes, "
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power" (1:17). Clearly, leaders do not have to be the best orators in order to lead people to Christ. In fact, by relying on fancy words, we empty the cross of Christ of its power. This is because we are depending on ourselves to deliver the message and change people's lives. The Gospel is the Good News that God has rescued us, not that we have rescued ourselves. So if God is the one who saves us, why suddenly would the salvation of others ride on our speaking ability?
In the next chapter, Paul explains that he decided to know nothing among the Corinthians "except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (2:2). Fancy logic and impressive proofs will never lead anyone to Christ because it is based on our own power. To have faith in Christ is to realize our helpless state and to turn to God for our salvation. If we could reason our way to God, then we could take credit for our newfound life. However, we cannot and have only been saved through the power of Christ. Through a true relationship with the LORD, we learn that he is indeed trustworthy and worthy of submitting to.
But here's the exciting part. In 1 Corinthians 2:1, Paul states that he came to Corinth proclaiming "the testimony of God." Later, in verse 4, he states that his message was in a demonstration of the Spirit. This is the same thing. So the testimony of God is a demonstration of the Spirit. How is the Spirit's power demonstrated? In changed lives. A demonstration is an act, a physical display that can be seen. The Corinthians surely heard that Paul was persecuting the church and doing a remarkable job at that. But when he arrived, he was proclaiming the Gospel. This is a 180 degree about-face. His life was radically changed. He was literally transfigured. Paul came not only speaking a different message but living a different life. This is the demonstration of the Spirit--a true physical reality that no one can question. Something clearly happened and because it is not discovered by human logic, there's only one legit explanation: God. When I speak about my testimony, it is the story of God's work through Christ but also through me. People can see a transfigured life.
Looking at the life and leadership of Moses and Paul, we see amazing results. We see Moses fully trusting and confronting the most powerful man in the world at the time. We see Paul going to Corinth and God raising up a church. Neither of these men spoke with fancy words, but instead lived transfigured lives, fully dependent on God. The power of God was evident because their lives were so radically changed. They became God-fearing leaders. When Moses was depending on himself, he could only lead sheep. When he trusted God, he lead Israel. Paul was the leader of the Gentile Christians. They led people to Christ because they were being led by God. The difference between these two men of God and Pharaoh, a man of this world, could not be more evident.
Leadership is
necessarily lived out. From 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, Paul sees preaching the Gospel as living a life serving God and speaking the Good News. We can talk all we want, but people will follow our actions far more than they will follow our words. When the two conflict, they perceive our actions as the "real" us. This leads into the essential question asked of all leaders: who is the real you? Am I a person of God, living a transfigured life, leading others into a deeper knowledge of the LORD? Or am I a person of this world, relying on my own gifts and eloquent wisdom to guide our followers astray? This is a question we have to answer because as a leader, our sins can very easily cause others to stumble as well. I, for one, am convinced that God is indeed the sovereign LORD. I pray that God speaks through me and I follow his leading, because that will lead others to him as well.
