The greatest challenge of leadership is not a change of location or aesthetics or methods or even vision. The greatest challenge of leadership is a change of hearts. Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt. He led them to change location and vision, but their hearts had not changed. That would prove a much more difficult task that would require forty years in the wilderness.
The Greatest Challenge
Moses fought hard against Pharaoh. He stood toe-to-toe with the most powerful man on earth and didn’t blink. He faced the most powerful army on earth, his back up against the Red Sea, and he didn’t cave. He modeled supernaturally courageous leadership. He led the people out of slavery and into the wilderness. And as hard and difficult as that journey from slavery to freedom was, his toughest leadership challenge was still to come.
God had commanded Moses to lead the people to the mountain of God (where he had seen the burning bush) and to worship him there (Ex. 3:12). He also repeatedly commanded Moses to lead them into the Promised Land – a land that he was going to give them (Ex. 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3).
When they arrived, Moses ascended the mountain to speak to God. He took too long. The people fashioned an idol in the form of a calf, from the gold that the Egyptians had given them as parting gifts. In other words, they had left Egypt, but Egypt was still inside of them. Egypt followed them to the Mountain of God and continued to beckon them back.
Moses sent twelve spies (one from each tribe) into the Promised Land to develop a conquest strategy. They returned and convinced the people that the inhabitants of the Promised Land were too strong and powerful – any attempt to take the land would be a miserable failure. The people blamed Moses: “And they said to each other, ‘We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt’” (Num. 14:4).
The temptation of the comforts of Egypt was still too great in the face of hardship and sacrifice. This was Moses’ most difficult leadership challenge – How to turn the hearts of the people away from Egypt and to God? He got their bodies out of Egypt, now he had to get their hearts out of Egypt. And that’s always a lot harder to do.
Four Lessons of the Wilderness
God would use the Wilderness to teach the Hebrew people everything they needed to know in order to truly become God’s children. He used four mechanisms to accomplish the task.
1. Manna and Quail
Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” – Exodus 16:4
God provided a daily portion of Manna and Quail to build up the trust of the people. It was a test to see if they would follow God’s instructions (Deut. 8:16). God would give them just enough for one day. They had to trust that God would provide one day at a time. There were some who tried to store the manna (Ex. 16:20). It didn’t work. It would take trial and error over time for them to trust God.
Eventually, they would come to trust God each day for HIS provision. This trust was essential for their spiritual development.
2. Internal Conflict
In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” – Exodus 16:2
There was consistent internal conflict throughout the wilderness experience. The book of Numbers chronicles the Hebrew wilderness experience, and it starts by outlining the twelve autonomous tribes of Israel. How would this group of twelve disparate tribes live together in the vast wilderness?
God gave Moses specific instructions (the Law) on how the community was to live together, but Moses still had to teach the Law and settle disputes over its interpretation. Moses was consistently putting out fires. Jethro, his father-in-law saw that Moses was going to burnout and gave him a plan for dealing with the conflict (Ex. 18:18).
Internal conflict teaches people how to live together.
3. External Threats
The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.” – Exodus 17:8
The first external threat that the Israelites faced came from the Egyptians, only a few days after their emancipation. Pharaoh and his army threatened their extinction at the Red Sea. It was the first and most dramatic battle, but it was certainly not the last.
The wilderness experience would teach the Twelve Tribes of Israel how to band together to fight common external threats. It also gave them the needed confidence and strategy to fight all their battles. They discovered that they could be victorious if they (a) stuck together, and (b) depended on God.
4. Funerals
In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.” – Numbers 14:29-30
It is a crass cliché that progress requires some funerals. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s all too true. An entire generation had to die out in the wilderness for the Hebrew people to be ready to take the Promised Land. The conquest required a generation that had never really known Egypt.
There are some who simply cannot make the journey to the new land. It’s just too hard to change. We should always love and respect these people who have sacrificed much in the past. Often, they are the ones who have laid the foundation. Unfortunately, they will never see what will be built on the foundation. That’s okay. We can still honor them and move forward without them.
That’s exactly what Joshua and Caleb did. They followed God forward … without the former generation … even without Moses.
In the end, we do not follow people … we follow God.
