Today's reading: Exodus 6; 1 Corinthians 12
I feel like there is a really important principal of leadership in Exodus 6, both spiritually speaking and otherwise, and that is that you really set the people you are leading up for failure when you don’t properly set expectations at the start.
It says that when Moses spoke to the people they would not listen because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
Why was their spirit broken so quickly? I think it was because Moses was too afraid to tell them the truth about what they were getting themselves into.
God told Moses back on Sinai that Pharaoh wouldn’t listen at first so that God could multiply his signs and wonders in Egypt. That should have been the expectation from the start, but the Israelites don’t seem like they are aware of that minor detail at all. Based on the fear and timidity we see from Moses, especially early on, I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that he was afraid the Israelites might be less inclined to follow him if he told them the truth, that, at least at first, this isn’t going to work, and might just make things worse for a time.
If Moses had led the people to know what to expect, they might be frustrated by the harsh treatment, and they might start to regret their choice to go along with Moses’ plan, but either of those is very different from them having a broken spirit. It would be their first chance to trust God, to say, “This is awful, and we don’t know how long we can take this, but so far it’s exactly what God said it would be, so let’s see where it goes from here.”
Instead, they are set up by Moses to be broken down. They thought they were getting delivered. They thought Moses was going to go in before Pharaoh, show off his staff and hand, and they would be walking free! So when that doesn’t happen, what are they supposed to think? “Was this all a lie? Is Yahweh weaker than we thought he was? If Yahweh is weaker than Pharaoh, does that mean we’re stuck under this harsh treatment forever? What have we done???”
It’s always better to paint a realistic vision of difficulty and hardship in pursuit of your goals than to set people up with unrealistic expectations that will just result in a broken spirit when hardships arise.
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