Thoughts on Exodus 17 & 18

Today's reading: Exodus 17-18; 2 Corinthians 8

Reading Exodus 17 and 18 this morning, a couple really important principles of leadership stood out to me as Moses is learning them.

Thoughts on Exodus 17

In Exodus 17 we see the first time that Moses has to rely on others in his role leading Israel.

When we first meet Moses as an adult, it is as the brash son of Pharaoh’s daughter who is ready to kill a man and hide his body in the sand. He is so sure of himself and his own self-importance that he has no qualms killing another man because he doesn’t like what he is doing, but then that approach meets with utter failure and he is forced to flee, leaving “his people” helpless because of his own impetuousness. 

When we see him 40 years later at the burning bush in the wilderness, the pendulum has fully swung the other way. Even when God is explicitly calling him to the task and promising to be with him as he goes, Moses makes excuse after excuse until God finally gets angry and ropes Aaron into the whole thing. Now, I said above that Exodus 17 is the first time Moses has to rely on others, but what about God having to have Aaron go with Moses? With Aaron, that wasn’t a need. Moses was being stubborn and obstinate rather than reaching the end of himself. This is evident very quickly after they return to Egypt when, after the first or second meeting with Pharaoh, it is no longer Aaron that speaks, but Moses himself from that point forward, with Aaron merely being present.

Then, as we follow Moses back into Egypt, even if he was thrust reluctantly into a leadership role, God works incredible signs and wonders through him in bringing his people out of Egypt and through the sea. And given the brash character we see from Moses early on, I don’t think it’s a stretch to think that being the means of such a great deliverance could go to his head and start the pendulum swinging too far back the other way.

But then we come to the fight with Amalek.

Moses is in a position, during the battle, to fully decide the outcome. If he keeps his arms raised, Israel wins. But there is a simple physical limitation here that no amount of willpower or perseverance could possibly overcome. It may be Moses’ arms being raised that decides victory, but it is not possible for Moses to accomplish that victory alone. He has to rely on Aaron and Hur to help him support his arms throughout the day so that Israel would have her victory.

I think God put Moses in this position to help bring that pendulum to a healthier place. Moses, for all his skill and ability, for all his background and for all his backing by Yahweh, is insufficient in and of himself to lead Israel, and needs the humility to rely on the people around him.

No leader can lead alone. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and this is part of why God has organized His church the way He has. He gives different gifts and abilities to different people so that, working together, we make a more complete whole (Rom. 12, 1 Cor. 12). It was important for Moses to learn this early on before they arrived at the more difficult stages of the wilderness wandering or the conquest.

Thoughts on Exodus 18

I’m going to keep this short so that this post doesn’t get too long, But if in Exodus 17 Moses learns to not lead in isolation but to trust/lean on those he is leading with, in Exodus 18 he learns to trust those under his leadership and delegate his work and authority to them.

Too many strong leaders are afraid to let go of control. Clearly they know best, that is why they are a leader, so it only makes sense for all decisions and directions to flow through them. They fail to realize that being a strong leader does not give you the only (or even the best) ideas, and that, as the sole keeper of all direction and leadership, they create a boatneck and/or a single point of failure.

A good leader can trust the people they lead. If you can’t trust the people you lead, maybe it’s time for a new leader.

This is the lesson Moses learns from Jethro.

Does God speak to/through Moses to lead Israel? Yep!
Is Moses the only one in that role? Yes again!
Did God say He would start talking to the others? Nope!
And yet, is Moses the only trustworthy leader in Israel? Nope again!

Israel would be deeply hampered in it’s growth and development, especially once spread out in the promised land, if every little decision had to pass through Moses’ hands. In order for Israel to flourish, it needed leadership that would allow it to grow and flourish, and that had to start with Moses recognizing, at Jethro’s prompting, that he does not need to be Israel’s single point of failure.

Does God speak through Moses? Yes
But has God raised up faithful people who can, under Moses’ direction, lead the people more effectively than Moses can by himself? Also yes.

If you are in a position of leadership and can’t trust the people you are leading to be partners with you in the work you are leading, you have a problem. Whether that problem is your own arrogance in assuming you are the only one fit to lead and direct circumstances, or whether that problem is that you have surrounded yourself only with untrustworthy people so that nobody will challenge your control, either way, you have set the people you are leading up for failure. And it’s time to find (or develop) the people around you who can take up the yoke with you and be partners in leading the work before you.