The Fortitude of Moses’ Leadership: An Examination
Moses exhibited marked leadership, as he existed within the uncertainty and constant gloom of the world of the Old Testament. As a leader Moses was best known for helping to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, a treacherous endeavor laden with many challenges. However, among the many leadership qualities that Moses possessed—courage, being a good listener, persistence and taking risks—his faith was the strongest aspect of his leadership abilities. This paper will examine how the bulk of Moses’ leadership abilities manifested and why he was such a capable leader.
One of the most compelling ways that Moses demonstrated his inherent level of leadership was via the fact that he asked so many questions. Many people remember the words of leaders: for Moses he only has a small number of lines in the Bible. It is important to note that many of these lines are questions. This is significant because, “Despite the fact that many of us associate leadership with decisiveness, leadership is more accurately about discovery. A leader must determine the best way forward for his or her followers, which requires the curiosity and courage to discover the uncharted” (Knopf, 2016). Many people associate true leadership with decisiveness and a firm plan of actions. Moses role ultimately was to help free the Israelites and in order to achieve that goal, Moses needed to know how to best navigate such an objective—by...
However, if anything, this demonstrates what a fitting and appropriate leader he was in fact, as some of the best leaders are ordinary people, and have the best type of humility needed to lead. This connects to the issues that Moses faced: he had to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to safety, in the midst of a harsh unforgiving climate, not to mention other threats to everyone’s personal safety. This endeavor was a massive undertaking, and yet one which Moses was able to execute by leaning on his faith. For example, in Exodus 15:22-25 Moses leads the people of Israel through the desert and for three days there was no adequate access to water, until they arrived at a place called Marah, where the water was too bitter to drink. This was a problem the people complained about bitterly, as they were dehydrated and had been hiking for days. Moses listened to their complaints, even though they were well out of the realm of his expertise and out of his control. He could not simply create potable water out of thin air. So Moses leaned on his faith and trusted that God would take care of everything. God instructed him to throw a piece of wood into the water, with…
