Moses as a Leader: Faith, Courage, and Persistence

Introduction: Moses as a Leader in the Old Testament

Moses exhibited remarkable leadership as he navigated the uncertainty and hardship of the world of the Old Testament. As a leader, Moses is best known for helping to lead the Israelites out of Egypt—a treacherous endeavor laden with many challenges. Among the many leadership qualities he possessed, including courage, attentive listening, persistence, and a willingness to take risks, his faith was the strongest aspect of his leadership. This paper examines how Moses' leadership abilities manifested and why he was such a capable leader.

Asking Questions: Leadership Through Discovery

One of the most compelling ways that Moses demonstrated his inherent capacity for leadership was through the questions he asked. Many people remember the words of great leaders, yet Moses has only a small number of lines in the Bible—and many of those lines are questions. This is significant because, as one scholar notes, "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). While many people associate true leadership with decisiveness and firm plans of action, Moses' role ultimately required him to discover how best to navigate an unprecedented objective—and he did so by asking questions.

Humility, Faith, and the Desert Trials

One of the most compelling objections Moses raises to his own leadership is posed directly to God in Exodus 3:11, where he asks, "Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?" Moses viewed himself as an ordinary person and therefore unworthy of leadership. Paradoxically, this response demonstrates what a fitting and appropriate leader he actually was—some of the best leaders are ordinary people who possess the kind of genuine humility that effective leadership demands.

This humility connects directly to the challenges Moses faced. He had to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to safety in the midst of a harsh, unforgiving climate, along with countless other threats to everyone's personal safety. It was a massive undertaking, and one which Moses was able to execute by leaning on his faith. In Exodus 15:22–25, for example, Moses leads the people of Israel through the desert, and for three days there is no adequate access to water. When they finally arrive at a place called Marah, the water is too bitter to drink. The people complain bitterly, dehydrated after days of hiking. Moses listened to their complaints, even though the problem was well outside his expertise and beyond his direct control—he could not simply create potable water from nothing. So Moses leaned on his faith and trusted that God would provide. God instructed him to throw a piece of wood into the water, and through God's power the water became drinkable. This episode demonstrates that an effective leader maintains a strong sense of faith and a grounded relationship with God, or at the very least with a higher power (Assmann, 1998).

Conclusion

Across every trial he faced—guiding people through a waterless desert, absorbing difficult counsel, persisting in the face of royal rejection, and defending his people before a wrathful God—Moses demonstrated that he was able to lean on his faith and on God's generosity in order to realize the full range of his leadership qualities. Faith was not merely one quality among many; it was the unifying foundation that made all his other qualities possible.

References

Assmann, J. (1998). Moses the Egyptian. Harvard University Press.

Wildavsky, A. B. (1984). The nursing father: Moses as a political leader (Vol. 13). University of Alabama Press.

Woolfe, L. (2002). The Bible on leadership: From Moses to Matthew—Management lessons for contemporary leaders. AMACOM.