Do you remember the leader who is famous for fighting the battle of Jericho? Yes, that’s right, Joshua. Can you hear the children’s song playing in your head? “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down.”
We are wrapping up our series on leadership by taking a brief look at, what I believe is, Joshua’s most notable and imitation-worthy leadership characteristic.
Let’s start with just a little historical context. The time came for Moses’ life on earth to end and after it did, the Lord told Joshua he was the guy to now fill the leadership role for the Israelites.
If you read the book of Joshua, you might notice a repeated phrase that goes something like this, “do not be afraid, be strong and courageous and I will be with you.”
When you think about the number of battles into which Joshua was going to lead his men, you can understand why the Lord told him to be strong and courageous. God was going to give His people the promised land, but much of it had to be conquered first.
As I was reading through the book of Joshua, I noticed another repeated phrase. It usually came immediately after the Lord told Joshua to do something. The sentence would start out, “so Joshua…”.
What I observed is that the “so Joshua,” was the beginning of a sentence whereby the author is telling the reader that Joshua did what the Lord wanted him to do. In other words, “so Joshua” meant he obeyed.
Obedience is what I believe is the most notable and imitation-worthy leadership characteristic that Joshua possessed and faithfully exercised.
Every time God told him to do something, he did it. I believe that’s one reason he was so successful in his leadership journey and with all of the battles he had to endure. The other reason he was so successful, the Bible tells us, is because God was with him.
Whether you’re in a positional leadership role, an influential leadership role, or any other kind of role, being obedient to God and doing what He tells you to do, will inevitably be life-changing for you.
Can you imagine what our life would be like if we did everything God told us to do? What would our churches be like? Our communities?
What if we said, “no matter how crazy or costly the ask, I will obey the Lord”?
Think about the strategic plan for taking down Jericho. Now, I’m no expert by any means when it comes to battles or war, but I would think that marching around a city and blowing trumpets would not be my first choice. In fact, I don’t think it would ever even occur to me that a plan like that would work.
Alas, God told Joshua what the plan was (a crazy ask, humanly speaking), and Joshua obeyed. And it worked!
I’m sure that every time Joshua had success after obeying God, it motivated him to always be obedient.
In our lives, sometimes it seems difficult to discern what God wants for us, even if we have a heart to obey. Maybe we’ve even said, “just tell me what you want me to do God, and I’ll do it.”
However, other times, it’s very clear what God wants us to do and yet we struggle to obey. Have you ever felt an inner nudge to share your faith with someone and not done it? Or maybe you had a strong sense that you should pray for someone, but you ignored it? I have.
The Holy Spirit is at work and if we pay attention and obey, I really believe our relationship with God would be so much stronger and we would see so much more fruit.
So that’s the challenge for me and for you this week and on-going – that we would be more obedient. I honestly believe it will help us to be more radiant in our every day lives.
Can you imagine trying to lead “600,000 men, besides women and children”? That was roughly the number of people that Moses had the honor (challenge) of leading. What a job!
In this post, we will look at 5 key leadership lessons from Moses’ leadership journey that are still applicable today. Are you ready? Good! Let’s begin.
Leadership Lesson #1: Address fear
When the Israelites left Egypt, they soon discovered that Pharaoh and his army were coming for them. As you can expect, they were incredibly fearful. “…was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?” they asked Moses in Exodus 14:11.
See my post, Dry Ground, for a little more context on this passage.
Moses immediately addresses their fears. “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today…the Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Ex. 14:13-14).
In our lives today, our leadership may not entail having to address people’s fears about their own safety, but we might encounter fears about change or the future.
You’ll see in other passages in Exodus that the Israelites refer back to their lives in Egypt, and despite being slaves, they sometimes thought life was better there than in the desert. People don’t always see the need for change or may think the old way of doing things was better.
Change, for many, is hard. They might not know what their role will look like in the future. They might be afraid they won’t be able to learn the new system quickly enough or that their job will eventually be eliminated.
A good leader will first discover what the fear is and/or why someone is showing signs of resistance, and then will address it.
Moses reassured the Israelites that the Lord would fight for them and deliver them. What might that look like in our context? If we aren’t working in a Christian environment, maybe that looks like communicating that we, as their supervisor or manager, have their back. We assure them that we, or someone with a higher rank, will go to bat for them. We assure them that we will get through this.
Leadership Lesson #2: Earn Trust
A former supervisor of mine used to say that some people impute trust, meaning that they simply trust another individual. Others’ trust, however, has to be earned. When it came to the Israelites, Moses had to earn their trust.
After Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove back the water so the Israelites could pass through on dry ground and be saved from the Egyptians, there was a shift in the Israelites way of thinking.
“And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.” (Ex. 14:31)
Moses had told the Israelites that the Lord would deliver them, and He did. Once the Israelites saw this, Moses had earned their trust.
As leaders, we might not have to stretch out our arms to part the Red Sea and save hundreds of thousands of people from their death. But what if we just did what we said we were going to do? What kind of impact would that have on those around us who look to us for leadership?
Never underestimate the power of following through on your word. Your people will notice and it *will* matter to them.
Leadership Lesson #3: Expect Grumbling
If you read chapters 15-16 in Exodus, you might just begin to lose count of the number of times the word “grumbling” is mentioned.
Often, the Israelites were grumbling because their needs, like food and water, weren’t being met in a timely fashion. They grumbled for other reasons too, but this one was a biggie.
I notice two things about how Moses responded. He went ahead and made sure their needs were met and then he redirected their grumbling. He pointed out that they weren’t grumbling against him, but against God (Ex. 16:7-8).
If you have been leading for any length of time, you have likely encountered at least one grumbler. Rather than being irritated or annoyed by that person (or even feeling threatened by them), what would happen if you took some time to discover why they were grumbling?
Maybe they have unmet needs or expectations. If you can discover the root of their grumbling, you have a much better chance of being able to work with them to end it.
Leadership Lesson #4: Be Teachable
This is not a new lesson. It is tried and true and still very relevant today. Whether you are leading in a positional leadership role or leading by influence, being teachable is a characteristic that will always behoove you.
I see this characteristic in Moses when his father-in-law, Jethro, comes to visit (Ex. 18:13-26). After Moses tells Jethro all that God has been doing and the hardships they have faced, Moses sits down to act as judge for the people.
Jethro looks at what Moses is doing and questions Moses. Why are you the only one doing this? This is far too big of a job of one person alone. You are going to wear yourself out. You should find some other trustworthy and reliable men who you can teach to judge.
Moses listens to his father-in-law and does everything he tells him.
As a leader, do you find yourself teachable? Do you listen when others have observations about your leadership? Do you allow others to speak into your life and offer ideas for solutions to problems you are facing?
Leadership Lesson #5: Diligently Delegate
This lesson flows right out of the last one. Moses ends up finding some men who are able to act as judges over large groups of people.
As leaders, we want to delegate, but not so much so that we are actually shirking our own responsibilities. We want to maintain a manageable amount on our plates, allowing ourselves to still be stretched, without being overwhelmed.
There was a time when I felt like I was doing a full-time job and a part-time job at the same time. I would come in early, work through lunch and stay late and there were still endless things on my “to do” list. There just weren’t enough hours in the day to get through all the emails, do paperwork, plan for and attend meetings, and file the ever-growing piles on my desk.
Eventually, a bigger team of people came to my rescue and I was able to delegate enough of my tasks to finally make my job right-sized. It was such a relief. I felt like I could be a better leader and invest more in my team because I had delegated appropriately.
Well, I hope you have found these leadership lessons helpful. Would you take a moment and comment below? Was there a particular leadership lesson you think would be especially useful for you right now? Do you see any other lessons from Moses’ leadership journey? Please share in the comments!
We will continue our leadership study next week, so be sure to come on back for that! In the meantime, let us go be radiant this week!
A number of years ago, I was encountering some major challenges as a leader. I felt like I was in over my head, making rookie mistakes, and alienating the people I was trying to lead. It was a mess. I was a mess.
In an effort to lift my weary self out of the muck and mire I had unintentionally created, I began reading about different Biblical leaders. One such leader was a man named Moses. God used some of his leadership experiences to give me much needed hope and point me in a better direction.
When I decided to share some of those leadership learnings here on my blog, I revisited the book of Exodus to see if God might have some additional insight I could include. What do you know? He did!
Not only that, He actually amplified my view to encompass leadership lessons from the Boss Himself! So while I began to glean some new nuggets from Moses’s leadership journey, I realized that I was actually learning more about how God led Moses!
This unexpected shift in focus means that instead of spending all of our time on Moses in this post, we will mainly zero in on God. Next week, I’ll write more about leadership lessons I’ve learned from Moses.
To get the most out of this post, I’d highly recommend reading Exodus chapters 3 and 4. You can do so here.
Let’s briefly look at the context before we jump in. After killing a man, and being found out, Moses fled to Midian. While there, he married the daughter of a priest and they had a son. Moses was tending his father-in-law’s flock when God called to him from a burning bush.
I can’t help but find it interesting that just like David, Moses was tending a flock when he found out God had chosen him for a really big leadership job. If you haven’t read my post about leadership lessons from David, Lead Like a Shepherd, you can do so here.
Let’s see what the Boss has to teach us as he calls Moses. We’ll pick up the story in Exodus 3:4 and following. Moses is intrigued by a bush that’s on fire and yet does not burn up. I would be intrigued too, wouldn’t you?
When the Lord sees that Moses goes over to look at the bush, God calls him by name, twice.
After Moses says, “Here I am,” God establishes two things: that this is holy ground and He is the Lord. In response to the reality of all that is holy in front of him, Moses hides his face, too fearful of looking at God.
In the following verses, God tells Moses about the plight of his people who are suffering in Egypt. He, in essence, gives Moses context, helping him understand the severity of the situation. God then proceeds to tell Moses that He is going to bring the Israelites up out of that land into a land flowing with milk and honey.
I assume that Moses is listening quite carefully, as he has not said a word.
Then in Exodus 3:10, God tells Moses exactly what He wants Moses to do. The first leadership lesson I learn from God here is: communicate clearly and concisely.
God clearly and concisely communicates His mission for Moses, “So now go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Can’t you just imagine the shock Moses must have felt at that very moment. I mean, I’m sure he was mentally nodding his head as God was telling him about how His people were suffering. And then, boom! There is a charge to GO to Pharaoh (a very powerful man) and bring His people out of Egypt. What?!?!
I love how the writer of Exodus says, “But Moses said to God…” If Moses had immediately agreed to God’s charge and said, “I will do as you say, my Lord,” then the writer might have said, “And Moses said to God…” We would have seen an “and” instead of a “but.”
Moses asks, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Here we might see some insecurity or even humility on Moses’ part.
The Boss is undeterred by Moses’ response and replies in verse 12, “…I will be with you…” The second leadership lesson I learn from God here is: presence matters.
The Lord assures Moses that He will be with him. If the Lord is with us, is there anything we can’t face?
I believe that knowing the Lord would be with him gave Moses a little more courage. This reminds me of the passage we looked at while studying Deborah in, Lead Like a Mother, when Barak said he would go but only if Deborah went with him. If you haven’t read that post, you can do so here.
Throughout the remainder of Exodus chapter 3 and even into chapter 4, Moses asks several questions. He’s anticipating problems and wants to know ahead of time what he should say or do.
The Lord listens to Moses’ questions and always gives him an answer and a solution. Now this is kind of an interesting leadership strategy. Why? If you’ve had a direct supervisor while in a position of leadership, your leader probably encouraged questions but may have wanted you to answer them. Doing so would help you learn to figure things out on your own and perhaps even make you a little less dependent on the one who is leading you.
In this case however, I’m guessing that God wanted Moses to depend on Him. Moses wouldn’t be the one doing all of the work on this leadership mission. The elders of Israel and God Himself would also play a significant role.
In Exodus 3:16-17, God gives Moses further instructions with regard to the mission. He says, “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers–the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob–appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites…a land flowing with milk and honey.'”
In verse 18, God tells Moses that the elders of Israel will listen to him. Then God gives Moses the next part of the mission: “…Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt…”
What’s interesting about God’s instructions for Moses and the elders to go the king of Egypt is that He knows the king won’t let them do what they want him to do, “unless a mighty hand compels him.” So God foresees this potential problem and in verse 20 states how He will solve it.
The third leadership lesson I learn from God here is: foresee potential problems and have possible solutions ready.
Even though we are not omniscient like God, if we are good at our jobs and in our various leadership roles, we can see potential problems before they happen. I do it all the time with my kids! I foresee that the pancake syrup is going to spill on the placemat while my 3-year-old is eating, so I move the plate closer to him and put a napkin down.
I mentioned earlier that Moses wouldn’t be doing all the work on this leadership mission. We see that when God provides a solution in verse 20 and, in verse 21, when He says that He will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the Israelites.
The fourth leadership lesson I learn from God here is: leadership means working together to accomplish a task.
Unfortunately there was a time when I was in a positional leadership role, that I made the mistake of trying to do too much by myself. It wasn’t until I had a solid team around me that things really began to change for the better.
In Exodus chapter 4, we see how God begins to empower Moses. Literally. God gives Moses the power to perform various wonders. It’s all part of God’s strategy to get the Israelites out of Egypt.
Even though Moses will now have the ability to perform these wonders, he tells God that he has never been eloquent. Maybe he’s thinking, “sure, I’ll be able to do wonders, but if I can’t speak, will the plan fall apart? Will I mess it up?”
God tells him to go (that’s at least the third time God has said, “go” to Moses in the last two chapters) and assures him that He will be with him and will help him speak and will teach him what to say (v. 12).
Alas, Moses is not convinced. “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” (v. 13)
Okay, I know the job sounds big here, but God has answered every question, He’s empowered Moses, He’s promised to be with him. What more does Moses need to be convinced that he’s the right guy for the job?
The fifth leadership lesson I learn from God here is: empowerment doesn’t always equal confidence.
Regardless of how much someone has invested in us and empowered us with all they think we need to get the job done, we may still feel insecure. We may have doubts and fears. We may think that there is someone far better for the job.
God has been very patient up to this point but now he’s angry (Ex. 4:14). But even in his anger, he provides a solution: Aaron, Moses’ brother.
The sixth leadership lesson I learn from God here is: when you know you’ve got the right person for the job, don’t let them talk their way out of it.
Having said that, you may have to give them more resources to help them feel like they have everything they need to accomplish what you’ve asked them to do.
I wish I had learned some of these lessons a long time ago.
Were any of these leadership lessons helpful to you? If so, I would love for you to comment below.
Thank you for sticking with me and reading through to the end. I will be posting videos again, so stay tuned for those as well. We’ll focus in on Moses next week.
In the meantime, let’s try leading like a Boss this week and in so doing, be a little more radiant.
For those of you who usually watch my videos instead of reading the post, I had some technical difficulties in the editing stage. My apologies. Please stay tuned for a future video. In the meantime, feel free to read the post below.
When you think of leading like a shepherd, does David come to mind? It seems a little cliché, doesn’t it? Even if it does (which I agree, it does seem a bit cliché) it doesn’t make it any less applicable, which is how I justified titling this blog post, Lead Like a Shepherd 🙂
In my last post, Lead Like a Mother, we talked about the only female judge in Israel’s history, Deborah. As we dive into the topic of David’s leadership, we might just see a common aspect between the two.
We find rather lengthy accounts of David’s life and leadership in Scripture, far more than we have space to discuss here. So I will only be focusing in on a few key leadership principles that caught my attention as I was studying him.
If you would like to spend more time looking at the life of David, please comment below and let me know. I’d be happy to oblige.
Okay, let’s dig in and look first at how David was chosen as a leader.
God sent Samuel to anoint a king from among Jesse’s sons. Samuel saw Eliab, one of David’s older brothers, and assumed by his appearance (including his height) that he was the one. Alas, he was not. Why? Because the qualifications God was looking for did not have to do with one’s appearance, but rather, one’s heart.
As a petite individual, I’m rather pleased that Eliab’s height was not the determining factor. Lol.
I don’t know about you, but I’m guilty of making assumptions based on people’s appearance instead of doing my best to look at their hearts. Obviously only God really knows someone’s heart, but I could certainly do better to look a little deeper than I sometimes do.
The story in 1 Samuel, tells us that the youngest of Jesse’s sons, a shepherd named David, was the one God wanted Samuel to anoint.
Despite the fact that appearances were not the determining factor for David being chosen, we are still privy to a description of his appearance. In fact, the Bible notes that he was “glowing with health.” Oooh, I might interpret that as radiant! 🙂
As a shepherd, David may have seemed like an unlikely candidate for such a lofty leadership role, but perhaps his experience with sheep (who, let’s face it, are sometimes a lot like people) prepared him well for his future job.
Much like a shepherd would want to protect his sheep, as a leader, he would want to protect his people. I see a similar correlation to Deborah, who led like a mother. In other words, just as a mother would protect her children, so Deborah wanted to protect her people.
The desire to protect one’s people, then, seems like an important aspect of an individual’s leadership.
Another aspect of David’s leadership that caught my eye was his ability to show grace.
We see time and time again in Scripture where Saul is jealous of David’s success and as a result is pursuing him to kill him. Despite his efforts, David manages to elude Saul.
On more than one occasion, David has the opportunity to kill Saul but chooses not to. In fact, at one point he says, “far be it from me to lay a hand on God’s anointed.” Talk about showing a tremendous amount of grace!
If we think about what that looks like in our lives, surely we don’t have people so jealous of our success that they are trying to kill us. However, there is probably that one problem person at work that you have either wanted to fire or wish you could fire.
What would happen if we chose to show a little more grace to people like that?
This week I missed an important leadership meeting. I completely forgot about it (and felt horrible). Normally I prioritize things like that. As soon as I realized what I had done, I emailed the person in charge and apologized profusely.
You know what he did? He showed me grace. What a wonderful and David-like response as a leader.
If, instead of showing me grace, he had given me a hard time for not being there or made me feel worse than I already did, you know what that would have done? It would have caused me to retreat a little and maybe even eventually begin to question whether or not I wanted to continue in that role.
By showing me grace, it actually motivated me to step up my game a bit and not miss any future meetings.
The last leadership aspect in David’s life that I want to discuss is related to his ability to make unpopular decisions.
Leaders often have to make tough decisions, ones that cause them to remember that you can’t please everyone all the time, and David was no exception.
There was a time when David and his men returned to where they were staying only to find all of their wives and children had been taken captive by the Amalekites.
They were so distraught that they wept until they had no strength. David became even more distressed when there was talk by some of the men of stoning him.
But 1 Samuel tells us that he found strength in the Lord His God. Can I just say that finding strength in God, as a leader, is probably the best thing you could ever do? The moment you try to rely on your own strength is the moment you begin to go down as a leader.
David rallied the men and they set off to get their families back. Unfortunately about 200 of the men grew too tired along the way to make it to the battle. David and his men continued and fought from dusk until the evening of the next day.
They won all of their wives and children back and gained additional plunder in the process. The problem was that the trouble makers and evil men among David’s group, didn’t want to share the plunder with the 200 men who didn’t make it to the battle.
David’s response is where I really see him leading like a shepherd. He says, “no, brothers, we cannot do that after what God has done for us and how He has delivered us…”
David wasn’t about to leave the 200 men out. Just like, as a shepherd, he would not have denied grass to the sheep who took longer to get to the field than the others.
He made the decision to be inclusive and to show grace to the 200 men. It probably wasn’t a popular decision among those who suggested he do otherwise. But he did it anyway and it was the right decision to make.
Like all leaders, David didn’t always make the right decision. There were some big mistakes along the way. Nonetheless, he demonstrates admirable leadership qualities that we might want to consider how to apply in our own leadership journey.
So what does leading like a shepherd look like in your context? Would you be willing to share in a comment below? I would love to hear how you might find some of these things applicable in your life.
We have two more leaders to look at in the weeks ahead: Moses and Joshua. So please come back and join me for more leadership lessons from these noteworthy leaders.
In the meantime, let’s go be radiant as we lead this week.
Go Be Radiant 