Reluctant leadership and God’s patient calling
Mark A. Taylor reflects on Moses’ reluctance at the burning bush and God’s steady patience through Moses’ excuses and doubts. The story highlights how God persists, provides help, and fulfills his promises even when leaders hesitate.
- Moses’ excuses didn’t stop God’s clear call.
- God responded with patience, assurance, and provision.
- Reluctant leaders can learn to obey by trusting God to do what they cannot.
By Mark A. Taylor
Two things amaze and encourage me when I read the story of God’s call to Moses.
The first is his excuse making in response to God’s clear commands.
The second is God’s equally persistent patience in the face of this whining.
Moses’ reluctance
Initially we might understand the reluctance of Moses at the burning bush. Who wouldn’t have been surprised by what God proposed to this murderer in exile turned shepherd? Nothing in his decades of sheep tending in Midian would have appeared on the résumé for nation-deliverer.
So when God said, “You will convince Pharaoh to free the whole nation of Israel now enslaved in Egypt,” anyone listening might have had trouble believing him.
But God made clear, as Jeff Krajewski ponders this week, that the voice Moses heard was from the Lord himself. Nevertheless, Moses argued. And after God answered every excuse Moses could think of, Moses still begged, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Exodus 4:13). “The Lord’s anger burned” (v. 14), but he did not punish Moses. He only promised Moses a partner, his brother Aaron.
At last Moses relented.
God’s persistent patience
But when Moses secured an audience with Pharaoh, instead of releasing the people, Pharaoh only made their work harder.
The Israelite foremen, caught between a king who told them to make bricks without straw, and a workforce groaning under the burden of this unreasonable command, blamed Moses. “Look what you’ve done!” they said, and Moses carried their complaint to the Lord.
God calmly replied, “Now you’ll see how my power will free your people. Tell them to trust me.” Moses tried this, but the people wouldn’t listen. In response, God simply told Moses, “Go to Pharaoh again.”
And again Moses hesitated. “If the people won’t listen to me,” he reasoned, “why should Pharaoh?”
God might have asked, “And if you won’t listen to me, I’ll just find someone who will!”
But instead God endured the words and weakness of Moses, all the while assuring Moses that his promises would prevail. And of course, finally they did.
Reluctant leadership today
I was talking about this with a friend, who observed, “Effective leadership is most often reluctant leadership.” When God calls one of us today to an “impossible task,” he’s not put off when we answer, “I can’t do it.” In fact, only then does he have us where he can use us best. We’ve taken the first step toward telling God, “Only you can do it.”
Neither my tasks nor my faith have approached those of Moses. But when I believe God’s handed me a job I know I can’t handle, Moses is the one to remember. This reluctant leader reminds me what can happen when I stop objecting and just trust God enough to obey.
Author: Mark A. Taylor
Mark A. Taylor, who served as Christian Standard editor from 2003 to 2017, retired in June 2017 after almost 41 years with Standard Publishing (Christian Standard Media).
