YEA Lesson Library

The Lesson

“A man was walking in a wilderness. He became lost and was unable to find his way out. Another man met him. 'Sir, I am lost, can you show me the way out of this wilderness?' ‘No,' said the stranger, ‘I cannot show you the wav out of the wilderness, but maybe if I walk with you, we can find it together' (“Together” by Emery Nester from Stories for the Heart).

Moses was a man with a family. He had two sons. When the first was born, he named him Gershom, which means “foreigner.” He named him that because when the boy was born, Moses said, "I have been wandering in a foreign land." When the second child came along, it was a boy as well. He named him Eliezer, which means “God is my help.” When this little fellow was born, Moses said, "The God of my fathers was my helper, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

The deliverance of Moses from Pharaoh's "sword" may be speaking of Pharaoh's daughter saving him when he was put in a basket in the Nile River as a baby. It appears that Pharaoh was Moses' nemesis virtually all of his life.

When God called him to lead His people out of slavery, Moses sent his wife home to her father, Jethro. Moses had shown enormous courage, leadership, and compassion through all the plagues leading up to the exodus and their journey so far. But like so many leaders, he tried to do it all by himself. And, like the man walking in a wilderness, there are times we all need someone to walk with us.

When Jethro, Moses father-in-law, arrived with Zipporah and the two boys, they went into Moses' tent to talk. Jethro had heard how God delivered the Israelites and was happy about all the Lord had done. "Bless the Lord," Jethro said, “for He has saved you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, and has rescued Israel. I know now that the Lord is greater than any other god because he delivered his people from the proud and cruel Egyptians."

Jethro offered sacrifices to God. Aaron and the leaders of Israel met Jethro and Moses. All of them ate this sacrificial meal together before the Lord.

Being The Leader that Moses was, he was back to work as usual the next day. Jethro seemed to be kind of an efficiency expert. He observed how Moses spent his day and noticed that he tried to do everything himself. It didn't take long for Jethro to realize this wasn't going to work. Moses was going to experience burnout in a hurry, not to say what it would do to his health. Moses was so dedicated that he worked from morning to evening listening to the complaints the Israelites had against one another.

Jethro knew there had to be a better way and came up with a viable plan. He asked Moses to listen to his advice. "Find some capable, godly, honest men who hate bribes, and appoint them as judges, one judge for each 1000 people; he in turn will have ten judges under him, each in charge of a hundred; and under each of them will be two judges, each responsible for the affairs of fifty people, and each of these will have five judges beneath him, each counseling ten persons. Let these men be responsible to serve the people with justice at all times. Anything that is too important or complicated can be brought to you. But the smaller matters they can take care of themselves. That way it will be easier for you because you will share the burden with them. If you follow this advice, and if the Lord agrees, you will be able to endure the pressures, and there will be peace and harmony in the camp" (Exodus 18:21-23 TLB).

Moses listened to Jethro's advice. He charted a course to follow his suggestions. And Jethro's suggestions worked. Jethro soon returned home.

All the way through the story of Moses' life, we see one leadership quality after another in the man - The Leader. An old Chinaman was asked, "What is leadership?" He said, "There are those that are movable, those that are immovable, and those that move them." It is really saying that some people won't move and some will. A leader knows who will, so he leads them. Proverbs for Graduates lists many qualities a good leader must posses and develop. It goes like this: "Vision (I once heard a man say, 'It would be better if our leaders had more vision and fewer nightmares.'), wisdom, decision, courage, humility, humor (Sanders writes, 'Clean, wholesome humor will relax tension and relieve a difficult situation more than anything else.'), anger (properly controlled for the things that are right), patience, friendship, tact and diplomacy, and Inspirational Power (a familiar quote reads, ‘A good leader inspires his followers to believe in him. A great leader inspires people to believe in themselves.' I might add, 'A godly leader inspires them to trust God’)."

Moses had these qualities. As you will see, when the Israelites were at the foot of Mount Sinai where they prepared for God to give them His law, they trusted Him.

How many of these leadership qualities do you possess? Why not select one of these characteristics a day, research it and make it a part of your character. Leaders are winners, and you were Born to Win!