Moses

In my Bible reading I am finishing the Pentateuch. I am really struck this time through with the character of Moses. He was an amazing person. Raised in a palace, lived the middle of his adult life in exile, and the last third of his life he spent leading a nation out of slavery and into their own identity and property.

Here is what strikes me. In reading all the law of the first five books of the Bible you have to notice that Moses was quite unconventional in his politics. Often the law that is prescribed is prefaced or followed by something like, "do not do what the nations around you are doing."

I believe that the laws came from God. They were God's ideas. But, they were so different from what the Egyptians and Canaanites did that it must have taken great courage to enact the laws. The laws are not only to keep order, but to protect the human rights of justice, freedom, and economic opportunity.

It is amazing that Moses did not become the king. God set him up as the final authority, but he seems to submit to the priesthood that he formed under God's direction. How easy it would have been for Moses to take what God had given him and use it for his own pleasures. Moses actually give the next generation of authority to his brother Aaron's sons and to Joshua son of Nun, not his own children.

Can we modern day leaders be so altruistic and sacrificial in our church, school, business, and government? Do we make laws to protect our self interests, or the rights and interests of others and the least powerful in our realm of influence. Can we as leaders build an organization with structure and then have the discipline to live by our own rules? Can we build a structure through our leadership and then be willing to follow the leadership of our successor who is functioning under the same prerogatives that we enjoyed while we were in leadership?

The life of Moses really makes me think.