Leadership Archives - Tasmanian Baptists

food for thought:

Moses and his l-o-o-ng training

Time to Challenge about Developing Leaders!

the story of Moses, and how God prepared him for a huge Leadership task

Is God preparing you for something huge?

By Frans Ammerlaan

Being Useful

I have often wondered about the relationship Moses had with the Lord, “whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10). It took 80 odd years to fashion his character to make him useful for His purposes.

As marvelous as God’s management was of Moses’ birth, young adulthood, and his education. Remember that since Jesus saved us, we all have this close relationship with God – if we choose!

Since Jesus saved us, we all have this close relationship with God – if we choose!

In the old days, before Jesus, any time God looked at developing Leaders or Messengers, He had to grow him from scratch, and then be able to relate to him. Here I think of Jonah who did not really want the job, but reluctantly did it anyway, after first running away and hiding (Jonah 1:3).

Trained . . . and Humbled

Just think, for God to develop leaders among the Jews in Egypt was almost an impossibility. To start with the Hebrews were illiterate and ignorant slaves. God had to pick a gifted baby and have him nurtured, educated, and trained, state-of-the-art, as it were. As God tells the story in His word, so well-known now, it appeals to our imagination.

A baby found in the reeds of the ile River by a Princess going for a swim.Food for Thought: Developing Leaders

You know the story, found in Exodus 2. A baby found in the reeds of the Nile River and taken, by a Princess going for a swim, into Pharaoh’s Palace. So begins Moses’ upbringing as a Prince of Egypt. He was educated and developed as the leader of the Jews, with the best education money could buy. What a break!

After developing into manhood as a prince of the realm, and no doubt with the arrogance that came with it, now came the time to be fashioned into a humble useful leader.

This finely educated prince now spent 40 years in the desert to humble him. So humble, that he said to God he could ‘not speak’! Exodus 4:10 (With the great education he had? What a ‘come down’!)

Lives in Parallel

I also think our lives are often parallel with Moses’ story.

When I was 19, I thought I was God’s gift to mankind. A God I did not even know. Fortunately, He grabbed me later – and all my kids. It was not until he was 80 years old that God considered Moses ready.

So much of this story applies to many of us who, in the first flush of our youth, think we can do it by ourselves. Then discover the Lord’s purposes for our lives.

The relationship Moses had with the Lord is of course now available to every saved believer in the world. (I think that is really “magic”).

I also used to think, as a kid, that the Old Testament was boring, but I now realise that every recorded word of God is truly full of treasure. When I read it closely and ask, “Why would He say that?” I can almost see His thoughts!

For us, for me, as for Moses, it is good to remember that He never leaves us or forsakes us, even when we are in doubt.

For us as for Moses it is good to remember that he never leaves us or forsakes us, even when in doubt.
Developing Leaders

Often, in my youth, did I despair into hopelessness, and came close to ending it all. It was then that He carried me.

Then He saved me and my whole house! By so doing, He demonstrated His love, and that He occupies the centre of our hearts carrying us in the palm of His hands. Can you beat that!

What a treasure we have in Jesus.

Frans Ammerlaan is a member of Sassafras Baptist Church.

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Developing Leaders