Our text for this morning is from Exodus chapter 16 starting at verse one, open your Bibles there with me. As we continue our series in Everyday Leadership, one of the challenges of leadership is that often it comes with criticism. How many of you have ever felt like you were criticized for something unfairly?
Today we are going to look at someone from scripture who was one of the most enduring examples of godly leadership, but also one of the most openly criticized leaders we have ever seen, today we are going to look at Moses, The Criticized Leader.
To set this up; The Israelites were held in captivity, in captivity for 430 years. Their people were slaves in Egypt, forced labor, beaten, their children murdered by the hand of Pharaoh, they were in fact a people who were not a people in Egypt; about fifteen generations experienced this horrible, tragic human reality and at the right time and in the right place God spoke to Moses. He spoke to Moses and used him as a means to display his power and display his glory in Israel as he delivers them out of the hands of Pharaoh.
After a miraculous moment at the Red Sea the Israelites find themselves in the wilderness as God prepares them for the land he has promised them; their own land, no longer slaves, no longer oppressed, this is the backdrop for where we will pick up the Exodus narrative in an uncomfortable conversation in which Moses is being criticized for his leadership of God’s people, but what Moses will teach us through this passage is that in the midst of criticism the most important thing is God’s work, not man’s words. Let’s stand together this morning out of reverence for God and his Word as it is read: Exodus 16:1-12, hear the word of the Lord.
1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt,7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we, that you grumble against us?”8 And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him-what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD.”9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.'”10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.11 And the LORD said to Moses,12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'” – Exodus 16:1-12
May God add his blessing to the reading of his word as we seek his face this morning.
According to this passage this narrative takes place on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. they had been an oppressed people for 430 years it took approximately forty-five days of freedom to raise a complaint about their current circumstances.
Actually I should rephrase that, it took forty-five days for Israel to raise a complaint about their circumstances, AGAIN!
From the moment Moses is introduced as a deliverer for the nation of Israel, in fact the first true Judge of Israel if we were to define it as we saw last week from the book of Judges, the besetting sin, the repeated sin of the people of Israel is complaint and criticism of Moses and more specifically, what the people think he isnot doing correctly.
They criticized Moses when he appeared before Pharaoh in order to set the stage for the work that God would do in freeing them, they criticized him on the banks of the Red Sea and even just before this passage, at the place they are leaving (Elim) a place that provided not only much needed water but an oasis that would be a place of rest for them, they complained against Moses for not providing water for them in the proper time.
Now where we are in this passage in chapter 16, as they have left the oasis at Elim, they are once again complaining and criticizing Moses and his leadership.
Friends can I tell you that complaints and criticism destroys godly leaders and destroys the community faith as a whole?
According to a research study done by The Fuller Institute 1,500 pastors leave their churches every year, 61% of them are forced out by their congregations and close to 3,700 churches close their doors every year. In a similar survey the office of pastor ranks just above car salesman with regards to peoples respect level for the profession.
Why is this such a glaring statistic amongst God’s people? Often it is born out of a critical spirit. This is not happening for us, church is not happening the way I want it to happen, I’m not being fed, pastors complaining and criticizing people for not volunteering, not growing and the list goes on, it is all a vicious cycle that destroys leaders in the church and destroys Gods people.
Friends, at some point the cycle has to break and this is where Moses found himself.
Moses had a decision to either engage in the criticism or do what was necessary to try to end the cycle of criticism or at least point to the alternative.
Moses endures the criticism, and he does something that is absolutely one of the most challenging thing to do when you face complaint after complaint, criticism after criticism, when a critical spirit threatens God’s people, he teaches us something very important about how to respond when we face criticism.
Move 1: StayFaithful to God When People Are Not
Now as you look at the issue the Israelites face, its a valid issue, their words matter here and the situation matters. They are in a wilderness, they are a mass of people and at this point they have no food. The people have a valid concern.
So here is what you might have expected and what might have been appropriate: Hey Moses can we get a minute, everyone is a little concerned about what we are going to do for food. We saw God work in the plagues and how he sparred us, we saw the Red Sea open to deliver us from Pharaoh, we just had this miraculous water supply provided, we know you’ve talked to God about all of this before, what’s the plan?
But that isn’t even close to how they approach this. They have completely forgotten what God has done in and through Moses and focused strictly on what they believe Moses is not doing rather than remembering what God had done.
It is another slap in the face to Moses’ leadership. It would have been better to die in Egypt with our meat pots and our bread, oh and let’s not forget the slavery, the beatings, the brutality, the murdering of our male children, no we’d rather experience that again, Moses what you are doing is way worse.
It was an affront to Moses, but more importantly it is an affront to God through whom Moses is providing guidance and leadership. Moses points to this later in the text in verse 8 when he reminds them: Your grumbling is not against us, but against God.
These people are unfaithful to God, their critique is superficially of Moses, but ultimately of God. They have seen him deliver them through the leadership of Moses over and over again, they have focused on what is not being done for them now rather than on what God has done, but in the midst of their unfaithfulness, Moses remains faithful, he remains faithful to God even amidst the criticism, because that is what the community needed.
This is what happens in verses 4 and 5 here, this reveals a posture of faithfulness to God over and against man in this circumstance: who is the first person Moses talks to about this issue? He talks to God, he talks to God, he doesn’t talk to Aaron, he doesn’t argue with the Israelites, he talks to God.
Moses embodied what we read in Psalm 118:6-7:
6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? 7 The LORD is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. – Psalm 118:6-7
As this bares itself out in the Christian life, none of us are immune as we go deeper into a relationship with Jesus Christ; as we know Him, learn his Word, seek to remain faithful, by virtue of your alignment with Jesus Christ you are leading in the world and as such, you are a representative of God and as you remain faithful to what God speaks it will draw criticism, it will challenge the socio-cultural climate of the world, and you are going to have decide either to engage the world and fight the world with criticism or to go to God and point to his work rather than your words.
But not only must we do this in the world, we have to do it with each other, within the family of God. In this passage, this is not a world issue, it is a God’s people issue. God’s people are complaining about God’s people, in a modern application this is a church issue we are seeing. How do we see this in the church today?
By way of example, as the church we are seeing this in very contemporary realities as pastors and elders all over the country and all over the world for that matter have to craft a response to the pandemic and how churches will meet. As churches have regathered pastors and elders are really in a no win situation: You’re moving too fast, you’re moving too slow, it’s too restrictive, there aren’t enough precautions…tell me if this sounds familiar from this passage as a contemporary statement on the state of the church in a pandemic world…we just want things the way they used to be! Isn’t that what the Israelites wanted in this passage?
Could it be that God doesn’t want it the way it used to be? That he has something even more glorious in store for his people that what we see on the surface? Bringing that example back to the text, that’s what the Israelites couldn’t see and as such a critical spirit arose that was destroying community.
But Moses’ first conversation, when the Israelites grumbled at him, wasn’t with man it was with God, he wanted to be faithful to God because despite the criticism he knew that is what the Israelites needed from him, which led to how he would act in the midst of criticism.
Moses teaches us to…
Move 2: Only Speak and Act on WhatGod Speaks
Out of the conversation Moses has with God in verses 4 and 5 comes the only valid response to the criticism he is receiving; to point to what God speaks and what God has done.
Moses rightly points things back to where they are and what God has done and what God is going to do, rather than pointing to himself.
The Israelites said in verse 3 For you (Moses) brought us out into the wilderness…Moses reminds them in verse 6 it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt.
But it isn’t enough for Moses to respond to the complaint, Moses would have short changed the Israelites if he had only used the Word of God to defend himself. He had to speak all of what God spoke. If he had just stopped at reminding the Israelites that it wasn’t him who brought them out of Egypt, that it was God who brought them out of Egypt that would have been a means to justify himself. No, he tells them all of what God spoke and this is how he addresses their criticism of him, he tells them exactly what God is going to do, not what he (Moses) is doing.
Look at how verses 6 and 7 correspond to verse 8. Moses says in the evening you will know it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt and in the morning you will see his glory and then in verse 8 he explains how this will happen for them, he says in the evening you will eat meat and in the morning you will eat bread, but as we connect this to the overarching purposes of God it will not be about disabusing Moses of criticism; there is a grander, more glorious thing that they will need to learn from this, a great purpose for Moses in this. It is found in verse 12, Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
This is what Israel needed most in the midst of a critical culture, to see and pursue the glory of God.
God, through Moses, responds to their very valid situation and concern that was brought in an unloving critical way and what this reveals is it i was as much about what they needed as it was destroying the spirit of criticism, because seeing God’s glory was at stake.
Moses’ aiming point wasn’t to relieve himself of criticism, it was to be faithful to what God had done, to make God his primary point of direction, not man and as he comes, he only speaks what God calls him to speak and points to what God has done and will do.
He let’s God be God to the Israelites. Friends can I tell you that God’s job description is already filled and he does a pretty good job of being God.
Moses teaches us no amount of criticism should detour us from doing the work of God, because ultimately, his plans and purposes will be fulfilled.
This is what we learn from Moses:
Bottom Line: God’s Work is More Important Than Man’s Word
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