How does a person become a good leader? Some people would say, “He’s a born leader!” Some people would say, “He was groomed to lead!” So are leaders born or groomed? Well, I think it’s a little of both.
You need to be born into the right situation with certain genetic qualities that will enable you to be a leader. But you are still born a baby. So that baby, with all the potential in the world, has to be groomed into a leader.
[Tiger Woods example.]
Moses was born into the perfect situation that God would use to prepare him to be one of the greatest leaders that ever lived. Now his grooming process took eighty years – but the man Moses became was exactly who Israel needed to lead them out of the Egyptian bondage.
Now the three big-picture things that shaped Moses’ leadership style were his values, his abilities and his life-experiences. And really, those are the things that make all of us who we really are. Our values, our abilities and our life-experiences shape and create who we become as individuals. So, we’re going to see Moses’ values, abilities and experiences begin to shape him in Exodus chapter two. As you turn there let’s remember what’s going on with Israel.
Israel as a nation has now been sojourning in the land of Egypt for over three hundred years. Their visitation started out good when Joseph was still alive, but through the years their stance in the land has greatly deteriorated. They’re considered outsiders, they been harshly enslaved by the Egyptians, and Pharaoh has turned all the Egyptians against the Hebrews by ordering them to kill any newborn boy they happen to see. Life is tough for the Hebrews.
But God loves His people and He’s preparing a man to lead them out of the Egyptian bondage and into the promised land. They will be delivered to worship! Moses is that man.
I. Moses’ first forty years of preparation
Now the first forty years of Moses’ life seemed to be influenced the most by three women – his mother, his sister and his adoptive mother which was Pharaoh’s daughter. Now I’m sure there were men who influenced him, but only women are highlighted in this passage.
There’s only a brief mention of his father. Probably because he surely was a slave like all the other Hebrew men so he would be worked harshly all day every day. You don’t hear anything about his older brother Aaron at this point. And there’s no mention of his adoptive’s mother’s husband; (if she even had one.)
So let’s look at the influence of these women on Moses’ first forty years of life.
1. Moses’ parents, (Amram and Jochebed)
[Read Exodus 2:1-2.]
Remember, the Egyptians had decreed that any Hebrew male born was to be killed, so she risked her own safety by hiding Moses those three months. She loved her son so much and would do anything to care for him. But for some reason she realized she couldn’t effectively hide him any longer so she came up with a plan that might allow her son to live. This is where we begin to see the influence of Pharaoh’s daughter on Moses.
2. Pharaoh’s daughter
[Read Exodus 2:3-6.]
Moses’ mom sent her son afloat hoping an Egyptian would find him and care for him as their own. It’s not clear if Moses’ mother intended for Moses to be brought into the royal household, but that’s what happened.
Pharaoh’s daughter found the baby, heard him crying, and had compassion on him. She knew he was a Hebrew boy, she knew the law, she knew she was to kill the boy or at least have one of her maidens do it, and her father was Pharaoh himself! But she decided to care for this boy and adopt him as her own son. She obviously had a true, motherly love for Moses.
But Moses’ sister and mother are still in the picture.
3. Moses’ sister and mother
[Read Exodus 2:7-9.]
Amazing! Moses’ own mother was hired by Moses’ new adoptive mother to nurse him for the next two to three years until he’d been weaned. Moses’ sister’s and mother’s plan had worked! Moses would grow up in a good home and they’d even get to spend the next three years nurturing baby Moses along.
I wonder if Pharaoh’s daughter somehow knew that the woman nursing her new son was his biological mother? You know how women are good at perceiving things. Anyway, the first three years of Moses’ life was with his mother and family. He was then handed over to Pharaoh’s daughter who would raise him into a man.
[Read Exodus 2:10.]
So what was it like for Moses to grow up in Pharaoh’s household?
[Read Acts 7:20-22.]
He would have received the best of everything. The best education, the best athletic training, and all the creature comforts of the richest and most powerful family in the land.
You know, Moses simply could have become either another Hebrew slave or could have even been killed as he floated down the Nile. But God had other plans for him and so He orchestrated Moses’ incredible journey from the basket into the palace.
But you know, I think that Moses had considerable Hebrew influence during those years of growing up in Pharaoh’s daughter’s home. I’ll bet he never lost touch with his family who were obviously a family of faith. You see, he understood that he was a Hebrew and that God had plans for the Hebrews.
[Read Hebrews 11:24-26.]
Moses understood that God would deliver His people and would bring a Savior, a Christ to redeem them. That kind of understanding wouldn’t have come from his Egyptian home. It would have come from mom and dad.
So Moses’ life is starting to take shape. He’s starting to understand what he’s on this earth for. His values, his abilities and his experiences, all guided by the Lord, are making him into a great leader.
II. Moses’ calling begins to show
In the next few verses we see three instances of Moses’ leadership beginning to show. And through this we can see some of his values as well.
1. Kills the Egyptian oppressor
[Read Exodus 2:11-12, Acts 7:23-24.]
Moses wanted to go and be with his people. He wanted to understand what they were really going through and see if he could help. The stories he’d heard seemed to be true as he saw for himself the harshness of the Egyptians upon the Jews. So in a vengeful rage he killed an Egyptian oppressor.
The next day he returned to his brethren probably thinking they would praise him for defending them and maybe they’d even be ready to revolt against Egypt and leave that place.
2. Breaks up a Hebrew fight
[Read Exodus 2:13-14, Acts 7:25-29.]
Moses tries to get the Hebrews to stop fighting amongst themselves. He was trying to unify them. But all they saw was a murderer who didn’t have the right to be their leader.
So discouraged and afraid Moses leaves Egypt and goes to Midian. When he gets there, he finds a Hebrew tribe of people that are descendants of Abraham and his wife Keturah. (Abraham married her after his wife Sarah died.) (It’s mentioned in Genesis 25:1-6.)
But right as he gets there he’s got another opportunity to help people and be the leader that God’s shaping him into.
3. Protects the priest’s daughters
[Read Exodus 2:15-17.]
Now Moses could have easily stood by and let these people, who he didn’t know from Adam, do what they were accustomed to doing. After all, the last couple of times he tried to help people it didn’t work out so good.
But because of who God was shaping Moses to be, he couldn’t help but stand up for the oppressed. That’s just who he was. He was born and groomed to be a leader of the oppressed. And you can see his values standing out through these three attempts to help people.
At this point we can see that Moses valued - his family, his people the Hebrews
- people
- justice
- compassion
- service
So the first forty years of leadership training has produced a compassionate, brave, servant leader. But he’s still a little rough around the edges. So his leadership training, that’s being superintended by God, goes into phase two.
III. Moses’ second forty years of preparation
[Read Exodus 2:18-22.]
Moses is invited to eat with the priest of Midian, Reuel, who is also known as Jethro. Now he’s called the priest of the land and was probably carrying on the traditions and teaching of Abraham. Later in the book of Exodus we have even clearer indication that Jethro was a follower of the one, true God. The perfect family for Moses to connect with.
He’s invited to live with them, and eventually marries one of Jethro’s daughters and begins a family of his own.
The narrative doesn’t give us any details about the next forty years of Moses’ life. But we do know that the Lord was using it to further develop him into the leader he was born to be. Think about all the changes Moses was going through and how they would help him grow up.
1. New home
- Midian was a desert land as opposed to the bountiful land of Egypt.
- Named his son Gershom which means, “stranger here” or “resident alien”. It appears that Moses still didn’t feel like this was home. Remember, at one point in time he didn’t feel at home in Egypt either. God was preparing him for the coming wandering in the wilderness.
2. New Family
- Wife, son, and Jethro his new father figure.
3. New career
- Shepherding. (Hard working, low class, servant, leader.)
For forty years he led those sheep around in those desert lands. He might not have
understood quite what the Lord was doing. He might have even questioned whether he should have left Egypt all those years ago.
But all the while the Lord was continuing to shape his values, hone his abilities and use the experiences of his life to prepare him for the next forty year phase of leadership.
Now while Moses is in Midian being groomed by the Lord, tensions are escalating in Egypt between the Jews and the Egyptians.
[Read Exodus 2:23-25.]
While the Jews are waiting on God to answer their prayers, God’s working on the solution to their problems. Even before they asked for help, God had a plan. And that plan was to bring Moses back to deliver them from their bondage so they could worship Him freely. We’ll get into that next time.
