THE CALLING TO FAIL (lessons from Exodus 6)

Blogging Exodus 6:1-13, 28-29

Moses had asked, and Pharaoh had said, “No.”  

Not only “No,” but “No AND I’m going to make life even harder for the hundreds of thousands of your people who are already slaves.”

So of course, Moses’ people turned on him. 

And the officers of the children of Israel . . ., as they came out from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them. And they said to them, “Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (Exodus 5: 19-21).

 

Keep in mind that Moses wasn’t “Moses” yet.  He hadn’t parted any seas or called water out of any rocks.  Moses hadn’t seen manna or the glory of God passing in front of him.  Moses hadn’t sung a song or preached a powerful sermon.  He hadn’t even built up the courage to speak directly to pharaoh.  At this point, Moses was a newly appointed preacher thrown into high stakes negotiations with the most powerful and racially hostile world leader in his world, negotiations at which Moses had clear and magnificently FAILED.

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all” (Exodus 6: 22-23).

Clearly this whole called-to-prophetic-ministry-and-social-justice-liberation thing was a huge mistake.  And he didn’t even want to be a prophet.  He’d had to leave his wife, his sons, the only healthy father figure he’d ever known.  He’d already almost died once. 

Moses was --- DONE!

But the Lord told Moses to go BACK to Pharaoh and make the exact same demands.  Now, God has already told Moses: But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand (Exodus 3: 19).  But the same God was saying:  “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land” (Exodus 6: 1).   

God was simultaneously promising failure AND victory.

  

In Exodus 6:2-8, the Lord gave Moses a powerful sermon laying an historical and theological foundation for the promises of liberation and prosperity.  Moses received an anointed Word about God’s redemptive plan, a mightily motivational message encouraging the people to trust in the Lord!

That didn’t work either.

So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did NOT heed Moses because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage (Exodus 6:9).

”Because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage” means that sometimes your people are in too much pain to process good theology.

You still have to tell them, but more importantly, you have to  SHOW THEM God working on their behalf.   

Sometimes serving God means advocating for people who ought to advocate for themselves but are too broken and disheartened to stand with you.  Sometimes you go alone to fight battles you cannot win alone on behalf of people who will not fight alongside you.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land.” (Exodus 3:10 -11)

Moses responded just as frustrated preachers have been responding ever since, “If my congregation won’t listen to me, why should anybody else listen to me?  Clearly, Lord, I’m not as good at this as You think I am.” 

 "The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” (Exodus 3:12) 

 

God frequently calls us into situations where failure is certain but it isn’t to be cruel.  It is to be strategic.  Sometimes momentary failures are necessary for ultimate victory.  And, God is teaching us not to define ourselves and our worth by our last battle.   At any given moment you can be hard-pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) but not be crushed by the pressure, not despair at the confusion, not destroyed by the attacks, and never forsaken by your God.  

You can lose and still be victorious.

God doesn’t guarantee victory to the Christian who is always stronger than his/her opponent. 

God guarantees victory to the Christian who is faithful to the calling to face those opponents, even when facing them leads to failure.

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved (Mark 13:13).

God told Moses to go back to Pharaoh and fail again because God was going to use that failure to deepen Moses’ spiritual power, to mature Moses’ relationships with the Lord, and to set the ministry up for such a spectacular victory that we’re still writing blogs about it 3,000+ years later. 

So the Lord said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.  You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.   But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” Exodus 7:1-5).

If you’ve been called into ministry (and every believer has in some way been called into ministry), and you’re afraid that you’re going to fail, don’t worry.  You will. 

When it happens, get up.  Pray.  Refocus.  And go fail again.  Because if you’re truly obeying God, those initial and intermittent failures are Divinely strategized set-ups for a victory of Biblical proportions.

 

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401

GET YOUR FEET WET (1st sermon as pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church)

First sermon as pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church. 

The title is:  GET YOUR FEET WET. 

Listen well and leave a comment.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401

WHEN HATE OUTWEIGHS LOVE

We say, “If you’re nice to people, people will be nice to you.”

God says, “No. Not necessarily.” 

It’s like what the Lord told Moses in Exodus 3:18 – 19: And you shall say to [Pharaoh], ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’

But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand.

God warned Moses and Aaron that when they approached Pharaoh humbly and respectfully and in an unthreatening tone very nicely asked him to allow the Hebrew slaves just a few days off for worship, Pharaoh would NOT give the same respect he was given.

And he didn’t.  Instead, Pharaoh accused Moses and Aaron of being outside agitators stirring up trouble among his ni--- umm.  Among his Hebrews.

Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor”  (Exodus 5: 4).

As individual Christians, we identify with Moses, the believer, the humble underdog making a simple request.  We identify the American church with the children of Israel, God’s people oppressed and persecuted by a wicked dominant culture.

No.  Not necessarily.

What if you, I, we are Pharaoh? 

Here’s how we can tell:  the bad guy in the story is the one who’s hate outweighs his love.  

Let’s run some tests.

Do you justify your hatred like Pharaoh did?

Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!” (Exodus 5: 5)  

Pharaoh’s refused to give the Hebrew slaves time off because there were too many Hebrew workers.   Yeah, but would Pharaoh have given them time off if there had been fewer Hebrew slaves?  No.

And what in the world did the number of slaves have to do with whether or not enslaving them was right?  Nothing.

It’s like in the pre-Civil War South when Confederates states said, “We can’t free the Negroes.  There are too many of them.”

It’s like during World War II when the United States locked up Japanese-Americans in internment camps because, “There are so many of them, some of them might be spies.”  Of course, there were a whole lot more German-Americans at the time, so why didn’t we lock up German-Americans?  (Hint, it’s because they’re White.)

It’s like when people say we can’t allow Mexicans, or Muslims into the country because there are too many Mexicans and Muslims. 

Those people don’t really care how many there are.  They’d hate “those people” if there were only six of them on the planet. 

Do you apply blame like Pharaoh?

Pharaoh’s racist foolishness followed the same game- plan that racist foolishness always follows:     

Say the minority is a threat.  Say that oppression is necessary for national security  or to protect the economy .  Keep them dependent and geographically contained.  Ignore everything  God says condemning your actions.  And, when they ask for reasonable relief, call them lazy.

So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying,  “You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.⁸ And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

⁹ Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words” (Exodus 5:6-9).

You enslave these people to do your work so your people don’t have to do the work, and the slaves are the lazy ones?

People are walking thousands of miles through deserts and mountains to enter this country and WORK.   You’re seeking them out to fill positions Americans won’t take and paying them illegally low wages Americans won’t accept  to labor under conditions Americans would never endure.    

And then you accuse them of being lazy welfare recipients.  How is the guy who traversed a desert to get a job the lazy one? 

If  they can’t get a job if they fail a drug test, and there aren’t enough slots in rehab centers; if they can’t get a job without a permanent address, and there is no housing for the homeless; if they can’t get a job if they have EVER been convicted of ANY felony ---- if you’ve literally made it illegal to hire addicts, the homeless, and the formerly incarcerated ------ how can you scream at them “Get a job!”?

Is your heart devoid of compassion like Pharaoh?

There were no plagues after Moses’ and Aaron’s first meeting with Pharaoh.  The Lord gave Pharaoh space to take a small step toward easing his oppression of the Hebrews. That’s GRACE.

Pharaoh chose to double-down on his hateful rhetoric and policies.

So, the Lord withdrew grace from Pharaoh.  God let Pharaoh run uninterrupted in the direction of hate and anger and narcissism all the way to its self-destructive end.  That’s why Scripture says God hardened his heart.  

When you see people struggling under burdens you can’t even imagine and, without knowing their story you unilaterally decide, “They’re lazy; I need to make their lives harder,”  that’s hard-hearted.

When people approach you or me graciously and respectfully, asking for help and we respond with insults and threats (and it doesn’t matter whether you give them the money or not), that’s hard-hearted.

That’s some Pharaoh foolishness. 

When we see suffering in other parts of the country or the world and we say, “Well, if they’d pulled their pants up, if they hadn’t talked back to the officer, if they’d been at home instead of at that club, if they hadn’t been living in a country full of terrorists ----- then they wouldn’t have anything to complain about” --- that’s hard-hearted.

That’s some Pharaoh foolishness.

When we hear the Word of God spoken to us and we open our own Bibles and see point blank that the Bible says  You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:21), but you don’t like those people so you decide to mistreat them anyway, that’s not patriotism.

That’s some Pharaohish foolishness.

Pharaoh became so hardened in his heart, so hostile to God’s offer of grace that he ordered his people to make life harder on the people they were oppressing  ----- and to blame them for it. 

Do you, like Pharaoh, hate the others more than you love your own?

A sign of a Pharaoh hard heart is when you hurt your own people just so you can hurt “those people.”

Prior to Exodus 5, the Egyptians had supplied the Hebrew brick-making teams with the straw they needed to do massuh’s work.  To pay them back for having the audacity to send some liberal Midianite looking shepherd and his brother to beg for a minor improvement in working conditions, Pharaoh changed the labor laws.  Now the Hebrews had to get their own straw and still meet their daily brick-making quotas. 

The straw had been supplied by Egyptian farmers, who would have been paid for supplying straw.  The Hebrews couldn’t afford to buy straw from Egyptian farmers, so Exodus 5: 12 says the slaves collected stubble instead of straw. The stubble was scraps and tips and pieces leftover from hand cutting the grass into straw. 

The quality of the bricks used in construction diminished because they were using inferior raw material, and all the native Egyptian straw providers were out of business. 

Pharaoh degraded his country’s infrastructure and bankrupted an entire sector of his nation’s economy ----- cause he didn’t like Jews. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-03/to-spite-harley-trump-may-have-to-turn-to-japanese-bike-makers

Warlords burn villages in their own territories because it MIGHT hurt their rivals.   Dictators starve their own citizens because some of them MIGHT supporter their political opponents. 

What about us?

America guts the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, internet privacy rules, and fair wage protection for women because ---- liberals. We hurt everybody cause we’re still mad about that uppity Obama guy.

That’s some Pharaoh foolishness.

What about you?

Who you mad at?

Which person or people do you despise for their very existence?  Whom do you hate SO MUCH that everything they say is wrong?  That everything is wrong because they said it?

Are you willing to sin to hurt them?  Do you want to destroy anybody who even thinks about mitigating their suffering?  Do you find joy in the thought of their pain?

Do you think like Pharaoh?

Scripture warns us:  Do NOT rejoice when your enemy falls, And do NOT let your heart be glad when he stumbles (Proverbs 24: 17).

The Hebrews were already enslaved when Moses met with Pharaoh, but those negotiations didn’t begin with Moses calling down a plague.  Technically, God didn’t plague Egypt for having slaves; He plagued Egypt because Pharaoh refused to extend grace to those slaves, grace that would have been a path to freedom.

God plagued Pharaoh for refusing to let his hard-heart be softened by the Word of God delivered by Moses and Aaron.

The plagues are coming.  The question is, when the plagues come, will we be on the side of the grace-filled Word of God, safe under the Blood? 

Or are we Pharaoh?

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401

THE WE GREATER THAN YOU OR ME

Final sermon as pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church. (Apologies for the audio quality)

The title is:  THE WE GREATER THAN YOU OR ME.

Listen well and leave a comment.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, AL 35064

INCHES AND MILES

Blogging Exodus 5: 1-9

Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”

² And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.”

³ So they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”

⁴ Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.” ⁵ And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!”

⁶ So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, ⁷ “You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸ And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹ Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.” 

“If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.”

It’s a cliched excuse to maintain high walls of exclusion.  When the powerless ask for small concessions, for reasonable accommodations, the people with power tell each other that it’s a trick. They tell each other that the people without power are secretly plotting to take ALL of the power. 

It’s cliched, but it’s not entirely incorrect.

The Lord sent Moses to lead all of the children of Israel out of Egyptian slavery and all the way into the Promised Land, but that’s not what Moses told Pharaoh.  God told Moses to ask Pharaoh, “now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God”  (Exodus 3: 18).   Three days out, a minimum of one day of sacrifices and 3 days back.  Conservatively speaking, Moses was asking Pharaoh to give the Hebrew slaves a week off.   

A small concession.  A reasonable accommodation for religious observances.  An inch.

Moses never expected pharaoh to give them the inch.  God had already told him But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand.  (Exodus 3: 19). 

And, Moses hadn’t left his contented life a thousand miles away in Midian, argued with his wife, miles nearly died on the road, and hustled his way into an audience with the most powerful monarch in the ancient world just to request a week’s vacation.

Moses asked for an inch, but he was really, always after the mile. 

Women’s suffragists didn’t JUST want the right to vote.  They DID as their critics warned want to run for office and own their own companies and wear pants and be bosses.

LGBTQ activist didn’t JUST want to have their relationships recognized as civil unions.  They DID want full, legally protected and endorsed marriage.

Negro civil rights activists didn’t JUST want an end to lynchings and a chance to work in factories and send their children to decent school.  Black folk wanted to be mayors and sheriffs and generals and judges presiding over the trials of White defendants. Yeah, we’d been plotting on the presidency for a long time before Obama.

Immigrants and refugees want a shot at full citizenship and all the rights and responsibilities therewith. 

And neo-nazis, and Klansmen, and the ceo of Papa John’s don’t JUST want to be able to use the N-word in public without consequence.  They want to be able to discriminate against Black and Brown people.  They want to be able to abuse and murder us.  They want the whole spectrum of privileges and immunities of 19^th (and 18^th) century White Supremacy. 

There were surely many Israelites who would have been satisfied with a little time off, with just a little relief from their heavy labors.  There are many individuals within each  group who sincerely only want that ONE inch.   But generally speaking, when a  group dispatches representatives to ask for the inch it’s because they’re strategizing how to get the mile.

How they (the less powerful) leverage their inch to get the mile is a test of their character.  How we (the powerful) respond to their request for an inch demonstrates our character.

The powerful Pharaoh responded to Moses’s and Aaron’s request for a reasonable religious accommodation by calling all the Israelites lazy and shiftless. 

Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.” And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor! . . . For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God’” (Exodus 5: 4, 5, 8).

Pharaoh responded to the request for just an inch by doubling-down on his angry rhetoric and oppressive policies.

So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.  And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. . .   Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words”   (Exodus 5: 6-9).

The Lord judges us by how we respond when they ask for an inch.

God judged Pharaoh hard-hearted and made him and his nation the target of Divine wrath, not because Pharaoh refused to free the slaves, but because he refused to make give them the week off to worship. 

In that first inch we decide whose side God will take when we compete over the rest of the mile.

But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go [three days into the wilderness to sacrifice], no, not even by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go. (Exodus 3: 19-20).

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

BAD TEAM BUILDING ADVICE (A Lesson from Moses and Aaron)

Blogging Exodus 4:14 - 16, 27- 31

¹⁴ So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. ¹⁵ Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. ¹⁶ So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.  

. . .  ²⁷ And the Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him on the mountain of God, and kissed him. ²⁸ So Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him. ²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. ³⁰ And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people. ³¹ So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped. 

Moses & Aaron

Moses and Aaron were brother-believers.   They both cared about the plight of their enslaved brethren in Goshen.  They’d both accurately discerned the voice of the Lord leading them in His will.  In every other way, they disagreed. 

In Exodus chapter 4, Moses was leaving a peaceful and contented life of shepherding which had been preceded by privileged and pampered life in Pharaoh’s family.  Aaron was basically a slave sneaking off the plantation. 

They had opposing ideas about cultural diversity and ethnic inclusion. 

Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman (Numbers 12:1).

Moses was pursuing a grand vision to free all of Israel from centuries of genocide and oppression.  Aaron was just going to check on his brother ‘cause the Lord had put him on his heart (Exodus 4:27).

Moses believed that a leader should set the standard for righteousness and use his power to enforce a high moral ethic.   Aaron thought that you had to give the people what they want (Exodus 32). 

The common advice about leadership, excellence, and team building is that you should make sure that the people around you agree with you, have the same vision as you, and prefer the same approach to leadership that you employ.  Basically, we’re told to build a team of people who are going in the same direction.

  

When the brothers met on the road at Mt. Horeb Moses was going from Midian to Egypt.  Aaron was going from Egypt to Midian.  They were, figuratively and literally, coming from different places and moving in different directions. 

Combine the prevailing advice on leadership and unity with the age-old caution against working with family, and it's obvious that the partnering Moses with Aaron was bad team-building advice.

Of course, that is exactly the advice that God gave.  

In team-building as in many things, we often confuses easy with good.  God's "bad" advice reminds us that a team-leader needs truth more than he/she needs encouragement.  

God wanted Moses to have a team that included people who did NOT think like him, who did NOT come from the same socio-political place as him.  God wanted Moses to put people in his innermost circle who heard God for themselves.  Sometimes that meant they would (accurately) hear God telling them something different from what Moses had (accurately) heard God say.  

The deepest spiritual truths are found in the uncomfortable void between apparent contradictions.

When the team collectively hears and shares all the different ways that God speaks on their mission, then the leader of the team has all the truth he/she needs to direct the work.

When you only include the people who always agree with you, when you squash dissenting ideas and approaches you block key channels by which God can send you direction and correction.  

And sometimes the opposing voices will be wrong ---- really wrong, like Aaron was about the golden calf and about Moses’ interracial relationship.  But, you don’t have to automatically believe every criticism.  And, you shouldn’t automatically believe every compliment, either. 

Jesus intentionally gathered a team of men who didn’t always agree with each other or with Him.  Sometimes directing them was frustrating, but it was ultimately fruitful.  Jesus’ team was so well-chosen that He told them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14: 12).

That is why we build teams, isn’t it?  

To get the work(s) done.   To do greater than we could have done on our own. 

To achieve greatness and greaterness, you need people who don’t just receive their leader’s vision, they amplify it.   Like Moses the prophet needed Aaron the priest, you need teammates with perspectives and observations you would not have and could not have arrived at alone. 

You can build a team that always agrees with you, or you can build the team that God wants you to lead.   But don’t get it twisted.  Those are 2 different teams.

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

TEMPTATIONS, TESTS, & TESTIMONIES (audio)

Message #5 in the Hebrews preaching series: TEMPTATIONS, TESTS, & TESTIMONIES.

(message 5, chapter 2:17-18)

Listen well and leave a comment.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, AL 35064