Acts chapter 7 talks about how Moses was chosen to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. It also provides an example of how no matter how good God is to us we can sometimes reject Him by rejecting His leaders. God gave his chosen people leadership and they wanted idols. God provided for their needs and they rejected Him.
There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to how people can be toward leaders. It is as though people think God isn't looking so I can mistreat the man or woman of God. I can talk about them. I can reject them. I can disrespect them; after all they're no better than me. I'm just as holy. God speaks to me too. I have had to learn this lesson and I say to everyone please learn a lesson from the Children of Israel. It just isn't wise to put your mouth on God's chosen no matter what you think or how you feel. Surely if you just wait a little while you will see that God has given them their position, their anointing and their calling and it is best for us to acknowledge and respect His choice.
Moses had said from the beginning when he was chosen by God that he didn't feel he was the one. He didn't feel he could speak to people. He felt inadequate. Yet God worked wonders, signs and miracles through him--in spite of how he felt about himself or how others felt about him. God provided manna, safety and a Word to live by. But then like now the people began to question Moses' leadership ability and to assert themselves. People fail to realize that God provides and expects us to respect a hierarchy of authority. It is in our best interest to fall in line with humility and submission. It isn't about the person necessary, but it is about God's will and His way. We can size a person up and say to ourselves that they are inadequate, or we don't like them, why did God choose him or her; but when God chooses someone He alone provides that individual with all the qualifications needed to lead.
It is interesting how the people who questioned God's leader Moses never made it out of the wilderness. They died there--never experiencing the promised land. Their lives were always a struggle; always contentious. They never found satisfaction and contentment. They were constantly dissatisfied and unhappy; failing to see why they couldn't get ahead or do better. Bishop Freeman told us to stop looking for problems and imperfection because you will surely find it. If we keep picking at our Church leaders to see how they are inadequate we will stop developing, growing and changing and just get stuck at a point where everyone else's flaws are crystal clear to us.
Numbers 16 details how there were factions among the Children of Israel who felt that the leadership that God provided was doing too much and that they too could lead. They tried to convince the people that Moses and Aaron were just regular every day people like themselves. They tried to get others to stop following God's leadership by saying that Moses had lead them from plenty to lack so why was he even in charge anyway? Moses fell to his face in prayer for them immediately because He knew that they didn't understand and were speaking out of ignorance and he knew God's wrath. Unfortunately some people are not willing to learn and God has to make an example out of them. In Numbers 16:30 Moses informed that God was going to do a new thing. In verse 32 you see where the earth opened and swallowed up the trouble makers alive.
These people were warned, warned and warned again, but failed to hear the voice of God and change or even want to change. God knows our hearts when you want to do better He will make a way for your life to be changed for the better. When you want forgiveness He will open the door of mercy and forgiveness, but when we totally reject Him and refused to heed the Word that He sends us we put ourselves in a place of grave danger. We all make mistakes. That's why Jesus asked the Father to forgive us--we couldn't see the bigger picture. We didn't know that our back biting, lying, excluding, talking about, hurting others was against God's will.
Fortunately our God is full of mercy and recognizes that we often say things and act out of ignorance when we are blind to His purpose for us. He is just and willing to forgive us and to redirect us if we are open to His correction. There should be no contention among the body of Christ because we should each understand that God has given us leadership that will assist us from the things that enslave us; comfort us during our wilderness time of confusion and guide us as we enter into what God has promised us.
Let's learn to love and respect each other and our leadership so that when God does a new thing in us through His Son it will be a total transformation and renewing of minds.
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