Leadership Lessons From Moses' JourneyMuestra

Consciousness

God called Moses because he saw the oppression of the Israelites, and the time had come to correct it. God is also omnipotent, an attribute that reminds us that God will overturn “evil for good.” God will remain true and consistent to his own character. 

We learn throughout Scripture that God often uses difficult circumstances to humble us and shape us into his likeness. In the physical realm, there is no doubt that Israel’s enslavement lasted a long time. The slavery and injustices against black people in America have also lasted far too long. I don’t have a sure answer for why God sometimes delays bringing about his justice.

Perhaps he is waiting for ordinary people like Moses who are willing to open their eyes to his presence and become his agents of change. Someone has to risk going to Pharaoh to demand that he let the people go. Someone has to break down doors when the invisible sign says “private” or “for members only.” Someone has to organize a team, train them, and then execute the strategic plan so people can climb the flagpoles of domination and pull them down in the name of God.

Perhaps God wants to use this history to teach all of us that the suffering of this life humbles us, makes us more conscious people, and causes us to depend on God. This is a difficult biblical truth, and it is the reason we cry out to him when our hearts grow weary of the oppression and the burdens of this life.

Regardless of his sovereign reasons for delay, we know that God did bring both the Israelites and black people in America out of slavery, God did overturn Jim Crow, and God does and will implement righteous change on the earth. In his just time, God will do what is right because that is the very nature of his being. He is motivated to respond in this way.

On this life journey, we must be consciously aware of and convicted that God hears, and he promises to answer the call of those who love him. Sometimes his answer to the cries and needs of the people is you. We can respond to God’s call to conscious action because we know that he will strengthen us for the work if our hearts are fully committed to him.

Adapted from A Sojourner’s Truth: Choosing Freedom and Courage in a Divided World. Copyright ©2018 by Natasha Sistrunk Robinson. Used by permission. For more information, please visit https://www.ivpress.com/a-sojourner-s-truth.