The Power Of BelongingExemplo

Moses’ leadership experience with the Israelites would be blighted by rejection, despite him having liberated them from four hundred years of slavery. At the same time, we see a belonging-based leadership growing within Moses throughout the Israelites’ journey to Canaan. In Numbers 14 we pick up the story: 

‘The people cried all night and complained to Moses and Aaron, “We wish we had died in Egypt or somewhere out here in the desert! Is the LORD leading us into Canaan, just to have us killed and our women and children captured? We’d be better off in Egypt.” Then they said to one another, “Let’s choose our own leader and go back.”’

Having brought them this far, it must have wounded Moses to hear those last words. Certainly, the Moses we met in Exodus 4 would probably have taken this as confirmation that his leadership was over. However, rather than reacting with insecurity or anger, he pleaded with the Lord for mercy on the people, ‘You are merciful, and you treat people better than they deserve. So please forgive these people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.’

Moses demonstrated how belonging releases compassion. He came to know who he was as a leader because of it. When he eventually died, we read that he ‘knew the Lord face to face’ and there was no prophet like him. A similar type of compassion is seen in Jesus, who was able to plea for His persecutors and those who scorned Him.

The prophet Isaiah foretold a man who ‘was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain … we held him in low esteem.’ In the context of the ultimate rejection, Jesus exercised the perfect form of the power of belonging—healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons. Even death could not hold this back. 

Whether we are leading in a rejecting culture or a rejecting environment, or amongst rejecting people, the power of belonging can enable us to lead well. Jesus was the ultimate ‘radical belonger’ whose identity was so secure in God that He could face the worst possible rejection and still love others rather than serve Himself. We can share in this.

We hope you enjoyed the Power of Belonging reading plan. You can learn more about Will van der Hart and Rob Waller and their new book The Power of Belonging  here.