One question from this passage is: as we march to the promise land, what are we becoming and why? God said to Moses: “go down, because your people,whom you brought out of Egypt, have become corrupt” (32:7). We could say that one reason why they become corrupt was that they could not trust God and his appointed leader. They could not trust them because they were focused on themselves. It was all about them! They were afraid that Moses would never return and they wanted more predictable gods to guide them; their search for security led them to sell out to other god’s. It happens in individual Christian leaders and in congregations. If it is about me/us, then we start the search for more predictable and manageable gods.

The contrast is not only between Moses and the people of Israel but between Moses and Aaron. While Moses was with God because he knew God was the only difference maker among his people (33:14-17) Aaron was with his people but he was not present to them as Moses was with God and his people, he was all about himself. We can see it in the confrontation he had with Moses (32:21-24). To Moses’ question of why he led his people to sin, he not only denies the charges; he sees the problem as Moses’ anger on one side and the people who are prone to evil on the other side. So what about the calf and Aaron’s involvement in the making of it? He answers that he just collected the gold and threw it into the fire and “out came this calf!”  A leader who is focus on himself like Aaron not only is unable to lead where God wants his people to go, he is not even able to own up to his mistakes. Worse, in Moses absence he is an enemy of Moses who stands against what his leader stands for: God and his mission. But in Moses’ presence and being confronted he turns to become an enemy of the people he has led to sin. So am I leading like Moses or like Aaron?

I remember the very first sermon that I preached. It was more than 25 years ago. I still remember it though. It was about me. See, I was not prepared to preach, I was not a preacher, I was totally scared of public speaking and I had not a clue I was going to preach that day. “Why did you preach?” you may ask. Several things were going on in that small congregation where I was a new convert. One thing going on was a problem with one of the leaders. I knew what the problem was because I was an employee of that leader; I also told another leader about the problem. What should have been a private talk between two leaders became a problem that involved all the men of the congregation. This went on for a couple of Sundays. To my amazement everybody was beating around the bushes but were not addressing the real problem. I decided to butt in and name the problem. That caused a big uproar. Next Sunday came and as usual I showed up at church to find that only the ladies were there. Two things were expected to happen: one, no lady will be able to step up and preach because the church believed that if there was a man present no lady could speak. The second thing that was expected was that church had to happen the way we always had done it. I could do two things: first I could step up and preach or I could just turn around and leave so a lady could preach for the other ladies. Being more hardheaded than fearful about speaking I took the first choice. But it was about me. How scared I was, what will I say, from what book, how long will I say it, will I mess up the service?

There is no telling how long it was until I got it. It is not about me! Moses was a great leader because he knew it was not about him. Of course to get there the Lord sent him 40 years into the desert to take care of sheep. After that he learned that first and foremost his life was about God’s mission. God had a mission and it was to take his people into the land of Canaan. From this vantage point, when a crisis in leadership arises he was able to deal with it for the benefit of all parties involved. When God thinks that he is done with Israel and promises Moses that he will fulfill his mission through him, he did not wanted God to come short of his promises. Either he continues his call exactly the way God intended from the beginning or he will go down with his people. I recently heard Tony Blair say that leadership is to put your life on the line for your convictions and if necessary to fall by them. Leadership is to hold everyone accountable, first of course myself then all parties involved. Moses argued with God on behalf of his people and on behalf of God’s own reputation among the Egyptians and among the nations. Moses also refused to have a sense of entitlement. When God told him about Israel being Moses’ people whom you got out of Egypt, Moses fired back clarifying that they were not his people but God’s own people.

For a leader to lead like Moses, he or she has to go from self to others and then from others to God. Normally the life of a leader starts with the self. At the beginning like in my case it is all about us. But a normal development in the life and character of a leader forces him or her to have empathy. Whether you learn to go out of self with sheep or with people, it is no longer about the leader but about those entrusted by God in his or her care. At some point though, a great leader realizes that no amount of wisdom and or experience is going to make a difference in the lives of those he or she leads. Suddenly the leader realizes that God is the only one who can make a great difference. Then, that realization brings another realization: God has a mission and his call to us has to do with us carrying out that mission in history. Once we are certain about God’s mission it is no longer about us as leaders or about others (our organization, or the goals of the organization) but about God, the God of life, the God of Jesus of Nazareth. Self and others are not left behind in the dust; instead you as leader look for alignment in all these areas.