Inner Work as Preparation for Leadership: The Case of Moses

Scripture — Exodus 4:10-13 (NRSV)

But Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Then the LORD said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.” But he said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.”

Devotion

I expect you’re familiar with the story of Moses at the burning bush. It’s been a favorite of mine ever since I was a boy. I loved imagining a bush that was burning without being consumed, from which God spoke directly to Moses. Of course, when I was young, I was especially excited when God turned Moses’s staff into a snake and miraculously made it a staff again.

We tend to think of what happened at the burning bush mainly in terms of God’s engagement with Moses. Here God called Moses to the work of leading the Israelites out of Egypt and into freedom from slavery. This is surely the main action in the burning bush story.

But it’s also clear that other things are going on in this narrative, one of which might well be called “inner work.” We see this in Exodus 4:1 when Moses expresses to God his concern that the Egyptians will not believe or listen to him when he tells them how the Lord appeared to him and what the Lord commanded him to do. God attempts to reassure Moses by doing a couple of quick miracles, including the snake-to-stick-to-snake favorite of my youth.

Yet even seeing such demonstrations of divine power, Moses is not convinced. He says, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10). You can see different layers of inner work happening here. On the one hand, Moses is making a frank appraisal of his skills. He doesn’t believe he has what is needed to lead in the way God has called him to lead. On the other hand, if we read between the lines a bit, we can see Moses wrestling with his fears: his fear of being disbelieved and his fear of not being eloquent enough. I expect that beneath these fears are bigger and deeper ones, given Moses’s history in Egypt, especially his killing of an Egyptian that led to Pharoah seeking Moses’s life in return. This is why he ran away to Midian in the first place, where he spent 40 years as a shepherd before encountering God in the burning bush (Acts 7:30).

God responds to Moses’s objection of ineloquence by offering the help of Moses’s more articulate brother, Aaron. The Lord promises to be with the mouths of both Moses and Aaron, both teaching Moses and establishing Aaron as Moses’s spokesperson. With the promise of Aaron’s partnership, Moses is finally able to respond positively to God’s call on his life. He will go to Egypt so as to lead his people out of bondage.

The example of Moses in Exodus 3-4 shows us several things about inner work and leadership. First, we see that effective inner work often happens when we are away from the crowds and the demands of a busy life. Though Moses had sheep for company, and though he had God for a conversation partner, he was experiencing significant silence and solitude when he came upon the burning bush.

Second, we see that inner work can involve paying attention to our abilities, being honest about our weaknesses in addition to our strengths. Moses knew that he wasn’t an accomplished public speaker, and he had the honesty and humility to confront this reality.

Third, even as Moses had to confront his fears related to the task to which the Lord was calling him, so do we. For many of us, taking on a new leadership role is exciting, but can also cause us to feel afraid. We wonder: What if I’m not good at this job? What if I fail? What if the people I’m supposed to lead don’t follow my leadership? And so forth, and so on.

The story of Moses at the burning bush reminds us of something we have seen many times before in this Life for Leaders series on inner work. Yes, inner work is something we do. And, yes, it often happens when we are by ourselves, in a place to reflect thoughtfully and feel freely. But inner work is also something we do with God. We may never have an epiphany as astounding as a voice from a burning bush, but we are certainly welcomed and encouraged to invite God into our internal process. Moreover, it is often the case that we begin our inner work in response to God’s prior invitation. In conversation with God, we can reflect honestly upon our strengths and weaknesses. We can be honest about our fears and look to God for confidence and courage. Thus, our inner work helps us prepare for the leadership tasks that lay before us.

Banner image by Anna Popovic on Unsplash.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: The God Who Puts Up With Us.

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