Leaders Go First

 August 27, 2022

I have a hard time bringing myself to throw out an old, worn-out Bible. Working in my garage/shop this evening, I came across a couple Bibles I used for a few years before they started falling apart. (I guess that’s a good thing; it brings to mind the old saying, “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.”) One of them was given to me by my son and daughter in law on Christmas, 1997. Thumbing through it, I came across a note to something I actually read in this morning’s reading, but missed because the translation I am using rendered the verse a bit differently.

In Exodus 17:5 God is speaking to Moses: “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand before you.” Here is a basic principle of leadership that often gets forgotten. John Maxwell said it succinctly years ago: “Leaders go first.”

We often forget that Moses and the children of Israel are now in the land of Midian, having been delivered through the Red Sea. They weren’t wandering aimlessly; Midian is where Moses landed forty years before when he fled from Egypt as a wanted man. He was familiar with these mountains, with the desert and its paths. He had been here before. Leaders need to have been where they want others to go. They need to know the ins and outs, the pitfalls and the hidden trails through the wilderness.

Too often, leaders try to take people where they themselves have never been. This is particularly true in the church. The reality is, the congregation will seldom, if ever, grow beyond its pastor. A pastor cannot lead his people in holiness if he is not himself holy. He can’t lead in prayer if he is not a praying pastor.

But no leader can be expert in everything, which is why God told Moses to take the elders along with him. He needed the wisdom and experience of others who had expertise in areas he did not. A leader who has to have his fingers in every pie is self-limiting. Paul taught this same lesson to Timothy: “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” —2 Timothy 2:2 

Besides the elders, Moses was instructed to carry his staff with him. Back when God met Moses in the burning bush, God had taken the ordinary tools of the shepherd’s trade and consecrated them for greater service. God still takes the ordinary things of our lives and uses them for a greater good. You’ve been through a nasty divorce? God doesn’t want that experience to go to waste. There is someone needing someone who’s been down that road and now has some tools and experience. You’ve failed in business? Someone struggling to hold theirs together needs your wisdom. You lost a child to drugs? Another parent somewhere is quietly sobbing, sure that no one understands and God has forgotten.

Whatever wilderness you’ve been through, someone else is following behind. Don’t try to lead where you haven’t been, but don’t fail to light the path for someone walking in your footsteps. Leaders go first, so listen to God’s command and promise to Moses: “Go! I will stand before you.”