In Church today and the Scripture search led to the story of Moses as told in exodus and numbers. No sooner had the sermon started than my mind wandered far away from the topic of the sermon itself.
Moses was called of God and equipped for the task of leading the Israelites to the promised land against his wish. He however succumbed to the superior power of God and took on the task faithfully.
Now the Israelites are, in my opinion, the most stubborn group of people I have seen or heard about, ever. Frankly, it would take a man of plenty patience to lead them and not lose his cool. Yes, Moses lost his cool under pressure from these ever-grumbling Israelites at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.
As reported in the bible, after a long number of years after leaving Egypt and whilst still in search of the promised land, the Lord said to Moses in Numbers 27: 12-14, “Climb to the top of the mountains east of the river and look out over the land I have given the people of Israel. After you have seen it, you will die as Aaron your brother did”
The reason God gave was that singular sin that Moses committed, losing his cool.
Now, this caught me real hard and I felt very sad for Moses, he was a great guy you know. He suffered so much hardship and had to sacrifice a life of luxury just to emancipate his people, that’s my hero!
Now, I thought that was it, but Moses’ response to God was what wowed me the most in verse 16 he said ” O Lord, the God of the spirits of all living things, please appoint a new leader for the community”
One would have expected Moses to protest and try to justify his minor misdemeanour and put the blame on God’s chosen people, afterall even God Himself got angry at them and punished them, Moses could have tried to even get the people to appeal to God on his behalf or better still he could have tried to manipulate to postpone the ‘evil’ day, but he didn’t, he simply submitted to the will of God and did the most honourable thing at that time, he asked God to choose another leader for the community.
There is an instructive lesson in the life of Moses, this is how leadership ought to be.
These are the messages that Church leaders ought to be preaching to President Goodluck Jonathan today. If God chooses you to a leadership position, it is also his prerogative to keep you or retire you at the end of your service. Attempting to manipulate the system will only bring more shame in the end. The drama behind the sudden postponement of the elections a week before the date it was earlier scheduled for is not lost on Nigerians. Mr. President has only just postponed his exit, the most honorable thing to do is to allow the elections hold without manipulations and without intimidation, if by a stroke of ‘luck’ he wins, it will be God’s will, if he loses, which I believe he will, he should handover to the winner and let his name go down in the annals of the leaders of Nigeria as a good man, but a bad leader.