Moses, the Role Model

Moses is a person in the Abrahamic Religion who was the first leader of the Israelites on their exodus from the land of Egypt to the promised land. He also authored the books of Torah, that become the basis of Abrahamic Religion faiths.

I am going to explain why Moses is my role model and what we can learn from his journey.

This post is written in the perspective of Christian Bible, so bear with me.

Leadership style

Moses’ leadership style is very unique in his time. His style is different in the sense that when the neighboring kings are ruling with iron fist, he is leading the Israelites not by military threat, but by serving as their advisor, judge, and messenger of God. Most ancient kings at that time was regarded as god and their words are taken as law. Moses himself never been regarded as god and he himself is bound with the law that God has given through him.

He had this kind of leadership style because of how he was appointed. When he got appointed, the first thing he said was “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” — Exodus 3:11. He didn’t consider himself as the best person for the job. Hence he leads by humility.

Humility

Moses was born to a Hebrew family, but later adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. This means he was living in the most powerful empire at that time. He received the proper education and training as a Prince of Egypt would. After committing murder to an Egyptian, he flees from Egypt and live in the land called Midian. This event turned Moses’ life around. He who was living as a Pharaoh’s daughter, quickly became a regular shepherd.

This event taught Moses the value of humility. He knows that he’s not the smartest guy in the room, he’s open for discussion, and ultimately his humility leads to an enormous faith he had to God.

Faith and Spirituality

‘Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant — the Ten Commandments.’ Exodus 34:28

When receiving the second Tablet of the Covenant in Mount Sinai, Moses stayed on the top of Mount Sinai and experienced one-on-one relationship with God himself. He’s the only person in the Christian Bible who had this kind of experience with God.

Another proof of Moses’ faith is when he was negotiating the agreement to release Israelites with the Pharaoh. At that time, Israelites had no armies, no money, and regarded as slaves. Moses had no leverage in this negotiation. Whereas the Pharaoh of Egypt is the leader of a superpower country at that time. It requires a lot of faith to throw threats to the Pharaoh of Egypt. Note that at that time, Moses didn’t know the future. He had not experienced God’s power at a scale of a nation. But Moses’ faith, held him from questioning God. And with that, everything turns into a good thing that leads to Israelites Exodus.

Conclusion

I envy Moses for having these three traits that I currently don’t have. I aspire him to be a good and just leader, a person with humility and humbleness, and the most important thing is the faith he had to God.