Leadership and Interdependence

Exodus 4:18-31

If you find much of this passage confusing, you have lots of company. Verses 24-26 are especially perplexing. Why would the Lord attack Moses, whom he has just gone to great lengths to commission? The best sense of these verses seems to come in seeing the incident as preserved to underscore the importance of circumcision – probably as a matter of identity and survival amidst other people, a practice apparently already well established in Israel. Moses’ offense was one of omission concerning his son. Zipporah corrected the situation and saved Moses. That’s the best sense that seems to be made of it.

Then Aaron enters the picture. His role has been anticipated in the call to Moses and Moses’ excuses. Once Aaron and Moses meet, the action accelerates. There is a meeting of elders, a giving of signs in the desert – curiously enough, performed by Aaron along with the speaking, going beyond the role we were given to anticipate. The result was that the people believed and worshiped.

Prayer:
God, if one we look to as a a great leader had so many people helping him and with whom he had such interdependence, what does that say about my receptiveness to others in my life and work and those I will meet up with this day? In Christ. Amen.