Moses Stars As A Defense Attorney and Influencer
Exodus 32:11-14: Then Moses entreated the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why doth
Thine anger burn against Thy people whom Thou has brought out from the land of
Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak,
saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and
to destroy them from the face of the earth? Turn from Thy burning anger and
change Thy mind about doing harm to Thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel, Thy servants to whom Thou didst swear by Thyself, and didst say to
them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all
this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they
shall inherit it forever.’” So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which
He said He would do to His people.
Have you ever
had to entreat God? The Hebrew word for this action is ‘chalah’ and it
is translated in many ways from its root, namely, to be or become weak, sick,
diseased, grieved, or sorry. It is easy to see how Moses must have felt weak
and sick after hearing God say what He had said about destroying His people.
There is no doubt in my mind that Moses also felt distressed for his people and
very apologetic on behalf of the Israelites.
But Moses didn’t stop there. He refused to sit by idly let
God do what even God Himself really did not want to do. (There are times when
we must act and intercede in situations – with men, and before God.) He was a
leader and a leader knows how to plead on behalf of his people. He also had a
brilliant mind and he used it in his entreating of God.
What We Can
Learn From Moses In Influencing People
First, we could say that in essence, he subtly corrects God
who had, in His anger, accredited Moses bringing up “his” people from Egypt. He
gives the people back to their rightful owner, God Himself. Moses reminds God
that, “They are Your people and You brought them up from Egypt.” That takes
guts. God may have been angry when He had said what He had, but above all, God
is ‘truth’ and He would want us to stand up, even to Him, for the truth. Here
was Moses correcting God, but in love and devotion – a very model of how God
would want us to correct others with the truth.
Second, Moses appeals to God’s greatness reminding Him that
He did all this with “great power and with His mighty hand”. And in the process
he was affirming his continued love for God, and his continued belief in His authority.
Again, Moses continues to demonstrate the process for influencing someone
positively – tell the truth; and appeal to their their positive attributes
(sense of worth and contribution).
Third, Moses appeals to God’s sense of honor and he does so
in three ways. First, he points out what the Egyptians may think of His actions
of “evil intent” were He to destroy His people after bringing them out of the
land of Egypt. Moses knew God did not want to give His enemies any reason to glory
over what took place when in fact God fully intended for His people to become a
great nation. Second, Moses appealed to God’s love for the fathers of Israel –
Abraham (a ‘friend of God’ forever – 2 Chronicles 20:7), Isaac (the son of
promise – Galatians 4:22,23), and Jacob (born in answer to prayer – Genesis 25:21
and who saw the heavenly ladder – 28:10-19). How could God turn His back on
them now? And third, Moses appeals to God through His personal promises made and
words uttered with respect to making their descendants as the stars in the
heavens.
The fourth key factor in the approach that Moses used to influence
God was that none of his arguments were about himself. Moses had no personal vested
interests in influencing God in this way.
While it would have been very difficult to go down from the mountain and
tell the people they would be destroyed by God, Moses remembered how God had
protected him so many times in his life, and he realized that if God really
intended to start all over with him and keeping the covenant that had been made
and broken by the Israelites, God could do it and keep Moses safe. But he didn’t
care for that. He wanted God to be true to His character and His true love and
desires for His people, Israel. (Many times we step in to influence people but
we have a real conflict-of-interest.
That is why third-party mediators are often more successful than family
members when it comes to influencing.
And maybe why friends are more influential than family.
So let’s summarize Moses’ approach to influencing another
person:
-- sticks to the truth
-- appeals to the good in the one he wants to influence
-- appeals to their sense of honor
-- he had no personal vested interest in the outcome.
And Moses succeeded. The Bible says, “So the Lord changed
His mind.” Amazing, but possible. Can you change God’s mind? Well, Moses did. And
I believe there may be times when we can – that is what entreating God in
prayer is all about.-- sticks to the truth
-- appeals to the good in the one he wants to influence
-- appeals to their sense of honor
-- he had no personal vested interest in the outcome.
Thanks
for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant
information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or
follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please
share this blog with your friends. Also, I’ve read some good books and make
some great recommendations for you at http://astore.amazon.com/accorconsu-20 which
you can purchase right from there.
Finally, check us out at Accord Consulting. And while you’re here, why not check out some
more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column. Ken.
It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.
