Ldg in Dvrse & Glbl Context

5.1 Devotion. Moses - A Multi-Cultural Leader

Getting Started

In Acts 7, the apostle Paul provides some narrative and commentary on the OT leader, Moses. Paul provides interesting insights into the well-known character of Moses, especially how he may be viewed as having been a multi-cultural leader.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Describe how Scripture addresses God's perspective on people of different cultures.

· Background Information

· Let’s begin by reading Acts 7:20-23, 29-30, 35-38:

·

· At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father’s house, and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

· When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. . . . Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

· Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. . . .

· This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.

· Newell (2016) provides some background on the life of Moses:

· The story of Moses’ life spans 120 years and three distinct cultures. It begins in the country of Egypt, moves on to Midian, goes back to Egypt, and then back to Midian and beyond. Moses was truly a multicultural sojourner, switching between cultures as he matured. He started from a position of great privilege, being brought up and educated in the high culture of the Egyptian royal palace. According to the Christian martyr Stephen and based on Jewish history, this lasted for forty years (Acts 7:23).

· Then, as a fugitive from justice, Moses spent his next forty years embedded in the nomadic culture of the Midianites. What a huge cultural adjustment that must have been! There he married a Midianite woman, Zipporah, and raised his sons (Ex 2:21; 4:20). He was content to live out his days in an isolated culture on the fringe of a greater civilization, even recording that as his feeling (Ex 2:21) and evidenced by his reluctance to return to Egypt when eventually asked by God to do so.

· When Moses was eighty (Ex 7:7), God called him in an extraordinary way to become a great leader with a daunting task. He was to return to Egypt and free the people of his origin, the Hebrews whom he hardly knew, from their bondage. Once freed, he was to lead them to the land of Canaan, which God had previously promised to them as a people. Thus Moses was forced to deal with people of a third culture to him. Even though they had a racial affinity, because of separation of distance and time, he knew little about the ways of the Hebrews—or they of his.

· Yet for forty years he led them as a tricultural leader. He had to wean them off the lingering cultural influences of Egypt that they often cried to return to when times got rough. He had to confront the pagan influences of the desert peoples that often tempted them to compromise their allegiance to God. Additionally, he had the task of instilling into this vast community the beliefs, values, and customs that God was now demanding of them through the giving of his law. One of the intents of the law was to mold a new cultural identity, which Moses was to champion as their leader. He spent the last forty years of his life inculcating new cultural standards, while at the same time juggling the influences of three different cultures within himself. (p.77)

Instructions

1. After reading the material in the Getting Started section and Background Information above, write a half-page reflection paper (Word document) about the cross-cultural insights you gained in reading about Moses and his leadership. Here are some thought starters:

a. How did Moses’ calling involve mastery of multiple cultures? Why did this matter?

b. Is it possible for one to lead highly effectively in more than one culture? Why or why not?

c. Numbers 12:3 tells us that Moses was the meekest person on earth. How might that have influenced his ability to lead cross-culturally?

d. What would you expect to be a significant challenge for you to serve as a leader in multiple cultures? What have you learned from this story that might help you lead more effectively across cultures?

2. Reflection papers are to be written following  APA Guidelines (7th ed.) (new tab) , including format guidelines. Papers must be logical, well organized, grammatically correct, and have correct spelling and sentence structure.  Write in complete paragraphs.