Commanded to Fail

Recently I sat down and reread the story of the exodus. In the process I noticed something that caught me a bit off guard. God set Moses up to fail. As a matter of fact, God called, equipped, motivated, and even relocated Moses only to ensure in that his initial attempts would fail.

I am sure you know the story. Moses was the adopted prince of Egypt who was well in touch with his Hebrew heritage. One day as he was out visiting his people he saw an Egyptian abusing a Hebrew and in a fit of rage killed him and ditched the body in the sand. Word got back to Pharaoh who decided that Moses should die. Realizing the danger, Moses fled Egypt and ended up in Midian where he took a job as a shepherd watching the flocks of his eventual father-in-law Jethro. In search of food, Moses led the flock to the Mountain of God, Horeb. While he was there, God showed up in a burning bush and invited Moses to go back to Egypt and deliver his people from Egyptian slavery. There was a bit of a disagreement as to Moses' qualifications. Moses believed that he didn't have the right stuff, and God said, "EXACTLY! That's why you're the man." Eventually God convinced him, showed him some supernatural tricks he could do with his staff to help convince Pharaoh, and Moses and his family were off to Egypt!

Exodus 4:19-21 (NIV)
Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead." 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand. 21 The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go."

Now I don't know if Moses thought like I think, but this idea of obeying to fail is not something I naturally gravitate to. As a matter of fact, fearing to fail is a much more apt description of my mindset. On more than one occasion I have uttered the words, "Failure is not an option." Yet when I look at this story I find God instructing Moses to brace himself for failure and rejection.

Why would God instruct us to do something that would ensure, at least initially, failure? There are probably a number of reasons, but I think that two transcend the rest: 1) God wants the glory; 2) There are lessons that we need to learn that only the laboratory of failure can teach us.

First, God wants the glory. Jesus told us that unless we abide in him we can accomplish nothing. And in Isaiah 57:15 we learn who God abides with: "For this is what the high and lofty One says--he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."

God abides in heaven where He is always glorified. At the same time, He dwells with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit. Why? Because the contrite and lowly in spirit are not glory thieves. They have met with failure and have learned to appreciate success. Uninterrupted success makes a glory thief. The person who succeeds may not want it that way, they don't set out to steal God's glory, but the celebrity of success ultimately diminishes the recognition of God's role in a great work. If a person has never met with failure, people will begin to believe that success is dependent upon the leader and not God.

Second, there are lessons that we need to learn that can only be learned through failure. Robert F. Kennedy said, "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." Think about it and you will realize that the scripture is chock-full of great leaders who enjoyed colossal failure. However, it was in the crucible of failure that they were equipped to succeed.

Peter was divinely selected to be the leader of the twelve. On one occasion his great faith in Jesus compelled him to hop out of a boat in an attempt to walk on water. He was successful until he he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink. Lesson learned: Stay focused on the Lord!

On another occasion Peter was praised for revealing a truth that was clearly sent from God. He immediately followed that up with some unsolicited advice to Jesus, insisting that he NOT give in to dying. Jesus responded, "Get thee behind me Satan!" OUCH!!! Lesson learned: Following Jesus demands self-sacrifice!

Many times the lessons of failure give us the ingredients for success. When it comes to failure we need to amend our perspective: FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION, IT IS A NECESSITY!