leaders and people

 

These are the people of Israel as listed by their fathers' houses. All those listed in the camps by their companies were 603,550.

Numbers 2:32

And with the figure at the end of this verse, we understand how the book of Numbers got its name. Man, that is a lot of people. And it was missing a substantial portion since the Levites were not counted. This is approximately only 91.667% of the people. It's a big number. I know I'd prefer not to be camping in a desert with that many hungry and thirsty people at once. But that was the task facing Moses as he led Israel.

Leadership is never easy. That will come out even more vividly in the book of Numbers as Israel is consistently complaining to Moses and to the Lord. There will be a series of divine punishments for their grumbling. And it was all complicated by their nomadic existence in the desert, and also by the fact that the slave memories of Egypt were still so recent for them. With a crowd that size, complaining could easily grow into a serious threat. Moses had quite a situation on his hands.

This is why leadership is intimidating. The faith necessary to lead people and the tests on that faith multiply greatly by the sheer numbers of the people. That is why Christians are commanded to pray for not only church leaders, but also secular authorities, whoever they may be, and with seriousness and spiritual focus. We should be quicker to pray for them than to complain about them. We should be first to talk to God about the hearts and lives of our leaders rather than to talk about them or to simply protest. There are times to point out corrupt laws and practices (Jesus did indeed call Herod a fox, which was not flattering), but we do so with a level of civil respect for their authority (after all Jesus said to give to Caesar what belonged to Caesar). The balance is hard for those being led. It is also very hard for leaders, and we should understand this and pray for them.