Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go up this mountain in the Abarim range and see the land I have given the Israelites. After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes. (These were the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.) Moses said to the Lord, 'May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd'" --Numbers 27:12-17
Moses surrendered prominence in the kingdom of Egypt, and that prominence was replaced with leadership in the nation of Israel.
Faithfully, year in and year out, Moses led his people. First he carried them through the dramatic events in Egypt, where plagues and pressure finally forced Pharaoh to relent and let the Israelites leave. Faithfully, he led them across the Red Sea with an enemy army on his heels. Faithfully, he led them through forty years in the wilderness, brought about not by his leadership inadequacies, but by the faithlessness of the people.
That would have been the final straw for most of us. After all, why should we suffer the consequences of someone else's failings? Though Moses likely had no other options, we often do, and we exercise those options because it looks easier or more attractive someplace else.
After all those years of service, after all those acts of faithlessness by Israel, after all the resulting years of wandering, here Moses stands at the edge of the Promised Land and is reminded that he can't go in.
Worse, it's an act of disobedience on his part that prevents him from going in.
So what does Moses do? Whine about the unfairness of it all? Badger, plead or rant for what would seem to be his right?
No, he asks God to provide someone to tend the organization after he is gone; to not only tend it, but protect it. When we leave a job or a company, is that what we're thinking? Or are we focused on what the company did to us, or didn't do for us? Do we want to punish them for some injustice, thinking we'll gain some measure of satisfaction or revenge?
Even in the worst of circumstances---like outright dismissal---our demeanor is either a testimony to the effects of Jesus Christ in our lives, or a reminder that we are just one more person giving lip service to Him but not really being changed by Him. As we prepare to change jobs, we must not just think about "not burning bridges." We must consider how we can leave our projects, our duties, our co-workers prepared for what happens when we're gone. Leave them with the understanding that we walked the second mile, even in the face of difficult circumstances, and they will know of the Savior's impact on you, and on your work.
---Randy Kilgore
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