23rd.: Difficult Decisions
Leaders sometimes face no-win situations.
They must come up with solutions to problems that have no easy answer.
One decision will make him look bad to one group of people.
The opposite decision will make him look bad to a different group of people.
In Num. 15:32-36, Moses faced one such situation.
To give context, the Lord had given Moses the command,
“Six days shall work be done. But on the seventh day, there shall be to you a holy day,
a Sabbath day of rest to the Lord; whosoever does work therein shall be put to death.” (Ex. 35:2).
Now let us go to Numbers: 15:32, “And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness,
they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day.
And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation."
No one wanted to decide. Perhaps they all liked the guy. So,
"And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
The Lord then answered Moses inquiry, "The man shall surely be put to death;
all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.’
And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
The Lord did not rebuke Moses for asking.
Instead, the Lord took responsibility.
Neither Moses, nor any other human had to take responsibility for having the guy killed.
Likewise, we can infer that we take difficult decisions to the Lord.
“The Lord shall judge the people.” (Ps. 7:8a)