If you were to pick the greatest leader in the Bible by a résumé, you would probably discard Moses on the first page. He began as an abandoned baby in a basket of reeds. He grew up in the palace of Egypt, but fled to the desert after committing a murder. He spent 40 years tending sheep in a forgotten place. And when God finally called him, his first reaction was to argue and try to refuse.
Even so, it was this man who confronted the most powerful king in the world, led an entire people out of slavery and saw the Red Sea open. The distance between the frightened Moses at the burning bush and the courageous leader at the edge of the sea is the most important part of the story. Because that distance is the work of God, not of his own talent.
This text is for you who sometimes feel too small to lead a Unit, speak in public or make a hard decision. The life of Moses does not tell the secret of a superhero. It tells how God transforms an ordinary person, full of fears, into someone who makes a difference.
A Baby in the Basket: When the Story Begins in Danger
The life of Moses began with a death order. Pharaoh of Egypt commanded that every newborn Hebrew boy be thrown into the Nile (Exodus 1:22). The mother of Moses hid the baby for three months and, when she could no longer, did what seemed impossible: she placed the child in a sealed basket and left him at the banks of the Nile, the very river where the order commanded he be thrown.
What seemed like the end became the beginning. Pharaoh's own daughter found the basket, had compassion and adopted the boy. She called him Moses, and the Bible explains the name this way: 'Because I drew him out of the water' (Exodus 2:10). A condemned baby came to grow up inside the palace of the king who wanted him dead.
Hold on to this idea, because it repeats itself in your Club. Often the beginning of a story is precisely the most fragile moment: the shy Pathfinder no one bets on, the Unit that almost gave up, the project that seemed small. God has a habit of beginning exactly there. The basket on the river teaches that a hard beginning does not decide the ending.
The Flight to Midian: 40 Years Shaping the Leader in Silence
As an adult, Moses saw an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew and reacted with violence: he killed the Egyptian and hid the body (Exodus 2:11-12). When he realized the crime had been discovered, he fled. He left the palace and ended up in Midian, a distant desert, where he became a shepherd of sheep. The prince of Egypt came to tend his father-in-law's flock.
It went on like that for 40 years. No one applauding, no speech, no power. Only sheep, sand and silence. It seems like wasted time, but it was not. It was during this long period out of the spotlight that God removed from Moses his impulsiveness and haste, and placed in him patience, humility and the habit of waiting. The man who killed on impulse at 40 would become, at 80, the most patient of leaders.
You are probably in a similar phase at some point in your life: studying, training, serving in tasks no one sees, waiting your turn. The desert of Moses reminds us that God uses hidden time to shape character. No one parts a Red Sea without first learning to tend sheep.
The Burning Bush: The Call That Interrupts the Routine
An ordinary workday changed everything. Moses saw a bush on fire without being consumed. Curious, he drew near, and it was there that God called him by name and said He had seen the suffering of the Hebrew people in Egypt. The mission was clear and enormous: return to Egypt and lead God's people out of slavery (Exodus 3:1-10).
Notice the detail: the call did not come in a temple nor in a planned spiritual moment. It came in the middle of work, tending sheep. God interrupted the routine of an 80-year-old man who already thought his important life was behind him. The desert that seemed like the end of the line was, in fact, the waiting room for the greatest new beginning of his story.
For you and your Club, this is encouraging. God's call usually arrives in the ordinary: in a meeting, in a conversation with the Counselor, in a moment of prayer, in a simple task. You do not need to look for a bush in flames. You need to be willing to pay attention and respond when He speaks. If you want to understand better the confidence that sustains a response like this, it is worth learning what real faith is at /en/desbravadores/espiritualidade/o-que-e-fe/.
Read alsoJoseph of Egypt: from the pit to the palaceWho Am I? When God Uses Those Who Feel Incapable
Moses' reaction to the call was not enthusiasm. It was resistance. He replied: 'Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?' (Exodus 3:11, KJV). Translated for today: 'I am nobody, I can't handle this.' Perhaps that is exactly what you think before taking on a big responsibility.
He did not stop there. He claimed he did not know how to speak well: 'O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue' (Exodus 4:10, KJV). Moses listed his flaws as if they were reasons for God to choose someone else. And God's answer was not to praise his qualities. It was to promise: 'Certainly I will be with thee' (Exodus 3:12, KJV).
This is one of the central lessons of the story: God does not call those who feel ready, He shapes those who are willing to go. The ability did not come from Moses, it came from the One who sent him. So when you catch yourself thinking 'I am too young, too shy, too unprepared' to help in the Unit, teach a Specialty or lead an activity, remember that Moses thought the same. The difference is not in feeling capable, but in trusting the One who calls.
Plagues, Passover and the Red Sea: Leading When There Is No Way Out
Moses obeyed. He returned to Egypt and, faced with Pharaoh's refusal to free the people, the ten plagues came, a sequence of judgments that struck Egypt down to the last and most terrible one (Exodus 7 to 12). On the eve of the liberation, God instituted the Passover: each family marked the door with the blood of a lamb and was spared. It was the night when Pharaoh, at last, let the people go (Exodus 12).
But freedom came with a scare. With the people camped at the edge of the sea, the Egyptian army came after them to bring them back. On one side, water; on the other, soldiers. No visible way out. The people panicked and complained. It was then that Moses spoke those words that crossed the centuries: 'The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace' (Exodus 14:14, KJV). And the sea opened.
The moment of the Red Sea teaches something about leadership that no manual teaches: real leadership shows up when there is no obvious way out. The leader is not the one who is never afraid, but the one who, in the midst of fear, points the group to God instead of to panic. In your Club, this happens in smaller versions: the campout that goes wrong, the rain that ruins the plan, the conflict in the Unit. In those moments, the question is not 'how do I solve everything alone?' but 'where do I point the group?'.
A Difficult People: Leadership Is Service, Meekness and Patience
Parting the sea was fast. Leading the people afterward was the long and tiring part. During 40 years in the desert, the people of Israel complained about the food, the water, the road, the leadership. They even wanted to go back to slavery. Moses carried all of this, interceded for them in prayer and, many times, endured criticism even from within his own family (Numbers 12).
It is in this context that the Bible gives a surprising description: 'Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth' (Numbers 12:3, KJV). The man who once killed on impulse became the meekest of all. Meekness, here, is not weakness nor cowardice. It is strength under control: the ability to have power and use it to serve, not to impose oneself.
This is the most honest definition of Christian leadership, and it applies to every role in the Club. Leading a Unit is not giving orders and being obeyed. It is serving, being patient with those who fail, persisting with those who grow weary and continuing to love a difficult group. If you lead or want to lead, this is the heart of the matter. The material on how to be a good Counselor at /en/desbravadores/lideranca/como-ser-um-bom-conselheiro/ helps put this patience into practice day by day.
What Moses Teaches Your Club Today
At the end of his life, the Bible gives Moses a unique tribute: 'And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face' (Deuteronomy 34:10, KJV). The baby of the basket, the fugitive of the desert, the man who thought himself incapable, ended as the leader closest to God in all the history of Israel. And none of it was by his own merit: it was God who shaped him, from fear to courage.
Put the lessons together. God uses those who feel incapable, so your shyness or young age do not disqualify you. Hidden time is not wasted, it is where character grows. True courage is not the absence of fear, it is the decision to go with God even while feeling afraid. And leadership is service, meekness and patience, not power over others.
Do a simple exercise at the next meeting of your Unit: ask each Pathfinder which 'who am I?' is holding them back. Someone thinks they can't speak, another that they are no good at anything, another that they are always forgotten. Then show that Moses said exactly these things and was still used by God. It is not about being the most talented. It is about being willing to respond when God calls.