Reed Mueller

This morning, I had to laugh at one of the greatest one liners in the bible:

And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” ²² And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. ²³ For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ²⁴ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” Exodus 32:21-24

What made me laugh in this passage was the picture of Aaron, after being caught red handed by his brother Moses, acting just like a three year old (much like I do sometimes). First, he deflects his own culpability in breaking a covenant with God by blaming the people he’s leading. Then (and here’s the part that made my laugh out loud), he says he took a bunch of their gold, just threw it in the fire, and poof… “out came this calf!” Really, just throw it in the fire and blam…out comes a finely crafted statue of a bovine?

As I look at that account and think about my own role as a leader, two lessons come quickly to mind. Perhaps they could help you in your own leadership experiences, whether they are in the church, in business, or in your family:

1. A leader must refuse to blame the people he/she is leading.
   
   “You know the people, they are set on evil.”

   In reality, the mistake was made when Aaron took the easy path of blame rather than the difficult path of leadership; it wasn’t the people’s problem so much as his own. And yet, as leaders it is so easy to blame!”If only I had better followers, then the dreams we’re working on would come to pass.” NO, a leader mustn’t say that! Rather, a leader refuses to blame those under their care and instead begins thinking how to build up the people so they can become who they are meant to become.All too often the people in this world are beaten down by those over them; it must be different in the church. There is no excuse for blaming the people. We should seek to understand when we are frustrated, to correct when errors are made, and to encourage new patterns of behavior, too… but blame? No way; that’s not a leader’s job, a leader’s job is to be a model of accountability and responsibility.

2. A leader must be honest about why things are the way things are.
   
   “I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

   In saying this, Aaron was attempting to limit his own culpability. He failed to mention that he gathered (and probably led) skilled craftsmen to create the mold that would eventually give shape to the problem at hand.What makes his attempt so incredible is that a leader’s job is to do exactly what he neglected to mention happened. A leader is to gather skilled people and lead them so that a mold for the future can be shaped. Sometimes, like Aaron, the mold is wrong. A leader adds insult to injury when they don’t admit this willingly, learn from mistakes, and apply those lessons to their next steps in leadership.

My hope and prayer is that I can apply these lessons to my own leadership – in my family, my business, and our church.

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