When Others Question our Authority

A case study of Moses and Jesus

How often we second guess ourselves, but adding the second guesses of others is like heaping coals on our heads, isn’t it? Why are we doing that? Are you sure? What are we doing? Do I need to be there? All these statements imply if not directly challenge the decisions we have made. I won’t delve into the typical responses that we have to these challenges, you know, the anger, snippy response, punishment, even that tone of voice.

Embracing humility

We can start with Old Testament examples of control issues. Let’s look at Moses and the distribution of land as well as a bit of sibling rivalry. Numbers 12 describes in very few verses how Miriam and Aaron were rather displeased with Moses and the way he was doing things. God overheard the conversation and called them out, with the end result being that Miriam is struck with leprosy. They questioned Moses leading, rather than them, who also hear from the Lord. Moses does not respond in anger or lord over them that they were wrong, no. He cries out to God and asks for healing. He continues to rely upon them to lead the people. Miriam isn’t mentioned again until her death, but that it was recorded indicates how important she was. Moses is called humble in Numbers 12:3 and he remains true to this, even though he was challenged. He was challenged by his siblings and did not cast them out or punish them but continued to depend on them and put his trust in them. Is it simply that he knew God had his back? How powerfully Moses must have felt that God was with him and on his side because he doesn’t waver in continuing on with these who very nearly betrayed him and held a coup.

Secondly, as God requested, he took a census (Numbers 26) and these were the men who would be assigned land according to tribe portions. The daughters of Zelophehad in Numbers 27:1-11 petition Moses saying that they will have no inheritance as it stands. They do not view this as right and challenge this division of land. Moses does not do what I would have done (thankfully!), he did not say ‘but this is what God assigned me to do, now go on about your business.’ He humbly (again) turns to God and asks for his opinion. The result of this challenge establishes the laws of inheritance among families for the Israelites, allowing women to inherit. Once again, Moses did not turn out or turn away form those who questioned him, but humbly listened and took it to the Lord. Is this how we can embrace humility, to know that God will do great things and God will have our back in cases of deception? Pride or humility – how often pride wins, but we lose.

Listening with confidence

We of course have numerous examples of Jesus being questioned as well. We have the overt questioning by the ruling authorities following the emptying of the temple (Matthew 21:23-27), where Jesus merely points out that they know the answer already. They know who sent John and how He was blessed upon his own baptism and clearly sent also by God. But there were other more subtle ways that people challenged him.

I find the boldest is the woman from Greece whose daughter is demon possessed and Jesus tells her that the children at the table should be fed first (Mark 7:24-30). But she does not accept this response and chimes back with her own. She pushed, which would be when I would bristle. But Jesus doesn’t bristle or tell her to leave. He listened to her and he had compassion, casting out the spirit in her child. He cared about the woman, the child. Once again, we have the example of listening. But his is not just listening with my arms crossed in front of me, tapping my foot, waiting for this to all be over. This is listening with the confidence that Father will guide me well. This is listening with confidence that God is in me and with me and delights in me despite my successes and failures. Yes, this describes Jesus, but it also describes me and describes you. The choice of faith, believing God, means that He will guide me, He is with me and in me and He delights in me. Your faith means that He will guide you, He is with you and in you and He delights in you.

People and humility

We also have Lazarus in John 11, who died and was buried for days before Jesus arrived in response to their summons that he was ill. In verse 21, Martha has gone out to meet Jesus on the road and we hear Martha say, ‘if only you had been here’, rebuking Jesus because she did not get what she wanted. But Jesus doesn’t respond by running on to immediately raise Lazarus from the dead and ‘show her wrong’ (um, that would be me). He gives her hope but then sits and waits for Mary too to come to him who repeats this rebuke of ‘if you had been here’ but her crying moves our Lord to such compassion he too weeps. It was only after he had seen to the living, had spent time consoling the people, that he went to the tomb and called Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus doesn’t call attention to himself; he doesn’t run out and get Lazarus to then walk the now-living man to his sisters. Jesus spends time with the women, he listens to them and responds with hope and empathy, weeping with them. Others murmur around them, ‘he could have done something, he just waited too long.’ But he doesn’t let that get his goat. He doesn’t let other’s words drive his actions. First people. Even once Lazarus is called out form the grave, Jesus doesn’t go to take care of everything and make sure it is all right, he calls others to participate in the experience of faith. Jesus knows that God gets the glory in this, and he has no need for the momentary glory of ‘you did it’ but put the focus on Lazarus and the joy of his restoration.

Knowing God

I have to admit when I began this article, I expected to go toward the ‘people first’ thought, but I felt led to check other instances of challenging. And when I found unassuming Moses, he just worked his way into this article… with humility. Not what I was planning, but humility would be the ‘right’ answer if I were taking a test about the ways to respond to challenges of authority. I know that the message is for me first because that was the farthest thing from my mind. And it shouldn’t be. The call to humility might be shoved aside if only Jesus managed it, but we also have Moses who shows us that we can be humble. Moses knew God intimately, as we can.

When we know God, it is easier to let the challenges roll off, it is easier to stand confidently and listen to others, show that people matter. It is easier to be humble. When we know God is on our side, that he works all things for our good, that we are his delight and the apple of his eye, we can walk tall in humility, we can listen with confidence and we can be sure of His guiding hand.