Summer Series: #6 - Moses and Leadership

What would it be like to lead over a million people through the desert? I'm guessing it wouldn't be very easy. Yet, this is what God had Moses do. A recent TV mini-series The Ten Commandments did a good job of portraying how hard this would be. Moses finds himself asking God, time and time again, what he is being punished for. Perhaps this is punishment murdering the Egyptian? The Bible also gives us insight into how Moses was feeling. Numbers 11:10-15 gives an account of Moses asking the Lord why he had to bear this burden. Verses 14 & 15 portray his struggle particularly well:

"I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now..."

God's response is to select 70 of Israel's elders to help carry the burden. This teaches us an important principle of leadership: We do not need to bear the burden alone. We should turn to trustworthy people for the wisdom and strength that we need to lead.

That sounds good in principle, but then I remember Exodus 18. In this story Moses had already appointed judges in an attempt to make his load lighter. Yet, that didn't seem to prevent the problem in Numbers 11 from happening. As I look ahead, I also see that the problem doesn't necessarily seem to get any better after the appointing of the 70 elders. Anyone have any thoughts on why this might be the case?