In a search for a promising executive Moses would probably fail. His lack of communication skills, his infamous temper, his lack of total commitment to his own people and, above all, his criminal record – he had killed an Egyptian who was oppressing an Israelite – would bar him from such a position of trust and responsibility.

One thing going for him, though, was his candor. He flew into a rage at seeing his people abandoning the one and true God, falling into an idolatrous worship of the golden calf then ordering his people to drink a potion laced with the remains of the melted idol. Too, Moses had a remarkable love-hate relationship with his nation. Right after he had punished the idolatrous Israelites, Moses – in a sudden turn of attitude – pleaded with Yahweh who was threatening his chosen people with divine wrath that if it be possible God should shift his anger on him in order to spare the erring people. Such inconsistency would surely disqualify Moses from a high position.

The picture of the ‘prodigal’ father giving in to the whims of his two sons might strike some authorities in child rearing as incompatible with sound parenting. To accede to the unreasonable request of his younger son for an early division of the family property and to accept the scolding coming from the older son who loathed at the return of the profligate sibling might raise the question whether the father knew the limits of what the head of a family should be. His quest for justice found fulfillment in compassion.

In the case of Moses, we see God looking into the heart and soul of a man he chose to be a leader. In the story of the ‘prodigal father’ we have the picture of God who listens not to the reasons of the head but to the logic of the heart.