Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: SNAP (05/28/26)
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TITLE: Leaders Can Snap Too | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lakella Davenport
06/03/26 -
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Snap literally means to break. To snap can mean to speak harshly to or to reach an emotional breaking point. One definition from Merriam Webster’s dictionary online defines snap as: “to utter sharp biting words.” We all know that our God, Yahweh is slow to anger. He is very merciful, gracious, and patient with us. Although, our God, is slow to anger, he does get angry with us, especially when we continually practice sin. Yahweh, the Most High God, had reached an emotional highpoint during the days of Noah, when he brought the great flood of waters upon the earth. God had had enough of mankind’s sinful, evil practices. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them,” (Genesis 6: 5-7).
Mankind had grieved God so much that God regretted having made mankind. God was so displeased with mankind that he destroyed all mankind, (except Noah and his family,) with a great flood of waters. God had reached an emotional breaking point. Just like God, our creator, has an emotional breaking point, we also have an emotional breaking point because we were created in his image.
Moses, the first God chosen leader of the children of Israel, reached an emotional breaking point during his leadership of God’s people. Numbers chapter eleven describes a time when Moses was under so much pressure that he snapped. The people of Israel were upset with Moses because the Lord had not given them any meat to eat. All God had supplied them with was manna from heaven to eat. Moses reaches an emotional breaking point, and he lets God know how stressed he is. Moses tells the Lord, “Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? For they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me,” (Numbers 11: 12-14). The Lord listens to Moses’ complaint and tells Moses to choose 70 men of the elders of Israel (“men he knows to be as elders of the people and officers over them.”) God tells Moses to bring these 70 men into the tabernacle of the congregation that they may stand with Moses (Numbers 11: 16). Moses tells the people what the Lord told him, and he sets the 70 men “round about the tabernacle,” (Numbers 11: 24). “And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease,” (Numbers 11: 25). These 70 elders would help Moses lead, judge, and rule over the children of Israel. They would help bear the burden of the people (Numbers 11: 17).
Jesus, our Lord and Savior snapped a number of times in his dealings with those who were walking contrary to the word and will of God. In the New Testament, Jesus uses “sharp biting words,” in Matthew 23 to address the sinful behaviors and practices of the religious groups of people known as the scribes and pharisees, who were also hypocrites. Jesus spoke these sharp words to bring conviction and correction, not condemnation. Jesus criticizes their behavior. Jesus says: “But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,” (Matthew 23: 5-6). Jesus goes on and on in the chapter of Matthew 23 using “sharp biting words,” to expose the unrighteous, pride filled behaviors of the scribes and pharisees—warning the multitude and his disciples to avoid being like them.
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