February 5, 2008
Exodus 3:10
From his early life Moses had the inner witness and a sense of calling that he would deliver God’s people out of Egypt. Also, his mother had taught him to obey God and love His people. It is important how we raise our children.
Having learnt all the skills and the wisdom of Egypt, Moses became mighty in words and deeds. Acts.7:22. He could succeed Pharaoh. But his heart was for the people of God and not for the sinful riches and the glory of Egypt.
Moses thought that with the training of Egypt, he could deliver his people. He killed an Egyptian to rescue a Hebrew slave. Maybe he believed that he could bring deliverance killing all the Egyptians one by one!! He did not realize that God’s ways are different and that he needed God’s training.
What Moses needed was character, not skills; humility, not pride; brokenness not arrogance; inner transformation not physical strength; and the revelation of God and not intellectual reasoning.
How ineffective we are with all our education, wealth and worldly wisdom without receiving the training God wants to give us!
When Pharaoh knew about the killing, Moses fled. For forty years he was in the desert keeping the flock of his father in law. The prince of Egypt became an obscure shepherd, forgotten by everyone. But he was faithfully tending the sheep, protecting them from the dry howling wind, the scorching heat and the freezing cold of the desert. God is watching our faithfulness in all that we do.
When he left Egypt he was already forty years. The next forty years in the desolate wilderness had drained off his strength and stripped him off of his dream of delivering God’s people. He was now in Horeb meaning “desert” or “desolation”. He did not have anything! Even the sheep that he kept belonged to his father in law. All that he had was the shepherd’s staff!
What would happen to his calling? Could he do anything for God now? Was the inner witness and the sense of calling he had all imagination? Or was it from God? Had God forgotten him? Could God do anything now?
In Exodus 3 we read that God appeared to Moses from a burning bush and called him,
“Moses”. God knows our names. He knows the hard realities of life that we are going through! He has not forgotten us. He says “I have called you by your name. I have chosen you. You are mine”
God spoke to him from the burning bush to go to Pharaoh to deliver His people. Moses was stupefied because now after eighty years he was week and helpless. So he told God “Who am I Lord to do this”. God never answered that question. He said “ I WILL be with you” and said, “I AM THAT I AM”. THE ISSUE IS NOT WHO MOSES WAS BUT WHO GOD IS!
Now God looked at the rod in Moses’ hand and told him to cast it down! Moses had already given up the Scepter of Egypt. He was stripped of everything. The rod was the only thing he had! And even that he had to lose!! Moses obeyed and the miracle happened!!!
God told him to go back to Egypt, to Pharaoh; now to deliver His people!!!
The rod was no more the rod of Moses. It became the rod of God!!! It is greater than the Scepter of Pharaoh! With this rod, Moses was not going to rule over Egypt, but he would lead a New Nation, and God’s people, through whom God would raise up another Deliverer; the Messiah and the Shepherd of our souls; God’s Son Jesus Christ; to bring the whole world under His reign and sovereignty; to bless every tribe, every kindred and every Nation! Glory to His name forever!!!
Never doubt God’s purpose in your life. Never hesitate to obey or give up for God. He who has called us is faithful! He will do greater things in our life than what we can achieve with all our education, money or fame!!!
