Four answers – to live like Moses
First, faith that overcomes and comes to maturity will do so when in our natural selves we are VULNERABLE and helpless. Our own strength undermines faith for it rests on effort.
Second, there must be a complete confirmation that we are central to the divine will. When we are uncertain as to HIS leading there cannot be assurance in stepping out on the invisible road of God.
Third, there must be an acceptance that God knows what He is at, and that He wants our ultimate good for His perfect will. We must be convinced that the providences that surround us and marshal our way are for our benefit.
Fourth, there is a necessity to exclude feelings from our reckoning in determining our approach to any situation in and for God. Feelings often lie and underlie our moods and it is not our emotions that prove God, but His word.
Glitter or Gloom
Moses was faced with a choice, like many of us today. He stands as an example as did Christ, who chose a cross to save us from condemnation. Our choices must have the stamp of eternity upon them. Moses was faced with ascending a throne and receiving all the wealth, glory and honour that went with that office ‑ the “glitter”, or to reject all that the natural man longs for and associates with the “gloom” of Israel’s plight.
The Eternal Values
The measure of maturity in our choices will be evidenced by our concept of the “BEFORE”. Jesus for “the joy that was set BEFORE Him, endured the cross…” [Hebrews 12:2]. Four words characterize Moses. He “refused”, “chose”, “esteemed” and forsook” [Hebrews 11:24, 25, 26, 27]. All these are marks of the committed man, who is seeking the purpose of God for his life. The examples in scripture are numerous; Daniel [Daniel 1:8], Joshua [Joshua 24:15 and Jesus [Phil. 2:6‑8]. It is interesting that when Abraham and Lot were faced with a choice it was Lot who chose the land of plenty in the environment of Sodom and finished up with a crippled testimony.
Pay day is coming, and when we stand before Christ on that final judgment day [2 Corinthians 5:10] we shall all give an account of the choices we have made and the life we have led. John in his Revelation tells us that “lukewarmness” is as much a sin as coldness in spiritual zeal [Revelation 3:15, 16]. The negative aspect of life that prohibits choice actually determines choice which favours the world. We should therefore, not lift up our eyes before lifting up our hearts, as did Lot, before making any decision. For he chose one step down and two steps in and finished up running for his life.
The Heartside of God [Exodus 2:11, 12]
The backside of the desert is the heartside of God, and Moses found that the entrance to God’s university was through a wilderness. Moses had tried to deliver Israel with his own strong arm, and being the head of Egypt’s armies, had proved what a powerful and effective arm that was. He knew in himself that the killing of the Egyptian was wrong for the scripture says he “looked this way and that way”, furtiveness is evidence that God is not in it. The fear of man is ignored when we are certain God is in the action.
God’s Bible Class
Moses wanted to do what God wanted, but in his own way. It was the only way he knew and being well qualified in all the known skills of his day, thought human ingenuity was sufficient. It is said that Moses was the “meekest man on earth” and as such must also have been the strongest, for meekness is strength under control. But, as with many of us, we have not learnt God’s mind on a matter and resort to finite reasoning and effort to secure what God can do perfectly through His almighty power. He then gets the glory and we fade into the background as supporting cast!
God educates us by stripping us of the ability to “do” things. The pity that Moses showed was not sufficient, for pity based on human sympathy will not stand up to provocation, and Moses was to lead about two million grumbling sheep (Israel), through a hostile wilderness. He had gone from being a prince to a pauper and a soldier to a shepherd and, in that new found discipline, became all that what God wanted. Self‑sufficiency is always the rot at the base of the post, and God has to cut out that which would weaken the edifice of our lives. When his face had been shot blasted by the wind driven sand and he looked like the scrub he lived amongst and was “content” to dwell in the desert, without sense of glory and deliverance, God used him to conquer the might of Egypt.
