IN GOOD FAITH: When God Calls, Pt. 9

By PASTOR MARK MOLINA

Special to the NEWS

In the second chapter of Exodus, we find Moses sitting by a well. He had just crossed the Sinai Peninsula on foot. The Lord graciously led him to a place of rest. What happened next? The deliverer in Moses manifests again!

Pastor Mark Molina

Pastor Mark Molina

“Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.” (Exodus 2:16-17 NIV).

Moses had just crossed the desert and sat down by the well. Soon thereafter he arose to his feet to defend and deliver the daughters of the priest of Midian! Even after an exhausting journey Moses was willing to fight on someone else’s behalf. What an amazing characteristic!

As the story goes, the priest of Midian gave Moses one of his daughters as a wife. They had a child together. Moses became a shepherd to flocks of sheep of their family. What was this almost unexplainable journey of Moses’ life?

Moses was put in a basket after his birth and sent down the Nile River. The Pharaoh’s daughter rescued him. He was breastfed and cared for by his very own mother in the palace of the Pharaoh. He was given the best education, the best training and the best of life to succeed Pharaoh one day on the throne. Yet he rejected it all to follow his destiny and be with the people of his birth. He killed an Egyptian and tried to hide the body. He became a fugitive from justice. Now he is a shepherd in the Sinai desert. He is in the middle of nowhere.  Can we assume that his life is over now? Can we assume that God can no longer use him? Should we dare to assume that God could no longer fulfill His divine purpose in Moses? Has he fallen too far from grace and forgiveness?

I have discovered a reality about God that I am very, very grateful for: He is nothing like us. He forgives when we refuse to. He restores, redeems, renews, sanctifies, and consecrates what most of us today would consider unworthy and unacceptable. That is why he is God and we are not. We are not qualified to have His place. He is the only one able to fully fill the position.

Moses is a desert away from where his life began with such promise and seemingly ended in such defeat. He is alone with the sheep. If I were Moses I would be happy just to be alive. I am sure he felt he was in a place that would be the final resting point of his life. His life had completely changed.

However, things also changed in Egypt.

“During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” (Exodus 2:23-25 NIV)

It’s important to recognize that Moses did not sit around feeling sorry for himself. He got up and got moving in the place where he was. He got married. He became a husband and a father. He then accepted the responsibilities of the place where he was. He became a shepherd.

Think about this. He was raised in the culture of Egypt where sheepherders were despised. They were considered filthy and dirty. Moses showed his willingness to do what was necessary all the way back to the moment he rejected the throne of Pharaoh to identify himself with the Israelite slaves. Now in Midian he showed himself willing to become what is a despised position to the Egyptians yet a sacred position to God. He became a shepherd. No fanfare. No notoriety, in a place of solace.

What men often despise, God esteems. The process of discipline and correction that God will put us through is something we must learn to embrace. It prepares us for what’s next.

 

 

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