Ps. Craig Mobey
Moses lived to 120 years old, and we are going to touch on each of the 3 main seasons of Moses’ life. Each season was approximately 40 years long – and you think your current season is long?
This is the follow up message to “Is it the right time?” Let’s quickly recap, we concluded that:
- If you do something, something will happen.
- If you do nothing, that too will happen.
- How to prosper no matter what the season.
- How to overcome a mountain.
- How to actively wait between seasons.
We said that you cannot idly kill time without injuring eternity. We discovered how to actively wait upon God and said to one another that discerning the present will of God is to discern season and time.
Let’s turn to Exodus, as we ground this message in the life of Moses.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 3:1-7 (NIV)
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
Introduction
Can you for a moment imagine yourself standing in Moses’ shoes? Just another day of looking after sheep and a bush catches fire but does not burn up. As most inquisitive people would do, you go to investigate this unusual happening. Then God almighty speaks to you.
It strikes me that where Moses hid his face, we “…approach God’s throne of grace with confidence…” (Heb. 4:16) because of Jesus Christ. But do we still have that reverence and awareness of standing on holy ground?
Let step into the message
The First Season of Moses’ Life: Living as a Prince
The first season is his life in the court of pharaoh. As the adopted son of pharaoh’s daughter, Moses would have had all the perks and privileges of a prince of Egypt. He was raised in the enemy’s camp by non-believers, and we note here that God, in His sovereignty, is able to use even the enemy to His glory and purposes.
“Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action” (Acts 7:22). He was raised to lead and despite being in the enemy’s camp – he was anointed, gifted and God was with him.
God is with you, no matter where you are at. Just because it feels that God may be far, know this is what it feels like – at the moment. Also know that in this case, your feelings are unreliable because the truth is that God is always with you.
It’s time to believe this truth.
Moses takes it upon himself to be the savior of his people and kills an Egyptian. As Stephen (Acts 7:25) says before the Jewish ruling council, “Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.”
Moses was a man of action as well as a man with a hot temper and prone to impulsive actions. Did God want to save His people? Yes. Did God want to use Moses as His chosen instrument of salvation? Yes. But Moses, despite his role in the salvation of the Hebrew people, acted impulsively and hot-headedly.
He tried to do in his timing what God wanted done in His timing. The lesson for us is obvious: we must be intensely aware of not only doing God’s will, but doing God’s will in His timing, not ours.
When we attempt to do God’s will in our timing, we make a bigger mess than originally existed. Moses needed time to grow and mature and learn to be meek and humble before God.
What about you and me? Where are we at? Maybe it’s time to humble ourselves and allow God to lift us up as
The Second Season of Moses’ Life: A Humble Outcast
This brings us to the next chapter in Moses’ life, his 40 years in the land of Midian. During this time, Moses learned the simple life of a shepherd, a husband, and a father.
God took an impulsive and hot-tempered young man and began the process of shaping him into the needed instrument for the tasks that lay ahead.
If God can do this with Moses, He can do it with you and me; perhaps He is already doing it.
A few lessons stand out:
- If the first lesson is to wait on God’s timing,
- then second lesson is to not be idle while we wait on God’s timing. Be productive.
- He spent the better part of 40 years learning the ins and outs of being a shepherd and supporting and raising a family.
- Maturing into the fullness of time takes time.
- While we might long for the “mountain top” experiences with God, realize that most of our lives are lived in the valley where there is work to do. And God is with you, even in that valley. As Billy Graham said, “Mountaintops are for views and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valleys.”
Another thing we see from Moses during his time spent in Midian is that, when God finally did call him into service, Moses was unwilling.
- The man of action early on in his life, now 80 years old, became nervous.
- When called to speak for God, Moses said he was “slow of speech and tongue.” Some commentators believe that Moses may have had a speech impediment. Perhaps this is true, but at the same time Stephen said that Moses was “mighty in words and deeds.”
Maybe Moses feared going back to where he came from, maybe because he was 80 and he feared failure. This isn’t an uncommon feeling.
- How many of us have tried to do something, failed, and then hesitated to try again?
- Don’t fear failing, fear not trying.
There are two things Moses seemed to have overlooked.
- One was the obvious change that had occurred in his own life in the previous 40 years.
We can also look back at what God has done for us in our past so that we can move forward in faith and confidence
- The other thing was that God would be with him. And God is with us. Always.
Moses failed at first not so much because he acted impulsively, but because he acted without God.
Therefore, the lesson to be learned here is that when you discern a clear call from God, step forward in faith, knowing that God goes with you! Do not be timid but be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might (Ephesians 6:10).
The Third Season of Moses’ Life: A Godly Man of Godly Action
The third and final chapter in Moses’ life is the chapter that Scripture spends the most time reporting – his role in the redemption of Israel. Several lessons can be learnt from this chapter of Moses’ life.
- First is how to be an effective leader of people. Moses essentially had responsibility over 2 million Hebrew refugees. When things began to wear him down, his father-in-law, Jethro, suggested that he delegate responsibility to other faithful men, a lesson that many people in authority over others need to learn. He had to look beyond himself, and to wisely trust others
- We also see a man who was dependent on the favour and grace of God. Moses was continually pleading on behalf of the people before God. We too should be interceding for our family, for our friends, for our pastors, for our enemies for everyone who needs Christ.
- Moses’ life also teaches us the lesson that there are certain sins that will continue to bug us throughout our lives. The same hot temper that got Moses into trouble in Egypt also got him into trouble during the wilderness wanderings when he struck the rock.
Conclusion
What challenges me most are the excuses I – maybe you too – make when it’s time to do something. As much as I would want to expand on this thought, I find myself thinking ever deeper about it.
To close off, we see many qualities, wisdom and can take encouragement from Moses’ life story. We see seasons: from a prince to an outcast to a Godly man of Godly action.
We realize that for Moses, the 3rd season was not visible from the 1st season. I emphasize, for Moses, not God.
We see that God was always with Moses and He will always be with you and me.
We also see that the purposes of God will always be achieved, and that means that you and I, although we may get it wrong quite a bit, are not powerful enough to derail the story of God and the timing of God.
Amen