Tuesday, June 18

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One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.  He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.  When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?”  He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”  When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.   - Exodus 2:11-15

After Moses fled from Pharaoh, he fled into the wilderness of Midian, where he would spend the next 40 years of his life, living in obscurity.  In his 40 years in the wilderness of Midan, Moses must have often reflected on how he murdered an Egyptian and how full of foolish pride he had been to think he could deliver Israel himself.  Moses might have remembered a thousands sins, both real and imagined.  He must have assumed that he was living in the wilderness as punishment for his sins.  He probably thought that God was done with him, and that he had messed up so badly that he was no longer of any use to God or to his own people, the Israelites.

When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”   - Exodus 3:4

God’s first words to Moses call him by name. This shows that even though Moses was now living as an obscure, forgotten shepherd on the backside of the desert, God had not forgotten him.  God knew exactly who and where Moses was.

Not only did God remember Moses, but He also remembered His own covenant promises to His people.  God revealed Himself to Moses by declaring His relationship to the patriarchs. This reminded Moses that God is the God of the covenant, and His covenant with Israel was still valid and important. This isn’t a “new God” meeting Moses, but the same God that dealt with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  God will reveal Himself to Moses more intimately than He had to any of the patriarchs; yet it all begins with God reminding Moses of the bridge of covenant they meet on.

There must have been some Israelites in the days of Moses that wondered if God neglected His covenant for the 400 years of Israel’s slavery in Egypt, since the time of the patriarchs. Nevertheless, God was at work during that time, preserving and multiplying the nation.  God was also at work preserving and preparing the heart of Moses to be His chosen instrument to deliver His people out of the bondage of slavery.

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”   - Exodus 3:7-10

This is amazing!  Our God keeps His promises!  Moses is about to discover that what he thought was punishment (40 years in the desert) was actually preparation!  God has been preparing him for this moment!  Now remember, Moses fled from Egypt when he was 40 years old and he spent the next 40 years living in the wilderness.  This makes Moses how old?  Moses is 80 years old when God calls him to go back to Egypt!

I don’t know about you, but if I were in charge of choosing a deliverer for God’s people, I don’t know if I would have chosen 80 year old shepherd Moses.  I might have picked 40 year old prince Moses living in Pharaoh’s palace, but the old shepherd from the boonies.  But God does not value the things we value, God repeatedly chooses humble servants to display His power and glory through them!

Jeff Frazier