Moses fled from Egypt out of fear. He had killed an Egyptian man on behalf of the Hebrews. When he realized someone had seen the crime, he ran away into the desert to a place called Midian.
In Midian, the Bible says Moses sat down by a well. Some women came to draw water and were attacked by shepherds. For the third time, we see Moses act on behalf of the weak to serve justice. His actions prove a pattern of character. Moses was a defender of the weak – like unto God.
Despite his sin, the Lord blessed Moses for his courage and gave him a home and family in Midian. He became a shepherd. God provided for Moses and prepared him for his future work of delivering Israel.
Moses was not on a mission to save all God’s people when he struck down the Egyptian. He was looking to save one. He wasn’t looking to be the judge of all Israel when he sought to reconcile two Hebrew men. He was trying to make peace between two Israelites. Moses did not expect to gain a family by standing up for a few women in distress. In all of these instances, Moses was just being who he was. He was doing what God-fearing men do – protecting, defending, and seeking justice for the weak and oppressed. He sounds a lot like his mom. God used his courage and hunger for justice and, over the next forty years, grew him into a great deliverer.
What we don’t see is Moses running around vying for a position. He had one that he, apparently, did not overly value, in Egypt. We don’t see him seeking favor with men or worrying what would happen if he stood up against evil. He acted impulsively according to his instincts. We never see him asking God to make him a leader for Israel. In fact, when called to leadership he attempts to decline by making excuses. All Moses’ life is weaved together by nothing less than the providence of God. From his birth to his need to defend to his desert escape to his new-found foreign family, all the way to his calling, his courage, and his great task of delivering Israel out of Egypt, God sovereignly gave Moses all things according to his own will.
Here is a lesson for us – for we who chase the doing rather than living in the being of our humanity. We needn’t busy ourselves seeking positions or popularity among God’s people – or any people for that matter. The way to pleasing God is not found in frantically finding a way to become a front-runner for him. Instead, we ought concentrate on simply being who we are in him. We ought to focus on being like him – hungry for justice, quick to defend the weak and oppressed, recklessly abandoning all that is opposed, and trusting fully in his providence.
That is who Moses was. It wasn’t that Moses just so happened to be in the right place at the right time. It was that Moses was just the right man for the life God had called him to live out. The very same thing is true for each of us. Act Be accordingly.
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