I’m guessing some of us here this morning are wondering what God is trying to teach us through some bitter circumstances, and wondering how God could use us. Others are wondering if God could ever use us because we’ve stepped outside God’s will. Whoever we are, we need to hear Moses’ story.

 

In the generations that followed Joseph and his family settling in Egypt, the Hebrews began to multiply. The Egyptians, out of fear, enslaved the Hebrew people. You know, that’s often our method for dealing with people who are different from us—we fear, label, hate and enslave. And when enslaving didn’t make the Egyptians feel secure enough, Pharaoh gave the order to kill all the newborn males. But the midwives wouldn’t do it. And neither would Moses’ mother hear of it. She secretly nursed her baby boy and then placed him in a basket in the river. His older sister watched in amazement as Pharaoh’s own daughter heard and saw the baby and decided to keep him. Quick on her feet, Moses’ sister said, “Shall I go find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby?” “Sure!” replied the princess. And guess who got the job…Moses’ own mother got paid to nurse her own child!

 

Now, just push the pause button on this story so far. Ponder some things with me. Note how the seemingly impossible situation is suddenly filled with “the possible” when God is in it? Imagine—slaves hiding a baby, placing their little one in a tiny basket in the water. What appears to be hopeless is filled with new possibilities! Note how fear could have taken over and foiled God’s plan. In an empire and culture dominated by males driven by suspicion and violence, notice how many women already have defied the system and courageously been used by God! 

 

Now recall with me that episode many years later, when Moses was standing before that burning bush, hearing the call of God to lead the Hebrews out of slavery. He was afraid. He didn’t want to stand up to the cruelty of that male-dominated system of violence. Don’t you imagine his heart was encouraged by the memory of how his own life was spared by all those women who bucked the system? (the midwives, his mother and sister, even Pharaoh’s daughter). They weren’t afraid, Moses, now don’t YOU be afraid! I, too, am occasionally given courage by others who have stood against injustice and oppression, standing up for the mistreated and forgotten. I, too, have been emboldened by others who courageously witness for Christ in very tough situations.  

 

But, suddenly, there is a big break between vv. 10 and 11. “…after Moses had grown up…” (Acts 7:23 says when Moses was 40 years old), he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. It was no doubt premeditated, because Moses looked both ways before he did it and he hid the body. While taking a life was wrong, we do get a sense of Moses’ passion for his own people, his courage and his sense of justice in the face of oppression. But, v. 14 says, “Moses was afraid.”

 

So, at age 40, was Moses washed up? Was God done with him? Stay tuned. Moses ran away, to Midian, and for many years, tended flocks on the backside of nowhere, in his own self-imposed exile. What was going on during those years? Moses was brooding, growing up, sorting things out, dealing with his own fears, failures and sins. I’m reminded of Bob Buford’s remark that at mid-life, we stop focusing so much on success and start thinking about significance (Halftime, by Bob Buford).

 

Have you noticed in Moses’ life and your own? Everything that is happening to me now is preparation for the next thing God has for me! And, in ways I don’t come close to understanding! It’s like that poem that says our lives are like the weaving of a rug. We are looking at the underside and it isn’t always pretty or pattern-filled. It looks random. But one day, when we can see the finished product, we’ll figure out: God knows what God is doing!