- “And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses…” Exodus 2:10;
- “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian.” Exodus 3:1a;
- “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:10
Today, I encourage you to look up, and then look ahead, to find hope. Look up if you are down in the doldrums, if your life appears to be on a downward slide, if you seem to be going nowhere, or if you have hit rock-bottom where, by reason of age or other circumstances, there does not appear to be anything to hope for.
I speak to you if your disappointment in yourself and the depths of despair that you feel, as you contemplate that your life, once so full of promise, may be turning out to be what you have feared: the ignominy of failure.
Your fears may not be unfounded, but if you look to the Lord, you will find Him on alert, ready to envelop you in His care. He understands your broken heart. Scripture assures that “the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18 NIV).
If you will only look to Him, you may find that this time of apparent retrogression, may actually be a time of preparation, a time of emptying of unnecessary baggage, in order for you to step into your purpose… if you will entrust yourself to Him.
Today’s foundational scriptures trace the birth of Moses the lawgiver of Israel; how he became a prince of Egypt; how he lost that status, and how he was ushered into his destiny as God’s chosen leader.
I have been fascinated with the mathematical exactitude in how Moses’ life was divided into three parts: he died at the age of one hundred and twenty years, having lived forty years as a Prince of Egypt – with all the authority, pride and entitlement pertaining to that status; forty years as a shepherd, and forty years as a leader whose significance has continued over millennia.
Today I invite you to attempt a journey into the mind of a prince of Egypt – the superpower of his day – who for forty years had lost his status as a prince, with no hope of ever returning to it, and who in that forty-year period, had been reduced to herding sheep, an occupation which was an abomination to the Egyptian culture in which he had been raised (Genesis 46:34).
What do you imagine was his state of mind regarding the downward trajectory his life had taken, the day before he heard God calling him out of the middle of a bush that was alight with fire, but did not burn? Did Moses have any hope that his circumstances would ever change?
Although we could not know this for a fact, it is reasonable from the circumstances, to suppose that whatever hope he may have had in earlier years, may have petered out after forty years of living as a shepherd. It is worth noting that there is no record that in the forty years he lived in Midian, where he married and had two sons, that he had any significant material possessions. Indeed, in that fortieth year, the sheep he kept belonged not to him but to Jethro, his father-in-law.
But as the story unfolded, failure was not to be the entire story of his life.
It is important to note that the events that sent Moses out of Egypt to Midian were of his own making. The murder he committed as a prince of Egypt and its consequences being: the rejection by his own kin (persons he thought he was delivering from the cruelty of Egyptian taskmasters) and, the ire of Pharoah when he heard of it, were the result of Moses’ own poor judgment and dastardly act.
But even his poor choices and their consequences, did not derail God’s plan to use him for His own purpose and glory.
The life of Moses, as it spiraled downward, was not unknown to God. But God did not immediately remove the Pharaoh who was after Moses’ life in order to spare Moses a degraded existence. On the contrary, God allowed Moses to live the lonely life of a shepherd, as he learned how to take care of sheep in their helplessness and stubbornness.
This was preparation for life as a leader (shepherd) of people; an instrument of leadership in God’s plan to return the people of Israel from Egypt to Canaan in fulfilment of His promise to Abraham (Genesis 15:13-14).
I am quite confident that whatever trajectory you were on (which appears to have changed course and not for the better) would pale in comparison with the princely status that Moses lost. Moreover, at age eighty, Moses appeared to have run out of time to do anything useful to even attempt a comeback to the glory he had lost.
Your life may have taken an unexpected disappointing turn – unexpected to you, but not to God. God knows all things and is perfectly capable of rerouting you into the purpose He has planned for you. His purpose is always good, and not intended to bring you to shame (Jeremiah 29:11).
To the person who feels forgotten, cast off, or rejected, perhaps through no fault of theirs, may I respectfully introduce you to another account God’s dealings with a man called Mephibosheth, recorded in 2 Samuel 9: 3-13.
Mephibosheth was the son of Jonathan, the son of King Saul. As a person of royal birth, the expectation would be that he would occupy a position of influence. Unfortunately, both his grandfather King Saul and his father Jonathan died in battle. When news of their death reached the palace, Mephibosheth’s nurse, fearing retribution against the royal household, took him into hiding. Unfortunately, she dropped the five-year-old in her flight, and he became crippled in both feet.
He ended up living his life into adulthood in a forgotten place called Lo Debar. He lived in obscurity, far from the trappings of the royal life into which he had been born, and which was taken from him when he had done nothing to deserve such loss. With no royal income, Mephibosheth grew up in Lo Debar, a place of hopelessness; its stark nothingness was so severe, that he could only think of himself as a ‘dead dog’ (2 Samuel 9:8). But God who was the third person in David’s covenant with Jonathan did not forget him.
2 Samuel 9:3-13 records the swift turnaround in his situation when suddenly, David remembered his covenant with Jonathan and was determined to show kindness to any surviving descendant of Jonathan.
From Lo Debar, where his life by any projection was nothing suited to the son of a former Crown Prince, Mephibosheth was moved into the King’s palace where he ate at the King’s table with the rights of a son, with the property of King Saul restored to him.
Everyone had forgotten him, but God had not.
In my last post, I reminded you that the bottom line in God’s dealings with you is His own character of goodness, love, and faithfulness.
I implore you to hold on to that revelation, and to trust Him to work out His purposes in your life, right where you find yourself.
Just as age was no bar to God’s plan for Moses, and the place of nothingness was no hindrance to God’s plan to bring good to Mephibosheth, God can, and will bring you out of the abject circumstances into which you may have descended.
Jeremiah 31:17 contains a promise you can take to heart: “There is hope for your future…” Do not give up your hope in God’s ability and willingness to intervene in your situation. As scripture says: “[our] times are in [His] hands” (Psalm 31:15). He has a time for each purpose.
Note that the day before Moses heard God’s voice on Mount Horeb, he could only be described as a failure, a prince who had descended to become a shepherd. The next day, the story changed completely. His time of apparent failure was God’s place of preparation for what He intended for him.
As He did for Moses, and (through King David) for Mephibosheth, God can bring success out of seeming failure, prosperity out of degradation, peace out of turmoil, and progress in a stagnant situation.
God counsels: “Stop striving and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10, NASB).
Your responsibility is to cease from striving, but to look to Him for help in recognition of His sovereignty. And whatever else you may do, first lay claim to God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:13-14a:
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity…”
He will come (intervene), in His timing.
