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Scripture for the day: Exodus 3:10-12 And now come, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” And He said, “Assuredly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”
Thought for the day: Moses stood on the side of that mountain and talked with God for one reason; because that was the place and time ordained by God Himself. Moses had taken 40 years to get from where he was to where he needed to be. Hopefully, you and I won’t have to take that long. Let’s review for a moment.
Moses was born at a time when all male children of the Israelites were to be killed immediately after birth. He was miraculously rescued from a tiny woven basket floating in the Nile River. I say miraculously because, if he’d been found almost anywhere else, he would certainly been killed. But God placed Pharaoh’s daughter in a place where she could receive this gift from her god, the Nile. You see, when one of your gods gives you a gift, you would be extremely rude to reject that gift. In fact, insulting one of the gods would put you in a place you certainly didn’t want to be. So, when Moses was brought into the palace of the Pharaoh, he could do nothing but accept this infant as from the god of the Nile. When Moses turned about 5, he was brought to live there and was nurtured and taught by the best Egypt had to offer. He was certainly older than his step-brother, Ramses II and may have even been in line for the throne.
Now, when Moses was grown, he knew of God’s plan to rescue the Jews from the clutches of the Egyptians. He knew he was called of God to help make that happen. One day, when he saw a slave-master abusing one of the Hebrew children, he killed him and hid his body in the sand. Moses was in trouble and he knew it, so he headed out into the wilderness toward Midian. There he spent 40 years tending the flocks of his father-in-law. He never even had his own sheep. He never put down roots. Could it be that the call of God was still on his life and he knew it?
When Moses was in Egypt, raised in Pharaoh’s palace, dressed as one of the ruling class, educated in all the wisdom of that land, he was at the top of his game. When tried to fulfill the call of God on his life, it was all about “Look who I AM!” Now, after 40 years of humility training in the desert, he no longer looked like an Egyptian, he no longer thought like a son of the Pharaoh, he no longer thought of himself as anything more important than a hired hand to his family. He had moved from “Look who I am!” to “Who am I?”
Friends, whether we like it or not, this is the only pathway to usefulness in the Kingdom of God. Everything that points to us as something special must be stripped away. All our education is useless when that education points to us. All our talents, all our personality, all our latent abilities must be removed. Sometimes a period of formation in the wilderness is the only thing that will make us useful to God. Moses had to lose every vestige of royalty, self-image and self-respect had to be left behind, but when he did he became just the sort of person the Lord can use. The same is true for you and me.
As soon as we think we have anything the Lord can use, we have stepped outside the realm of effectiveness in His plan for us. As soon as we trade the robes of royalty for a shepherd’s tunic, as soon as we recognize that our education is as foolishness to the One who knows it all, as soon as we have been brought to the realization that the only useful vessel God can use is one that has been emptied and cleansed and filled with all of Him, suddenly we become useful for sharing His love and His power.
Now go take on your world. - Bill