This year, BSF (Bible Study Fellowship, an amazing Bible study experience that I whole-heartedly recommend you investigate and attend if possible) is going through the life of Moses. We have read, studied and discussed Moses the man in Exodus, we are just about finishing our study of Moses the Leader in Numbers, and soon we will be studying Deuteronomy, where the last years of Moses’ life are recorded. Throughout our study, we have seen God’s character revealed as He interacts with His people, with Moses, and with the local nations of that day.
When I study Moses, it is natural to think of his life and experiences within the confines of his historical period, and in vivid Technicolor because I have seen The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston.
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There is always the 20/20 hindsight phenomenon happening in the back of my mind as I read the incredible interactions between Moses and the various challenging persons he has to deal with, and his continually-developing reliance on God as he faces the challenges he is given. This year however, my outlook on Moses and his experiences have changed dramatically, and I no longer see a man who lived thousands of years ago in a world that was unsophisticated, undeveloped and uninformed, filled with people who didn’t know better and couldn’t know better. I have been wrong to think this way, and that has hindered some mighty treasures of wisdom being released my way.
A thorough study of the life of Moses is as relevant today as it always has been. People do not change, they are the same then as today; circumstances don’t change, just the names, places, titles, environment and the such; and the challenges followers of Jesus and Jews face are pretty much the same now as they were then, only the era and the stuff that surrounds us is different. I know a lot of people would disagree with this, but the more I learn about the struggles Believers and Jewish people all around the world face, the more I see similarities.
God’s expectations from those who call Him Lord has not changed one bit from the time of Moses until today. This was greatly impressed upon me through a recent experience, which amazingly coincided with chapters that outlined a similar event in the life of Moses, except that my “challenges” came through emails, and not face to face.
It is this new ability we now have at the tip of our fingers that allow us to share, express and act on any given feeling, justified or not, in a blink of an eye without spending serious time in prayer or thought that has increased the potential for personal destruction. Unrestrained feelings are poured out onto emails, tweets or Facebook posts and “click”, those raw emotions cascade into the world of a now confused and bewildered reader.
I have no doubt whatsoever that God was behind the timing of this event in my life. Reading Moses’ struggles with the people, the challenges he faced and the way he took everything to God, not taking a single step towards defending his reputation, but falling on his face before God and waiting on Him to deal with the outcome was an incredible source of strength and guidance to me. I was further encouraged by the BSF questions that kept me focused on “staying the course” through some incredibly challenging days. It would have been much more difficult not give in to the strong impulse I felt to respond in defence of myself and my family without this direct input from God through the very timely and, well…. blunt lessons He had prepared for me.
Isaiah 40:31
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
What is more awesome is the fact that I was not alone. Not only was God there for me in a very present and obvious way, directing, illuminating, keeping my boundaries clear before my eyes, but He also had a friend walking along side me who was seeing and experiencing the miraculous timing in all of this. The support of a friend who encourages me to focus on God’s precepts is also a gift from God to me, and it shows me again how very aware God is of how much a person can handle, and how He provides for our care and keeping. He is a very real and loving Father, and we are truly children whom He loves and cares for.
I now see Moses as a regular man who is surrounded by a sea of real people who are no different from those that live today. He faced the very same challenges we face today from the same kind of people that still exist today, and the lessons his life teaches us are maybe even more crucial for us to learn in this very impulse-driven digital age, but the Bible teaches us that too…
Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
9 What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who come after.
*I found the perfect picture for this post at http://drewflaherty.tumblr.com/post/367628649/charlton-heston-the-ten-commandments-moses-with . Not sure if this is the original source or not.
Chaos To Grace 