Dare Not Despise the Days …
The birth and development of Moses is an amazing story. He was a child of the hated Hebrews, who were in Egyptian bondage. The daughter of Pharaoh, who had commanded the death of every Hebrew son, found him.
Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him, and he was made an heir to Pharaoh. His own Hebrew mother was paid by his adopted Egyptian mother to nurse him.
Moses’ mother’s name, Jochebed, means “Yahweh is glorious” or “Yahweh the great one.” She believed that God could save her child, and he rewarded her for her faith. God delivered Moses from death, and then he used Moses to deliver his own people from slavery. God delivered the deliverer.
Moses was aware of his origin, and he desired to help his own people. It speaks well for him that he was willing to identify himself with them, a slave people. Unfortunately, he took matters into his own hands when he killed an Egyptian who had struck a Hebrew. As Abraham and Sarah had tried to help God’s plan along by giving Hagar to Abraham, now Moses tried in his own strength to help his people. But he was not ready for his life’s work; nor was Israel ready for their deliverance.
Moses needed to be seasoned and instructed, so God sent him to Midian to tend sheep. God removed him from Egypt so he could receive the training he required to be the deliverer of the Israelites.
We often regret the time God uses in training us. We become impatient under it, but God took forty years to get Moses ready. We dare not despise the time he takes to prepare us or the place he puts us to accomplish our training. For Moses, it was quite a jump from prince to shepherd, but in the solitude of the wilderness God trained his man.
We must know something of solitude if we are going to know God’s ways, which cannot be learned in the rush and hurry of life. We must know a quiet time. During his time of training, Moses learned the way of the land through which he would lead God’s people. His days as a simple shepherd were not wasted. No days are wasted when we are in God’s will. All things serve his purpose.
—David Kinlaw
When we think of Moses all these years later, we think of the high points; we think of Moses the deliverer! But those many years of two steps forward, one step back (and seasons of one step forward, two steps back) were the foundation upon which Moses was prepared for the highpoints. So often we despise the days of our growing and learning (and falling and getting back up) as hardship. Hard days they are, but profitable in the big picture beyond our wildest dreams. We need to trust that God has the bigger picture in view with each season of our growth. As we find ourselves broken down and barren, it can be for our ultimate good in God’s hands. Let us fix our eyes on the promise of God, and not on the circumstances we find ourselves in. Let’s look at each struggle as a new opportunity for God to make something more of us. Let us remember, as James wrote, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a]whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4). —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics