MOSES had faith to count upon God, and to believe that He would fulfill his promises to the children of Israel.
When he looked upon their burdens and saw their oppressed condition, his heart was stirred within him. He knew that deliverance must come to them if ever they would get back to the promised land; and he thought that God would deliver them by his hand.
Moses was no mean man; not only was he learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, but he also had had a war-like training, and was the leader in various raids made against the Ethiopians; and being successful in his achievements he won great fame and honor. As God says of him, he was “mighty in words and deeds.” It was no small matter to think of delivering a suffering people from the hand of a despotic king, who held them in bondage; but faith that counts upon God need never be checked by difficulties in the way, even though those difficulties be as mountains, “For with God nothing is impossible.”
Moses looked upon himself as the one whom God would use to deliver his suffering brethren, and, in the vigor of manhood, and the ardor of a conqueror, he was ready to strike the blow at any time. Seeing one of his brethren suffering wrong, one day that he had gone out to visit them, he smote and killed the Egyptian who was oppressing him. In this, Moses acted in the energy of the flesh, for God’s time and way to deliver Israel had not yet come. If we would be used of the Lord we must wait for Him to lead the way.
This unwise act soon came to the ears of Pharaoh, and his anger was kindled against Moses. Then all the honor and power that he had known in the king’s court, suddenly came to an end, and he had to flee for his life.
There was no place in Egypt’s wide domains where he would be secure. On, on he took his flight, until he reached the land of Midian, and there he found a place of safety in the house of a priest. And now, how different became the surroundings of Moses from those he had just left The land of Midian was not fertile like the rich plains of Egypt it was not scented with sweet flowers; no beautiful and varied landscapes meet the eye; with the exception of here and there a patch of verdure, it was a desolate and barren land. As one writer has said— “a land dreary and desolate, yet sublime in its boldness and ruggedness— a labyrinth of wild and blasted mountains, a terrific and howling desolation.”
Instead of the pomp and show and festivities of a king’s court, his home was now in the family of a priest in this strange and desert land. Instead of exploits against the Ethiopians, and other achievements which brought him honor and fame, the path of Moses now lay in the solitudes and the fastnesses of mountain and desert; for Moses, in his new home, took charge of the flock of Jethro the priest, who had become his father-in-law, and his duties led him through the desert and on the mountain sides.
Simplicity now characterizes his life. And in the forty years that were spent in that land, he must have become familiar, as he led his flock here and there in search of pasture, with every road and sheep-track, every hill and peak, every mountain stream, and every oasis of the desert of Sinai, through which he was afterwards to lead a vast multitude of people.
And during those forty years, God was teaching him in many ways, and fitting him for the great work to which He had called him. Doubtless He communed with His servant Moses in his solitary wanderings, as he led his flock over the dreary desert, and on the rugged, barren mountain sides seeking pasturage for it. What time and opportunity Moses would have for meditation! Deep study must have been his also. It is supposed that he wrote the book of Genesis during his stay in the land of Midian. And it is surely a wonderful book, marked by simplicity, beauty, and eloquence— “an immortal work of genius, the oldest and the greatest written history of which we have record.”
Through all these things, God was preparing Moses for his great work as a deliverer.
ML 06/29/1902