The last time we met, Moses had fled Egypt to the land of Midian.
There he was taken in by a friendly tribe headed by a Midianite priest named Jethro, was given a wife and settled into life as a shepherd.
Fast forward 40 years.
Moses is now 80 years and while shepherding his flock, off in the distance something mysterious catches his eye.
He notices a flickering light.
“Hmm..what in the heck could that be?”…
…Moses wonders to himself.
Moses surmounts a steep hill the Scriptures call the “the Mountain of God” or Mount Horeb (later to be known as Mount Sinai) and comes across a bush though engulfed in flames is not consumed.
Moses approaches even closer…
…and then suddenly a thundering voice bursts forth from the bush forcing Moses to his knees.
The voice tells Moses…
“I am the God whom you have been seeking all of your life”.
The voice continues…
“I have heard the cries of My People in Egypt and I am going to send you to Pharaoh to free them.”
Now an interesting question we should ask ourselves at this point is…
…if this was me, how would I have responded?
I think there’s a lot to learn about ourselves and life in general by observing how Moses responded.
He was older now and leading a comfortable shepherd’s life.
Long gone were the big dreams and lofty ambitions that characterize most folks in their energetic younger days.
This was the least thing Moses was expecting to happen in his life.
And that’s exactly what Moses told God.
Isn’t this quite reflective of exactly how we operate in our lives when the Lord brings new and exciting opportunities our way?
We cling to false “securities” because we’re afraid to step out of our comfort zone.
Yet we can never grow unless we do and the Lord knows it.
That’s why He sometimes forces us out of the nest so to speak.
Moses was filled with skepticism concerning his ability to accomplish the mission Hashem had presented to him.
Even after the Lord performed awesome miracles right then and there in front of Moses.
Moses kept begging God to choose someone else and kept making lame excuses why he wasn’t fit for the task at at hand such as his lack of speaking ability.
The Scripture tells us the Lord responded in anger.
Let’s not overlook that part.
If you want to know the one thing that really pisses God off, this is it.
It’s having a lack of faith in Him and ourselves to accomplish great things in our lives.
All of our ridiculous excuses mean exactly NOTHING to the Lord.
“I’m too old.”
“I have a physical impediment”.
“I don’t have enough money”.
“Who am I to do such a thing?”
Blah, blah, blah.
All of that means absolutely nothing.
Onward.
We’re told Moses finally accepted the divine mission given to him and went back to report the extraordinary encounter he had just experienced to his family.
Interestingly, we’re told in the beginning when Moses set out to Egypt, Moses’ wife and his children were traveling with him but later Moses sent them back.
I guess Moses decided that what lay ahead was too dangerous for his family and so he sent them back to Midian.
We know this is what happened because we’ll read later in Exodus that Moses reunited with his family while he was leading the newly freed Israelites through the wilderness desert.
You are a great teacher.
This issue concerning the age of Moses. Was he 80 at Exodus or Deuteronomy?
Many thanks in advance
Abraham
80 at the Exodus. Thanks for reading.
God bless you RIchoka.
I never considered it that way. All along I perceived that God called Moses at age 40, and immediately, he took the people out of Egypt.
Based on your answer, I just checked from the holy scriptures and found that he reached 40 when he returned from Midian Acts 7;23. So he spent another 40 years preparing the grounds for the Exodus journey that lasted 40 years, add on to his death at 120 makes a lot of sense.
God richly bless you again and again. Shalom