Moses

Choosing God – Part 2

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Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. Hebrews 11:25-26 KJV

Because of Moses’ faith, he chose to leave Egypt, trusting that the rewards of God were of greater value than the pleasures of Egypt. How could anyone have known that after Moses left Egypt it would be forty years before God met him at the burning bush? Yes God did choose Moses but Moses also left behind his friends, family, and all that was familiar as a choice by faith in a God he had never seen. There in the land of Midian, he married, worked as a shepherd and grew older. But in that lonely place where he may have even begun to forget his calling God never forgot. Decades passed until finally at just the right time in His calendar, God called him to return to Egypt and lead His people out of slavery and towards the land of promise!

mountain

Choosing God – Part 1

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It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter    Hebrews 11:24

In the midst of all the talk about predestination and sovereignty it is sometimes overlooked that not only does God choose us, but we must choose God.  As an example why not take a look at the life of Moses? Moses had at his fingertips access to nearly unlimited money, power and prestige. He could have gone anywhere and done anything he wished. But in Moses’ heart a battle was being waged and he was being tested as to whom he wanted to belong.

egypt tutankhamun death mask pharaonic

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Consider how at his birth Moses had been ordered abandoned to die by decree of Pharaoh. But God stepped in and chose Moses for a key role in God’s plans to deliver his people. It was through his family’s courage and faith that he was hidden and in the end, God’s plans, not  Pharaoh’s won the day!

Yet as an adult Moses came to a crossroads. The path he had followed as a child, in the luxury of the palace came face to face with the hardships and slavery of his own people. Moses knew that he was no Egyptian. Though God had chosen him, Moses also had to choose God, a choose the rejection that came with being known as one of God’s people.

Living faith is found at the intersection of God’s choice our ours. Who will you choose today?

 

Stretch out Your Hand

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Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Exodus 14:21-22

In our walk of grace we sometimes begin to think that since nothing happens without God’s approval and that everything comes to us by grace that we have no role whatsoever in God’s plan. Nothing in the Bible however gives us any indication that such thinking is accurate. All of the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews chapter eleven are inked to action! Abel offered a sacrifice, Noah built an ark, and Abraham left his native land. Moses was hidden by his parents and Rahab protected the spies. Not only these brave men and women but in fact all of us who belong to God’s family have a distinct, active and essential role to play. Notice the order of the verses we are reading in Exodus: Moses stretched out his hand, and then the Lord drove back the sea. The people of Israel passed through the sea then God closed the waters over their enemies. The staff Moses carried wasn’t some mystical gift from an angel or a golden scepter which he had taken from Egypt. Moses’ staff was simply the tool of his shepherding work. When the people of Moses’ time saw the staff Moses lifted up they didn’t think of it as something quaint or impressive in any way. The fact that God chose to honor his simple obedience had nothing to do with the staff and everything to do with the humility of surrender. What are the tools of your own daily life? Whether you carry a chain saw or a laptop to work, God can choose to use anything you surrender to his command. Stretch out your hand! God is waiting on our faith made visible by our obedience to His Word!