Concluding Review

by T.M. Hyland, Birkenhead | Category: Moses A Man Of God | Dec 1975

How do we measure true greatness? Secular history has passed its verdict on men and women in many spheres of human endeavour. The famous and the infamous have been scrutinized and appraised. In modern times there has been a vogue to rewrite history, to overturn earlier assessments and to debunk many of those who were acclaimed and idolized in former ages.

Truth to tell, human judgement is no criterion in such matters. In their assessments of men and events, historians, ancient and modern, are seldom impartial. True greatness is not assessed at the bar of history. God alone is the Judge. And it is one of the marks of the truly great that they do not court publicity nor pander to human opinion. Thus Paul, the apostle, fully aware of the whisperings of his critics, wrote:

"But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of

you, or of man's judgement: ... He that judgeth me is the Lord"

(1 Cor. 4:3,4).

Scripture biographies are in a class apart; character is disclosed without distortion, failures and triumphs are recorded without partiality. Men are measured, not by the fame they have brought to themselves but by the place they have filled in the unfolding purpose of God. In every age God has employed human instrumentality to further His great designs.

In his address in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia Paul summed up the lifework of one of God's great men in one concise phrase:

"David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell on sleep" (Acts 13:36).

David "served the counsel of God": so did Moses, so did Paul, and many another in his own generation. In the great day of disclosure the record will bring to light the full story,

"And each true-hearted servant

Shall shine as doth the day."

In this series of articles during the past year we have reviewed the Scripture record of a great man of God, and have reflected on some of the lessons to be learned from it. The name of Moses, "the servant of the LORD", occupies a unique place in the unfolding story of redemption. For nearly four hundred years God had waited for the seed of Abraham to develop into a disciplined, virile people. The miracle of their preservation under divine providence, from the call of Abraham to their enslavement in Egypt, is graphically described in Psalm 105. When the time came for God to move forward to the next stage of his saving purpose a leader was needed, and Moses was at hand prepared and ready for the task. Then, "He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron whom He had chosen" and "He brought them forth.

And there was not one feeble person among His tribes . And He brought forth His people with joy, And His chosen with singing" (Psa. 105:26,37,43).

Contributors in the past months have highlighted the various stages in the preparation and training of God's servant. In this closing article, we underline some of the salient points.

The narrative of the family history of Moses begins, "There went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi" (Exod. 2:1); a commonplace statement, maybe, but by no means a commonplace event. A godly marriage holds great spiritual potential. This was not a propitious time to rear a family. Amram and Jochebed's third child was born under the sentence of death. Mothers were casting out their babes at the command of a ruthless tyrant. No other course seemed possible. But Moses' parents were sustained by a faith which does not adjust to circumstances. God honoured that faith and brought back to them their "goodly child" from the very jaws of death. In their godly Hebrew home Amram and Jochebed were entrusted with the early training of God's

chosen leader. The time was short; the task was urgent. The result was decisive. When Moses left the slave dwelling for the palace splendour the groundwork of his character had been well and truly laid. That early training would bear abundant fruit.

The mother of Charles and John Wesley was asked, "How soon do you begin to train your children?" She replied, "I begin six months before they are born". By self-discipline and self-sacrifice she enriched her offspring and served her generation.

The life of Moses was an ordered life. It is presented in Scripture in three forty-year periods. Each of these periods has been reviewed in this series of articles. The first was complete when Moses "went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens" (Exod. 2:11). That was a day of destiny in the overall plan of his training. The smiting of the Egyptian was no mere impetuous flash of temper. In his heart he had already renounced Egypt and cast in his lot with his persecuted brethren. Calmly and deliberately he had weighed in the balances the treasures of Egypt and the "reproach of Christ". As the son of Pharaoh's daughter an illustrious future, by worldly standards, beckoned him. His character, his gifts and his training fitted him for high office among the statesmen of his age. But to Moses came the vision of the true riches; riches of a sort which would endure when Egypt's tinsel glory had faded into oblivion. Egypt's treasures had been produced by the lash of the taskmaster, by merciless oppression. In contrast the true wealth, the pursuit of which would now captivate his heart and dominate his life, could be acquired only by renunciation, rejection and reproach. Moses saw from afar the vision of the Christ who by these means would endow men with His "unsearchable riches". Then he made his memorable choice, a choice which would have its sequel centuries later when on the Mount of Transfiguration he would be given the high honour of conversing with the rejected Christ.

In every age the challenge of these two ways of life has been presented to men of God in the making. Some, like Moses, have taken the one path, others, like Demas, have taken the other. Momentous decision ! Today, as ever, aspiring men of God must choose. There is no middle path. The Master Himself put the issues clearly to His followers:

"Whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall

lose his life for My sake shall find it" (Matt. 16:25).

Moses fled from the palace with the pain of rejection in his heart. His resolve to identify himself with his persecuted brethren had been angrily rebuffed. To smite an Egyptian was one thing, it was quite another to

reconcile two contentious brethren. They resented his interference in their private quarrel. He thought they would understand his concern and he expected them to respond to his counsel. Had they not trouble enough without the scourge of personal antagonism? That day Moses learned the early lesson that those he was called to serve had all the latent perversity of sinful human nature. which even the iron furnace of Egypt could not eradicate. If Moses was to lead this people he would require far more than mere human sagacity. And he was not yet ready for such a formidable task. The palace education was valuable and necessary but it was not enough. To complete his training the forty years in the Egyptian court must be followed by a forty-year sojourn in the wilderness. This was the environment in which his service to God's people would be discharged. The solitude and austerity of the wilderness would provide conditions in which the necessary spiritual qualities could be assimilated into his character. Thus it was arranged in the divine plan.

The experience of Moses gives the answer to many questions which arise in the development of men of God. There is no need for us to question, Why this? or, Why that? God knows the end from the beginning. Reverses and seeming setbacks can only be judged by the results they produce. God prepares and disposes of His servants according to His own will. He has His men in hiding and brings them to their tasks in His own time.

In February last we commented on the sudden call to service which came to Moses at the burning bush. That encounter with God was not only the signal for Moses to begin his life-work. It was also a decisive step forward in the revelation of the Divine Being. The disclosure of the Divine Name and the infinite grace of the eternal I AM in encouraging His reluctant servant are among the things written aforetime "for our learning". One of the lessons to be learned from that incident is that God never calls to a task without supplying the necessary grace to perform it.

The record of Israel's journey from Egypt to Canaan is an epic in Bible history. The narrative is a source-book of instruction in the ways of God. Israel's redemption by blood and by power, the Red Sea crossing, the historic covenant at Sinai, manna from heaven, water from the smitten rock, and the construction of a dwelling-place for God in the wilderness are landmarks in the dealings of God with men.

But if the narrative is replete with instruction in the ways of God it also exposes the inborn depravity of the human heart. The base ingratitude of this favoured people, their persistent murmuring and their unbelief culminating in the disastrous rebellion at Kadesh-barnea, make depressing reading. The trek across the desert with this great multitude would have been trying enough even if the people had been loyal and co-operative. They were not. Sorrowfully, in one brief sentence, Moses summed up his forty years' travail with them:

"Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I

knew you" (Deut. 9:24).

And the divine verdict on this epoch in Israel's history is no less severe:

"Forty years long was I grieved with that generation,

And said, It is a people that do err in their heart,

And they have not known My ways:

Wherefore I sware in My wrath,

That they should not enter into My rest" (Psa. 95:10-11).

Earlier in this article we enquired, How do we measure true greatness? Here is one feature of Moses' life and work which bears the hall-mark of the man of God. In spite of the heartbreak this people brought him he harboured no resentment, he indulged in no self-pity. He endured their ruthless hostility and their pitiless abuse; "They be almost ready to stone me" (Exod. 17:4), he lamented on one occasion. He refused to cower to their threats, yet he pleaded their cause and stood in the breach when the anger of the Lord waxed hot against them. Sadly, as the Lord instructed him, he led them back from Kadesh-barnea. The generation he had brought from Egypt would die in the wilderness but Moses was prepared to serve them until their children were ready to possess the promised land. What a man! What a leader! Such selfless devotion to his allotted task finds an echo in the words of a great New Covenant leader, the apostle Paul. The Corinthian church was his "work in the Lord" (1 Cor. 9:1). He was not well treated by them. Yet, although longing for their responding love, he bore no grudge, "I seek not yours, but you", he wrote, "I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls" (2 Cor. 12:14,15). There is real greatness, the insignia of the true servant of Christ.

We now refer briefly to another important aspect of Moses' service to God and to mankind. He was not only the distinguished desert leader, he was also chosen by the Spirit of God to record the early history of man, the biographies of the patriarchs and the formation of the nation of Israel. His work in this field was monumental. The first five books of Scripture are the corner stone of divine revelation. Their authorship, often disputed by critics, is settled once for all by the testimony of our incarnate Lord. He described the Pentateuch as "the book of Moses" (Mark 12:26), and quoted from each of its five parts, thus setting His seal upon their divine authority. Borne along by the Holy Spirit the first of the great prophets of the Old Covenant bequeathed to us many precious foreshadowings of the Coming One; "the sufferings of the Christ, and the glories that should follow them" receiving ample treatment in type and parable, as well as in direct prophecy. Man of vision! Looking down the ages he penned the assuring oracle:

"A Prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me; to Him shall ye hearken in all things whatsoever He shall speak unto you" (Acts 3:22).

In our October issue our contributor gave us a graphic account of closing days of this eminent man of God. With eye undimmed, natural force unabated, the great prophet of the desert ascended Mount Pisgah to view the land "flowing with milk and honey". By divine chastisement and for dispensational reasons he would not be allowed to enter it. There it was, stretched out before him, from the Jordan valley to the verdant uplands of Galilee. He drank in the picture. It was just as God had promised. The aged pilgrim envisaged the people he loved and served settled in their tribal inheritances in Immanuel's land. Touching moment! Then with measured step he d6scended to the plain of Moab and his God wrote 'finis' to the earthly sojourn of His devoted servant. His mortal frame was committed to the desert sands. His tomb was secret, no pillar marked the spot. But his never-to-be-forgotten exploits are indelibly inscribed in the eternal record.

T.M. Hyland, Birkenhead | Dec 1975
Moses A Man Of God