March 23, 2010
Apprenticeship
I recently visited with a lady who wants to be a professional speaker, but she’s just so busy that she doesn’t have time to write a speech. Actually she admitted that she doesn’t care to write speeches at all and she’d like to find someone to do the writing for her. I think I see a similar thought process with Moses. Inexperienced, young (relatively speaking), and untrained in leadership, Moses avenged a fellow Israelite by killing an Egyptian and he “…thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.” (Acts 7:25 NIV) Rather than receiving the title of ‘rescuer’, he fled to Midian and lived in that dry and desolate place for 40 years. I think Moses had to do an apprenticeship in the wilderness before God was ready to appoint him as the one to deliver Israel.
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Gail;
-----We acknowledge that God is in control of history. We even call it his-story. Then we look at ourselves as being in his way and failing Him. And we are when obstinacy, fear, and selfish ambitions motivate our actions. But then, that would not make it his story, would it? Do we actually think our own effects are big enough to defeat God’s purposes? How can both be true, God being in control and people being in His way?
-----The answer is pretty obvious. God works His purposes even in our failures. This is what makes Him big enough to be perfect. We don’t see how our bumbling advances history towards His goals because our sight is limited to our own proximity in time, space, and spirituality. His sight and abilities are not limited to any proximity. His ability to orchestrate all of the effects of human activity is sure. And He even mixes in His own effects through spiritual activity. After killing an Egyptian, I don’t believe Moses was ready to lead God’s people out of Israel. But after forty years of scratching out an existence in a difficult environment had case hardened his soul, after meeting God in an unmistakable way and actually discussing the situation with Him, he was ready.
-----It may have looked to Moses that he had failed God forty years earlier. It may look to us that he had. But my wife calls us to the dinner table before she actually sits down and expects us there. My clients call me for an appointment before they actually arrive at my office. God called Moses into the desert before He actually expected him to confront Pharaoh.
-----I can point out many things in my life that I did not do until later than I am sure I should have done them. I can see other things I completely have left undone and numerous things I should never have done. It is challenging for me to not see them as interfering with God‘s purposes. I can see the damage they have done to others and to myself. They are all obviously failures and they have all caused damage. To be realistic, yet not dismissive, God uses even the damage to advance upon His goals. And as for myself, my recognizing these failures is my calling Him for an appointment and God’s calling me to the dinner table.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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