I was never much on hero worship, but if I had to pick one person who I really admired as much, and if not more than anybody else, it would be Moses. Some of the following is based on Hal Lindsey's book "Faith For Earth's Final Hour."
Moses was probably one of the most educated men in history. He received an extraordinary training. He was educated in all the wisdom of the greatest empire of the era - Egypt. As Hal Lindsey states "This meant that he was trained in the leading educational center of the world at that time. He learned engineering, advanced mathematics, physics, astronomy, military science, history, several languages and more... He also engineered the building of one of Pharaoh's great cities, and was also a great orator. He made eloquent and powerful speeches to the court and the populace. He became revered as a god by the Egyptians."
Yet, with all that knowledge, and the fact he commanded the Egyptian army in a campaign against the Ethiopians - that was such an overwhelming success, the Ethiopians did not threaten Egypt again for generations (Source - The Antiquities by Josephus) - he turned it all in to live as a nomad in the desert.
Why? Why did he abandon the best life that could be lived, as a Prince of Egypt, and stick up for his Jewish brothers, who were slaves at that time - and spend the next 40 years in the desert? The answer is: God wanted him as His champion. But before Moses could be a great leader of God's people, he had to be purged of all pride, arrogance, and idol worship (if any, in his case). The Holy Spirit was working inside Moses, and Moses made the decision when he was at the top of human greatness, and not as a down-and-outer, to follow God's call. As Mr. Lindsey states "Moses presented his body to God as a living sacrifice when he elected to follow what he knew of God's will and identify himself with the Hebrews."
Moses knew he could not keep his earthly possessions (and I bet he had a lot of them), but could not lose what he gained in heaven. So he gave up what he could not keep - to gain what he could not lose.
Hal Lindsey goes on to say: "It is also important to note that a man at 40 years of age is usually most vulnerable to the attacks of Satan. It is time when the male ego most needs reassurance. A time when security of career is most needed, when a man knows how to enjoy pleasures and is most attracted to them. I'm sure Satan tempted Moses to view this situation from the human viewpoint. Moses probably said to himself, 'Why should I leave all this and join with my people as a slave. After all, when I become Pharaoh, I can help them more with my position of power and authority.'
But from God's divine viewpoint, He had a plan that would only work if Moses left Egypt and the throne in order to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt to the Promised Land. God's plan rarely makes sense if we try to analyze it from the human viewpoint because we only have limited perspective. God's spirit was working upon Moses to show him His perfect will. Moses didn't know the whole plan yet, but he knew about God to trust Him with the things he did not know. So after carefully weighing the situation, Moses came to the conviction that suffering hardship in following God's plan was a much wiser investment than enjoying the pleasures of sin. The reason was: the enjoyment of sin was immediate, but temporary and fleeting; the enjoyment of God's reward was delayed, but eternal."
When Moses killed the Egyptian for beating a Hebrew slave, and ran off into the desert, he was operating in the flesh. Think of what Moses was like when he went into that desert - an exceedingly well educated man, a warrior, a killer, a leader, and a prince in the most powerful country in the world.
And after 40 years of God's bootcamp, look what came out - a shepherd, meek and full of humility. That along with his stuttering made him anything but a traditional leader. But without knowing it, he was one of the best leaders of all time. All the pride, arrogance and fight was removed. Moses was right where God wanted him - a man led by faith, and not by flesh. A man ready to lead God's people into the Promised Land.
Moses then led about 3,000,000 people through the desert for another 40 years. Forty difficult, challenging and turbulent years.
Someday, I'm going to meet this guy Moses and shake his hand, and say "Man, you did one heck of a job."
By George Konig
July 31, 2005
www.georgekonig.org
See a list of all of our commentaries