Article 2016-02 - Failed Liberator becomes Successful Missionary
Chapter 17: Failed Liberator becomes Successful Missionary
Introduction
We now skip a few centuries and turn to the next man of God, Moses. God started preparations for the liberation of His people in time, not late. He then called the right person and trained him to perfection. The ‘best man for the job’ is turned down – temporarily. Moses’ life shows that a ‘desert-period’ is a necessary training school for a missionary. So, the disqualified, failed liberator became God’s perfect choice for the job. Moses learned that it is not what we can do for God, but what He can do through us. Of Moses was demanded that he practiced what he preached. God allows no space for dualism. Before missionaries start their ministries they should consult with the local leaders of God’s people first.
Scripture reference
One day … Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people … he killed the Egyptian … The next day he … saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked … ‘Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?’ The man said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid … fled … and went to live in Midian (Ex. 2:11-14)
The story
Centuries passed and things changed in Egypt. The Pharaoh under whom Joseph served died, as did Jacob and his sons and Egypt was ruled by another dynasty. Israel grew from a clan into twelve large tribes and the Egyptians perceived the population expansion as a threat. Restrictive measures hurled Israel into slavery. They were persecuted harshly. A murderous form of birth-control was initiated: girls were allowed to live, but boys had to be thrown into the Nile. The population should be brought down this way, but the opposite happened: the people grew against persecution. They groaned and cried out to God Whom they didn’t really know anymore. Their long exposure to Egypt’s gods had made them into a bunch of mixed-faith believers. But God had not lost track of them as they had lost track of Him, and their cries reached Him. It was time for their liberation, also because the prophesied four hundred years of slavery would soon come to an end.
One day a family rejoiced in the birth of a baby-brother. They also feared for his life. The boy was to be thrown into the Nile, but neither of his parents could do it and his mother Jochebed made a plan. She constructed a water-proof basket in which she put her little boy, took her daughter with her, and placed the basket with the boy inside between the reeds along the riverside. Jochebed told her daughter Miriam to stay near to see what would happen, because sometimes Pharaoh’s daughter bathed there. Miriam did so and after a while the Princess arrived. She heard the boy cry and fell in love with him. At that moment Miriam appeared and offered to take the boy to her mother to feed him. The Princess accepted, and let her take the boy under the condition that, once he was weaned, he would be taken to the palace for her to raise.
And so Moses, as she named him, was saved. He stayed in his parents’ house a few more years. Then Amram, his father, took him to the palace. They had told him about their people and how the Egyptians oppressed them. Moses was just old enough to understand a little bit. In the palace with his Egyptian auntie he got used to his new environment. He received an excellent education, lived in luxury, traveled through the land, Goshen included, and sometimes met his people. He became indignant about how they were treated and determined to do something about it.
Scripture reference
And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? (Ex. 3:9-11)
The story, continued
One day, when he had reached the age of forty, he determined that enough was enough, when he saw an Egyptian fight a Hebrew. He interfered and killed the Egyptian, thinking that the Hebrews would accept him as their liberator. The next day when he was there again, he saw two Hebrews fighting, whom he tried to separate. The offending party got angry and asked Moses who had appointed him as judge, since he had already killed an Egyptian yesterday. Hearing that, Moses feared for his life and fled to Midian, where he humbled himself to become a shepherd. He married one of the daughters of his employer Jethro, Zipporah. Two boys were born to them. Day after day, week after week, months turned into years and unnoticed the proud prince changed. He went through several stages in his life, of which he didn’t know that they prepared him for what he had wanted to do in the first place. What happened to him during these forty desert years?
At first there was the anger. He had failed. After he had told his stories and expressed his frustrations silence came. He understood his powerlessness and became a quiet man. Tending sheep didn’t help either to become talkative. Gradually his anger and frustrations faded to the background. He became meek, like a man who understood that he had failed his life’s vocation – and couldn’t do anything about it. He let it go. If God wanted to liberate that people, He would have to call somebody else, he thought. He lost his vision for the liberation of his people. What he had been enthusiastic about long ago, played no more role. He grew older and although he never forgot Israel, his worries became less frequent and intense. He stopped wondering why God had saved his life so miraculously.
Once, when Moses was underway with his sheep, he saw a bush ablaze, which was not consumed by the fire. Before he found out what happened, a voice called him by name. Moses realized that this was God speaking. ‘I have seen the distress of My people in Egypt … let Me now send you to Pharaoh, to tell him to let My people go…’ Moses had plenty reasons not to go. He said ‘But God, who am I …?’ God met all his objections and said in fact ‘Moses, it doesn’t matter who you are, this is all about who I AM!’ Then Moses received his instructions and a team mate to help him, his brother Aaron. He even received authority to perform miracles – signs that frightened even him the first time.
Scripture reference
[God said] ‘Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant’ (Gen. 17:14)
… the Lord met [Moses] and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched [Moses’] feet with it … So the Lord let him alone (Ex. 4:24-26)
The story, continued
He collected his family and left for Egypt. They had hardly started when the first scary incident occurred. God tried to kill Moses. Why would He do that? Preparing his servant for eighty years to become Israel’s liberator, and then kill him? What was the logic? Zipporah didn’t ask that question. She quickly circumcised their uncircumcised son. When she touched Moses’ feet with the foreskin he recovered. Moses had failed to live by an institution, given to Abram. God had been adamant, that whoever would not be circumcised would not be included in His covenant and be cut off from His people. That could not be tolerated in the leader’s family, who had to be an example for the people. It would not work if he did not set such an example in his own family first.
Later Moses met Aaron and they went to Egypt. Aaron had also heard God’s calling for this mission. They talked about how to approach Pharaoh and how they would deliver their message to him. Moses showed his brother the miracles God had taught him and Aaron was also scared of the staff-turned-snake, and back. First they went to the leaders of their people. They told how God had called them and proved it by showing them His miracles. This time the leaders as well as the people believed. What had started as man’s work and failed forty years earlier in spite of human strength, now re-started as God’s work, despite human weakness – and that could not fail. And so two Hebrew missionaries entered Pharaoh’s courts, in God’s name.
Scripture reference
[God said to Abram] ‘In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure’ (Gen. 15:16)
When the Lord … brings you into the land … and drives out before you many nations – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you … you must destroy them totally (Deut. 7:1,2)
Comment
There is always a ‘fullness of time’, a certain period of history that has to run its course, before God undertakes special moments of liberation for His people. Jesus was born in the fullness of time to become the Savior of the world. Similarly, Moses lived on such a junction in time. God’s fullness had now arrived for two main events: the judgment over the Amorites and the liberation of Israel. Israel’s liberation needed to take place first, so that in time the new nation could become God’s instrument of judgment over the Amorites. Israel was to extinguish seven Amorite nations in Canaan. In the last days we will see that too: there will be a close connection between the final liberation of God’s people at Christ’s return and His judgment over Godless nations.
In all cases much suffering of God’s people precedes the liberation. Israel suffered in Egypt before Moses led them out. The nation suffered much in the centuries before Christ was born when it was subjugated to the Romans. Similarly, the Church will suffer much in the period before Christ’s return. Suffering will increase when the end times progress.
Presently, the Church prepares for the return of Christ, which will take place when the gospel has been preached to the ends of the earth. Each mission to areas where it is not yet available is an act of preparation for Christ’s coming. These are acts of war. God’s people have always faced formidable enemies that tried to stop them to achieve their high vocation. Pharaoh resisted the Israelites; communists and Muslims resist the Church. There have been thousands of examples throughout history.
God starts in time to call and train the key-players for His liberation. Moses was the one for Israel. He is a fore-shadowing of Christ. He prophesied about ‘a Prophet like me’ that was to come, and Jesus applied that prophecy to Himself. Taking a closer look at Moses, we see many similarities between him and our Lord.
Scripture reference
The Lord your God will raise up a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him … I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him (Deut. 18:15,18)
Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth (Numb. 12:3)
Comment, continued
Israel lived in slavery in Egypt. This is a picture of the world, under cruel taskmasters; like the devil and his demons are, always ready to steal, kill and destroy. Then a savior for Israel was born in the midst of the people, like Jesus would later be born to save the lost. An attempt on Moses’ life was made, as happened to Jesus, when Herod killed the little boys of Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt with Jesus, just like Moses fled to Midian. Moses spent forty years in the desert, preparing for ministry; Jesus was in the desert for forty days, before He started His.
Moses was trained to perfection. Behind a group of stinking, bleating sheep, trundling through a blazing hot desert for forty years, he learned the patience he needed to lead a nation of two million people. They always complained. Moses, the once violent killer had become the meekest man on earth. When Israel thought it was lost in the desert, Moses led it out. He knew the way because he had been there for a long time. Once he was convinced that he was suitable to liberate Israel, but God disagreed. As soon as he despaired about his qualities God could use him. He still trains His missionaries according to these principles. The miraculous proofs of God’s calling on his life could never have been given to Moses when he was still convinced of his own power. When he faced Pharaoh he knew he merely handled God’s authority and His power.
Moses, back in Egypt, did not make his old mistake of acting independently, again. Now he first went to Israel’s leaders, shared God’s word with them and showed them the miracles God gave him to accompany his ministry. If we translate that principle into our time, we may say that it is wise for a missionary, to see whether a church already exists before we start ministering in a new area. Respecting local leadership is a non-negotiable. Moses went to Pharaoh only, after he had the consent of the leaders to do so.
Discussion & dialogue
- Together list God’s principles of missionary training, as seen in Moses’ life. Does God always train His people the same way? Why and why not
- Which seven of the ten themes reoccur in this chapter? Describe how they feature. (Answer is in the Teacher’s Guide)
