April 3
“By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king—for he endured, as seeing Him Who is invisible.”
Hebrews 11:27
Even though we can’t see what lies ahead, we know the One Who leads us knows the way and will guide us in the right Path.
Groomed for greatness.
That’s how Pharaoh’s daughter probably looked at Moses, whom she’d rescued from certain death that day as he floated in a tiny ark amidst the bulrushes around the Nile River (Ex. 2:1-10). She knew her father had commanded all of the newborn male babies to be killed (1:22); however, “she had compassion on him” (2:6) and decided to adopt him as her own.
So, once he was weaned, he came to live with her in Pharaoh’s palace. No doubt he attended the finest schools. . .wore the finest clothes money could buy. . .had servants attending to his every need. . .and one day would likely reign alongside his adopted mother in regal splendor.
But, such was not to be.
Moses knew he wasn’t Egyptian (2:11). Even though he looked like an Egyptian, talked like an Egyptian and dressed like an Egyptian, he still wasn’t an Egyptian.
He was a Hebrew. A “son of Abraham.” And, it tore his heart out to see his kinsmen being mistreated and oppressed when God had chosen them to be His People, not someone else’s slave.
Sure, he could have taken the path of least resistance that day when he saw the Egyptian taskmaster beating the Hebrew slave. It would have been the politically-correct thing to do. And, it certainly would have been the safest thing to do.
But, in his heart-of-hearts, Moses knew inhumane treatment and injustice when he saw it.
So, he acted—perhaps impulsively and ill-advisedly by the world’s standards.
But, that was okay, for it was the “right” thing to do.
And, soon he “forsook Egypt”. . .heading for the wilds of the Midian wilderness. . .where he’d tend sheep for 40 years. . .not realizing that God still had a plan for his life. He simply knew the “invisible God of Abraham” was a holy, just and righteous God. And, that same God had called him to be just like Him—even as He still does today.
No doubt there were times during those 40 years of tending Jethro’s stupid, stinking, straying sheep that he pondered “what might have been” if he’d not taken matters into his own hands. He remembered the soft, satin sheets, the bowls of grapes, the finest clothes, etc., and, like Abraham, if he’d spent a lot of time dwelling on those things, he’d grown “weary in well-doing and faint in his mind” (Heb. 11:15; Gal. 6:9).
But He didn’t. Instead, he reflected on Israel’s salvation-story as told to him by his mother. And, he persevered in his menial task, somehow believing God still had a work for him to do. Do not lose hope, Pilgrim, by distractions and “detours;” the Lord knows—and will use them for His Glory and your good if you love Him and are seeking His will (Rom. 8:28).
