God Knows!

Two men of different ethnic backgrounds became angry with one another, and soon a fight ensued. The one man got the advantage and began beating the other so that it appeared he would actually beat him to death! All of a sudden, as if out of nowhere, another man shows up, takes over for the one being beaten and through the elements of both surprise and actual physical supremacy not to mention his own adrenaline being at a fever-pitch, he actually went so far as to kill the man! After his emotions settled somewhat, he realized what he  had done, and fear took over, and then finding a clear spot of ground, he buried the man. After some time had passed, this same man noticed two of his own people in an argument, and seeing the tensions between them beginning to escalate, he decided to go and try to arbitrate terms of peace between them. Imagine his shock when they both turned on him, in anger taunting him with the question, what business is this of yours? What, do you think you can just waltz in and kill me like you killed the other man? Once again, fear overtook him, and he ran away, looking for a place to hide, not knowing how far and wide the fact that he was now a murderer had gotten out!

Obviously, those who know their Bibles recognize this as an account of the early life of Moses from Exodus chapter 2. Here is a man who was miraculously delivered during a time of great unrest, when his own people the Hebrews as so often, were under attack, and an order had been given to throw all male Hebrew babies into the Nile! Yet God had seen to it that he was delivered, yet now it appeared that all was lost. Yet, as God sees things, all was not lost! The life of Moses, which spanned 120 years, can easily be divided into 3 sets of 40: from birth to 40, then 40-80 and finally 80-120. Moses was about 40 years of age at the time he became a murderer, though his heart was definitely with his people, and he obviously felt a call from God to help his people, and yet attempting it his way did not work, to say the least! Again, the way we look at things, Moses probably thought something like, I’m 40 years old and I have absolutely nothing to show for my 40 years in service to God! Yet, when Moses fled the scene after realizing his crime was known, he then spent another 40 years in seclusion! The way our world views things, they would surely label Moses an abject failure at this point, an 80-year-old murderer on the backside of nowhere tending sheep! What hope was there for Moses? Would he be able to salvage any time now to serve God, to make his life count from the viewpoint of eternity? He surely didn’t know the answer to these questions, but God did! God knew how old Moses was and what he had done. God still had grand plans for Moses and through him an entire nation that would be used to literally shape the world and impact eternity! In closing, we note that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews in his great hall of faith in chapter 11 wrote how Moses forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king! This of course was much later in his life, but at the close of the first 40-year portion of his life, he did fear the wrath of a king! Yet again, God knew what He was going to do in Moses’ life, just as He knows what He will do in our lives!

If this has whet your appetite to do some further study in the life of this man Moses, the BBN Bible Institute, www.BBNBI.org, has a great free Bible course on the life of Moses, course 40200. Give it a try. Once you begin studying from God’s Word, you’ll find that the real story is far better than anything the mind of man can dream up! When you do, tell a friend!