Moses, Powerful Through Faith

Moses was younger than Joseph or Daniel when he was removed from the sheltering care of his childhood home, yet the same agencies that shaped their lives molded his. He spent only twelve years with his Hebrew kindred, but during these years the foundation of his greatness was laid.TEd 41.2

Jochebed was a slave. Her lot in life was humble, her burden heavy. But through no other woman, except Mary of Nazareth, has the world received greater blessing. Knowing that her child must soon pass beyond her care to the guardianship of those who did not know God, she earnestly endeavored to implant in his heart love and loyalty to God. The work was faithfully accomplished. Nothing could induce Moses to renounce those principles of truth that were the burden of his mother’s teaching and the lesson of her life.TEd 41.3

From the humble home in Goshen the son of Jochebed passed to the palace of the Pharaohs, to be welcomed by the Egyptian princess. In the schools of Egypt, Moses received the highest civil and military training. Of great personal attractions, noble in form and stature, of cultivated mind and princely bearing, and renowned as a military leader, he became the nation’s pride. Moses, though refusing to participate in the heathen worship, was initiated into all the mysteries of the Egyptian religion. As Egypt’s prospective sovereign he was heir to the highest honors this world could bestow. But for the honor of God and the deliverance of His downtrodden people, Moses sacrificed the honors of Egypt. Then, in a special sense, God undertook his training.TEd 41.4

Not yet was Moses prepared for his lifework. He had yet to learn the lesson of dependence upon divine power. He had mistaken God’s purpose. It was his hope to deliver Israel by force of arms. For this he risked all, and failed. In defeat and disappointment he became a fugitive and exile in a strange land.TEd 41.5

In the wilds of Midian Moses spent forty years as a keeper of sheep. Apparently cut off forever from his life’s mission, he was receiving the discipline essential for its fulfillment. Wisdom to govern an ignorant and undisciplined multitude must be gained through self-mastery. In the care of the sheep and tender lambs he must obtain the experience that would make him a faithful, long-suffering shepherd to Israel. That he might become a representative of God, he must learn of Him.TEd 41.6

The influences that had surrounded him in Egypt, the luxury and vice that allured in ten thousand forms, the refinement, the subtlety, and the mysticism of a false religion, had made an impression on his mind and character. In the stern simplicity of the wilderness all this disappeared.TEd 42.1

Amidst the solemn majesty of the mountain solitudes Moses was alone with God. Moses seemed to stand in His presence and to be overshadowed by His power. Here his self-sufficiency was swept away. In the presence of the Infinite One he realized how weak, how inefficient, how short-sighted, are mortals.TEd 42.2

Here Moses gained a sense of the personal presence of the Divine One. Not merely did he look down the ages for Christ to be made manifest in the flesh, he saw Christ accompanying the host of Israel in all their travels. When misunderstood and misrepresented, he was able to endure “as seeing Him who is invisible.” Hebrews 11:27.TEd 42.3

Moses did not merely think of God, he saw Him. God was the constant vision before him. Never did he lose sight of His face.TEd 42.4

To Moses faith was no guesswork, it was a reality. He believed that God ruled his life in particular, and in all its details he acknowledged Him. He felt his need of help, asked for it, by faith grasped it, and in the assurance of sustaining strength went forward.TEd 42.5

Such was the experience that Moses gained by his forty years of training in the desert. To impart such an experience, Infinite Wisdom did not count the period too long or the price too great.TEd 42.6

The results of that training, of the lessons there taught, are bound up not only with the history of Israel but with all which from that day to this has told for the world’s progress. The highest testimony to the greatness of Moses is, “Since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” Deuteronomy 34:10.TEd 42.7