Are We So Much Better?
I always say to myself that God’s ways are not our ways. God has arranged everything before time; for example, Joseph saving the Israelites during the drought period, and Moses saving them in the time of trouble. Even though Moses and Aaron wanted to save them, the children of Israel were very ungrateful (Exodus 5:20-23).
To us, Egypt stands for a life of sin, the Red Sea for baptism, and the wilderness for the life of testing we live now. The promised land stands for the coming kingdom. The people of Israel were to worship their God outside of Egypt (out of sin) and similarly we cannot follow Christ if we are still living a life of sin. For the people of Israel, most events were trials of their faith. Taking the example of Moses who led them, his preparation for the gigantic task had been ordained of God. It had taken eighty long years, firstly as a prince of Egypt for forty years being trained in all the arts of leadership by the world’s top nation. Then another forty years as a shepherd in the wilderness learning the skills of living in an inhospitable land and of caring for a flock.
To me, this is an extraordinary contrast. The man who emerged from this schooling was the man whom God had specially prepared to lead Israel out of bondage and then to teach them what it meant to be a holy nation. Moses needed to be a man of skill, of great faith and of unusual humility. And most of these things were not Moses’ choice but God’s arrangements: similar to our situation where we do not need to choose, but we must comply with God’s requirements.
As for the people, whilst their response to the emergency of the Passover and the Exodus was a faith born of desperation, their human weaknesses soon came to the fore amid the difficulties of the wilderness of Sinai. Their faith in Moses as the divinely chosen leader wavered with the occasion, their faith in God was very weak or, indeed, completely lacking at times, in spite of the evidence of His presence in the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.
Israel, called to be a holy people, did not allow the divine influence to transform them into a devoted nation. While individual characters responded, the nation did not. They soon forgot the misery of their slavery and even longed to return to Egypt. Miracle after miracle failed to convince them that God was with them in a very practical way - water for their thirst, grazing for their flocks, manna for their nourishment, clothes that did not wear out, shoes that lasted a lifetime and many other benefits were all taken for granted without thankfulness. How easy it was to do this! How typically human they were! Are we so much better?
Bro. Moses Dhlakama (Rimbi, Zimbabwe)
