Divine Perspective

Four hundred years have passed since Joseph ruled in Egypt. Since we tend to forget our history we also forget the lessons we should have learned from it. The records gathered dust in some corner of a local museum and the last survivors of the age had long since turned to dust. Another Pharaoh came to power who didn’t know the story of Joseph. The whole picture changed.

Jacob’s descendants are now slaves in the land where they had once flourished. Their master has worked hard to keep them in submission, even to decreeing the death of all male children—something akin to cutting off your nose despite your face since it would be the males who would be required to continue to build the magnificent structure for which the Egyptians were famous.

By the grace of God, one Hebrew boy has escaped the fate of many of his brothers. Moses has spent forty years in the wilderness of Midian, guarding sheep. He has married and settled down. It’s a far cry from a palace in Egypt but a whole lot safer.

Exodus 2:23-25 tells us that the Israelites called out to God in their misery and He heard them and “was concerned.” And in the desert of Midian, God recruits a leader.

In the famous film, The Ten Commandments, the burning bush is not such a miracle. It’s portrayed as a creosote bush that heat would naturally set on fire—and burn up. When the real Moses saw his bush he noted that it did not burn up. That was what attracted him to it. Natural curiosity drove him to go closer. And as he came near God spoke. “‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground’” (Exodus 3:5, NIV). To say that Moses is astonished is an understatement.

But the cocky answer that a Prince of Egypt would have given to the summons of God is different from the answer a shepherd from Midian gave. When God explains the task, Moses says: “Who am I…?” (3:11, NIV).

It’s a good answer—as far as it goes. Who are we that God should give us responsibilities far beyond our ability? But the issue was not then, and is not now, who we are. The issue is who God is. And the rest of Moses’s story is a demonstration of the power and unstoppable purposes of God.

The lesson might be a simple one. The next time God sends you on a mission and you are tempted to excuse yourself with, “who am I?” take yourself off the throne and focus on who God is. The task takes on a whole different perspective from where He sits.