The same scene probably played over and over in Moses’ mind; the day he killed an Egyptian. He was only trying to deliver the Hebrew from the oppressive Egyptian overseer…
“Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” Exodus 2: 11-12
Instead of inciting the support of the Hebrews, it ended in him fleeing the wrath of his grandfather Pharaoh. He knew his grandfather and the other Egyptians would see it as rebellion; it meant his certain death should he remain, and he knew that he simply had to go. Fast forward forty years, and the Bible tells us that Moses was in the wilderness daily tending the flock of his father-in-law. When I think about this long block of time, I think of all the things that must have been going through Moses’ mind day after monotonous day. As he sat in whatever shade he could find, he most likely reflected on his time in Egypt. There are many demons in the wilderness. I’m sure He was listening to their unending taunts; wondering what life might’ve been like in the Egyptian palace. In Egypt, his future looked so bright. Here in the desert of Midian… he was a nobody.
Things seemed like a lost cause, and I’m sure he started to question everything he was so certain of before. Moses probably thought that his long duration in the desert was proof positive that there was nothing else in store for him. Maybe he thought he had a one-way ticket to Loserville, and he had arrived! Then just like any other ordinary day he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The Bible says the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. He was now ready, with God’s help, to start to accomplish what he was born to do.
When we’re in the desert waiting around for God, we can lose hope because we don’t see any evidence of God’s presence or movement in our lives. We feel like we’re pointlessly tending sheep. And while we might be able to see Him in the world or moving in the lives of others, we feel like His goodness and faithfulness are reserved for everyone else but us; almost like driving down the road somewhere and your car takes an exit and parks, and stays parked while you sit and watch the other cars buzz you by. It seems that like Moses, we’ve endured forty years of silence. Whoever you used to be doesn’t exist anymore. One thing’s for sure, our old life is gone and the road we were on before has ended. We’ve grown old and worn.
May I encourage you and myself? God will show up. God always shows up. He shows up most often unexpectedly; in ways and at times we can’t forsee. If you are like Moses right now–waiting–waiting–waiting on God–tending sheep- you must learn to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God for EVERYTHING!
How many of you are out there waiting for God to fulfill a promise He made to you? I’m one of those people; the waiting is more than difficult, and I wait in anticipation for the day when I’ll no longer be waiting. Can I get an amen? While my eyes are on the fulfillment of his promise, they are not always on Him. And I am therefore disengaged or not fully engaged with the rest of life. I’m constantly being reminded of where my focus needs to be… with God TODAY! More times than it should be, my attention is not given to the life right in front of me, and I sometimes act as if everything else in life doesn’t matter as much as the fulfillment of the promise. Today I am convicted of idolatry. There’s no sugar-coating this… the truth is that I am loving the gift more than the giver.