Then Israel came to Egypt. Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And the Lord made His people very fruitful and made them stronger than their foes. He turned their hearts to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants. He sent Moses, His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen. They performed His signs among them and miracles in the land of Ham. (Verses 23-27)
Eighty years before, a mother put her baby in a basket of reeds and sent it floating down the river right in front of a bathing princess. Hearing the baby cry, the princess lifted the lid to see a fine Hebrew child three months old staring through his teardrops at her. And she loved him. Named him Moses, her little bulrush baby. He grew up as a prince. Thought that bought him the right to murder an Egyptian who didn't agree with him. Then he ran away from royalty at the age of forty and herded sheep in Midian with his father-in-law. For forty more years. Dirty sandals, sweaty robes and the smell of sheep manure in his hair. Who'd expect the God of All to meet him among the baaing sheep at the bottom of Mount Sinai? On an ordinary day. When Moses was an old, forgotten man.
"I'm a nobody, God!" cried Moses when the Lord told him to go free Israel from Egypt. "I stutter and stammer. No way I can do what you want me to."
Stuck then with Aaron, Moses was on his way to set God's people free. Knee-deep in mud bricks and oppressed in their labor, the nation of Israel balked. But the man who thought he couldn't do what God told him to do, performed with a wooden stick miracles that brought Egypt to its knees.
It ought to encourage us. This story of Moses. And the one before, of Joseph. Would you have picked either of them to change history? Me, either. Why? One is a sheep farmer, an exile who'd murdered a man. The other a skinny kid found in a well and sold into slavery. In prison for rape. Hardly the choicest of men on the surface. Maybe we aren't always what we seem to others--or even to ourselves. Had God chosen the most handsome, most able, most intelligent, most righteous, most motivated of men, it wouldn't be so obvious our God made change happen. After all, Jesus came into the world deemed to be Mary's bastard child. A carpenter's kid. No one, really. I mean, how could anything good come out of Nazareth? God Himself chose to be a nobody. Allowed Himself to be stripped of His glory. And in our world, it's the movie stars, the rich and famous, senators and governors, presidents and mullahs we deem worthy. Betting God has a different viewpoint.
Joseph found his early identity in his gift of interpreting dreams. He knew it was special. Maybe it made him proud. I've heard that preached. But the gift wasn't what his life was all about. It was part of it. But it wasn't what God wanted to define him. He didn't go on to be a popular dream interpreter--a seer and magician making billions at the box office. Joseph was given his gift as part of what God wanted him to be. To get him to a greater destiny.
Moses was a prince. It gave him clout. That, too, was a gift. 'Cause he wasn't really royalty. Adopted and reared by a princess didn't give the bulrush baby Egyptian blood. Until midlife, it was his identity. Then he blew it (or did he?) and fled. To obscurity. It wasn't being a prince God wanted to use in his life. But it was part of what God used to ultimately move His people back to Canaan.
So, what am I thinking gives me my identity? I'm older now myself, so my answer has changed over the years. But I know I've made the mistake of thinking that my writing, my teaching, my mothering, my being a wife, a daughter, my work-out routine, my business...I've quite the list! Hmm...are what I am. Not a part of where my God might take me. How He might use me. And often in the stripping of the very things I expect my God to use to push my destiny forward, I find in the vacuum the presence of miraculous opportunity--my Father literally making something out of nothing.
If you've been stripped of your dream, left to walk in the mundane for a while, don't panic. It might not be your strengths your God is after, but your weakness after all. He dreams much larger dreams than we do. And the one gift you think is what your life is all about might just be part of a much larger portrait that when finished will be the masterpiece that is your life.
Eighty years before, a mother put her baby in a basket of reeds and sent it floating down the river right in front of a bathing princess. Hearing the baby cry, the princess lifted the lid to see a fine Hebrew child three months old staring through his teardrops at her. And she loved him. Named him Moses, her little bulrush baby. He grew up as a prince. Thought that bought him the right to murder an Egyptian who didn't agree with him. Then he ran away from royalty at the age of forty and herded sheep in Midian with his father-in-law. For forty more years. Dirty sandals, sweaty robes and the smell of sheep manure in his hair. Who'd expect the God of All to meet him among the baaing sheep at the bottom of Mount Sinai? On an ordinary day. When Moses was an old, forgotten man.
"I'm a nobody, God!" cried Moses when the Lord told him to go free Israel from Egypt. "I stutter and stammer. No way I can do what you want me to."
Stuck then with Aaron, Moses was on his way to set God's people free. Knee-deep in mud bricks and oppressed in their labor, the nation of Israel balked. But the man who thought he couldn't do what God told him to do, performed with a wooden stick miracles that brought Egypt to its knees.
It ought to encourage us. This story of Moses. And the one before, of Joseph. Would you have picked either of them to change history? Me, either. Why? One is a sheep farmer, an exile who'd murdered a man. The other a skinny kid found in a well and sold into slavery. In prison for rape. Hardly the choicest of men on the surface. Maybe we aren't always what we seem to others--or even to ourselves. Had God chosen the most handsome, most able, most intelligent, most righteous, most motivated of men, it wouldn't be so obvious our God made change happen. After all, Jesus came into the world deemed to be Mary's bastard child. A carpenter's kid. No one, really. I mean, how could anything good come out of Nazareth? God Himself chose to be a nobody. Allowed Himself to be stripped of His glory. And in our world, it's the movie stars, the rich and famous, senators and governors, presidents and mullahs we deem worthy. Betting God has a different viewpoint.
Joseph found his early identity in his gift of interpreting dreams. He knew it was special. Maybe it made him proud. I've heard that preached. But the gift wasn't what his life was all about. It was part of it. But it wasn't what God wanted to define him. He didn't go on to be a popular dream interpreter--a seer and magician making billions at the box office. Joseph was given his gift as part of what God wanted him to be. To get him to a greater destiny.
Moses was a prince. It gave him clout. That, too, was a gift. 'Cause he wasn't really royalty. Adopted and reared by a princess didn't give the bulrush baby Egyptian blood. Until midlife, it was his identity. Then he blew it (or did he?) and fled. To obscurity. It wasn't being a prince God wanted to use in his life. But it was part of what God used to ultimately move His people back to Canaan.
So, what am I thinking gives me my identity? I'm older now myself, so my answer has changed over the years. But I know I've made the mistake of thinking that my writing, my teaching, my mothering, my being a wife, a daughter, my work-out routine, my business...I've quite the list! Hmm...are what I am. Not a part of where my God might take me. How He might use me. And often in the stripping of the very things I expect my God to use to push my destiny forward, I find in the vacuum the presence of miraculous opportunity--my Father literally making something out of nothing.
If you've been stripped of your dream, left to walk in the mundane for a while, don't panic. It might not be your strengths your God is after, but your weakness after all. He dreams much larger dreams than we do. And the one gift you think is what your life is all about might just be part of a much larger portrait that when finished will be the masterpiece that is your life.
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