Prophets and their Reluctance: and How the effect of Moses’ past Might’ve made him Afraid   

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Heb 10:38 

The Travail of the Ideal

My thoughts have been dwelling on the prophets of the Bible who were reluctant to be used. I believe with the exception of Isaiah who readily jumped at the offer, others like Moses and Jeremiah protested. Only Jonah’s reaction was extreme. He tried, unsuccessfully, ‘to flee from the presence of the LORD’.

And my first thoughts dwelled on Moses. The seed of idealism seems to have been planted in him from childhood. After all ‘he was a goodly child’, and that means that he was not only a peculiar child, but that there was a ‘wealth’ about him, a precocity and a life that seemed ready to explode inside him.

Normally there is always a whiff of resentment which occurs in the mind when we (as children) first come into contact with a sense of injustice, but to a precocious child it can take the effect of an upheaval or a cataclysm. And Moses was such a ‘goodly’ child.

And with the Coming of Age the Resentment of such Children only Grows

He grew up in a king’s palace but from very early on he was aware that he wasn’t really one of that place. The Pharaoh’s daughter wasn’t his real mother, and her people were not really his people. His own people did not live in a palace like he did. They lived outside, as slaves, and where they performed bone breaking labour. He was young, but that matter distressed Moses.

But a Certain Event Accelerated his Epiphany

‘And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand’ (Exo 2:11-12). 

But he had been seen. His own people saw him. And instead of praising him they condemned him! ‘And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known’ (Exo 2:13-14). 

‘And Moses feared.’ He had become a murderer. And the punishment was death. And Moses fled.

This is how the Hebrews writer viewed it:  ‘By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season… By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible’ (Heb 11:24-25,27). 

The Sting of Failure can Last a Lifetime

The first test of his fiery idealism had failed. The event can unnerve anyone, but to a precocious child, it can feel like the sky had fallen. Something inside him froze. And the contradictions which his life had taken stared blankly at him. He had grown up in a king’s palace, acquired the best learning money can buy, and he might even have married one of the royal princesses there, but now he found himself among a desert folk, with their simple lives, keeping their flock, and keeping him!

In that sprawling desert, and in the midst of seven very beautiful sisters drawing water by a well, filling their troughs, and watering their father’s flock, and offering him some to drink, Moses felt like he was among his own people.

But the years dragged on. And probably the effect of monotony began to take a toll on him. His great Egyptian learning was going to rust. He had never heard again from his people or from his God. No one would ever remember him. He would die in oblivion. What had his life been for? It is the curse (or blessing) of idealism that it may wane, but it never dies. There was much on his mind. And no wonder he couldn’t even remember his Jewish everlasting covenant with their God about circumcising boys!

But God is Never Late but is Always on Time!

And God visited Moses. And God came to him (symbolically) in a bush which burned with fire but wasn’t consumed. And God gave Moses his instructions. ‘Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.’ 

But God had touched a chord deep in the subterranean of Moses’ mind. And his heart froze.

‘Who am I?’

‘But, behold, they will not believe me’!

‘O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send’!

And that marked only the first of instances where ‘the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses.’

And isn’t that always the effect of fear up to this day? It paralyzes. It shuts out the joy of music. It causes anger. It causes irritability. And its pathos can resonate with a Shakespearean tragedy. And Moses did not want anything to do with such a thing.

'But without faith it is impossible to please God'!

Are there any fears which are still frozen deep inside your heart? What is it that you feel called to, but the memory of your first failure still stalks you? ‘But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him’ (Heb 11:6). 

To attempt anything new will always arouse fear. And in these modern times we live with a peculiar sensitivity about sounding eccentric, absurd, or old-fashioned.

But take heart, you are in good company! You too are a ‘goodly child’. ‘Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone’ (Eph 2:19-20). 

Yes, you too are a peculiar child, and of the royal household. And now I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. And he is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. And God is not man that he should lie.

Take heart therefore. Be not dismayed. And try again! Yes, rub the dust from that old manuscript. And write your story again!

Let us pray: Lord, you came so that you may proclaim liberty to the captives, now help me Lord so that I may begin to live an abundant life as you have promised. Amen.