Everyday Living
11
God judged otherwise. His providence appointed Moses forty years of
training in the wilderness as a keeper of sheep.
The education that Moses had received in Egypt was a help to him
in many respects; but the most valuable preparation for his lifework
was that which he received while employed as a shepherd. Moses was
naturally of an impetuous spirit. In Egypt a successful military leader
and a favorite with the king and the nation, he had been accustomed to
receiving praise and flattery. He had attracted the people to himself. He
hoped to accomplish by his own powers the work of delivering Israel.
Far different were the lessons he had to learn as God’s representative.
As he led his flocks through the wilds of the mountains and into the
green pastures of the valleys, he learned faith and meekness, patience,
humility, and self-forgetfulness. He learned to care for the weak, to
nurse the sick, to seek after the straying, to bear with the unruly, to
tend the lambs, and to nurture the old and the feeble.
In this work Moses was drawn nearer to the Chief Shepherd. He
became closely united to the Holy One of Israel. No longer did he
plan to do a great work. He sought to do faithfully as unto God the
work committed to his charge. He recognized the presence of God
in his surroundings. All nature spoke to him of the Unseen One. He
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knew God as a personal God, and, in meditating upon His character
he grasped more and more fully the sense of His presence. He found
refuge in the everlasting arms.
After this experience, Moses heard the call from heaven to ex-
change his shepherd’s crook for the rod of authority; to leave his flock
of sheep and take the leadership of Israel. The divine command found
him self-distrustful, slow of speech, and timid. He was overwhelmed
with a sense of his incapacity to be a mouthpiece for God. But he
accepted the work, putting his whole trust in the Lord. The greatness
of his mission called into exercise the best powers of his mind. God
blessed his ready obedience, and he became eloquent, hopeful, self-
possessed, fitted for the greatest work ever given to man. Of him it
is written: “There hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto
Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face.”
Deuteronomy 34:10
, A.R.V.
Let those who feel that their work is not appreciated, and who crave
a position of greater responsibility, consider that “promotion cometh
neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God
is the Judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another.”
Psalm 75:6,