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Education
The influences that had surrounded him in Egypt, the affection of
his foster mother, his own position as the grandson of the king, the
luxury and vice that allured in ten thousand forms, the refinement, the
subtlety, and the mysticism of a false religion, had made an impression
on his mind and character. In the stern simplicity of the wilderness all
this disappeared.
Amidst the solemn majesty of the mountain solitudes Moses was
alone with God. Everywhere the Creator’s name was written. Moses
seemed to stand in His presence and to be overshadowed by His power.
Here his self-sufficiency was swept away. In the presence of the
Infinite One he realized how weak, how inefficient, how short-sighted,
is man.
Here Moses gained that which went with him throughout the years
of his toilsome and care-burdened life—a sense of the personal pres-
ence of the Divine One. Not merely did he look down the ages for
Christ to be made manifest in the flesh; he saw Christ accompanying
the host of Israel in all their travels. When misunderstood and mis-
represented, when called to bear reproach and insult, to face danger
and death, he was able to endure “as seeing Him who is invisible.”
Hebrews 11:27
.
Moses did not merely think of God, he saw Him. God was the
constant vision before him. Never did he lose sight of His face.
To Moses faith was no guesswork; it was a reality. He believed that
God ruled his life in particular; and in all its details he acknowledged
Him. For strength to withstand every temptation, he trusted in Him.
The great work assigned him he desired to make in the highest
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degree successful, and he placed his whole dependence upon divine
power. He felt his need of help, asked for it, by faith grasped it, and in
the assurance of sustaining strength went forward.
Such was the experience that Moses gained by his forty years of
training in the desert. To impart such an experience, Infinite Wisdom
counted not the period too long or the price too great.
The results of that training, of the lessons there taught, are bound
up, not only with the history of Israel, but with all which from that day
to this has told for the world’s progress. The highest testimony to the
greatness of Moses, the judgment passed upon his life by Inspiration,
is, “There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom
the Lord knew face to face.”
Deuteronomy 34:10
.