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Our lesson introduces us to him at the end of his life.
Moses is on the mountaintop across the Jordan River from Jericho.
Before him is a vast panorama. To the north is the Sea of
Galilee, to the west is the Mediterranean, to the south is the
vast Negev and the Jordan valley down to Zoar at the edge of the
Dead Sea. For forty years he has led his people through one
adventure after another to get to this place. Now he finally
gets to see their new home, if only from a distance.
What was running through his mind at that moment, as he
stared at the scene? I wonder.
If Moses was like so many who arrive at the final crossing,
he looked back on his life. What an unlikely adventure!
Although he was too young to realize until later, the fact that
he survived infancy was a miracle. He had come into the world at
a time of trial for his people - they were a nation of slaves in
Egypt, where they had lived for 400 years. But now the Hebrew
birth rate had climbed to a level that intimidated their masters.
The Pharaoh announced a draconian population control policy -
newborn girls would be allowed to live, but newborn boys would be
killed, with midwives responsible for enforcing the rule. The
midwives, being Hebrew themselves, had no interest in being the
government's agents, so they invented the story that they could
not comply because Hebrew women were such efficient "baby
factories" that they delivered before the midwife could even
arrive. So the Pharaoh revised his order - let the girls live;
take the boys and drown them.(1)
Suddenly, baby Moses arrives. His parents were not anxious
to comply with the Pharaoh, so they hid him for three months.
When that became impractical, Moses' mother Jochobed came up with
a bizarre scheme - she fashioned a makeshift boat, placed the
baby in it, and set it afloat among the reeds along the bank of
the Nile. What could she have been thinking? Hard to imagine.
We know what happened: the daughter of the Pharaoh and her
entourage came to the river for a bath, found the baby crying in
his basket-boat, took pity on him and decided to adopt. Courtesy
of Moses' big sister Miriam, the princess arranged for Jochobed
to be the wet-nurse...and for MONEY! What a quirky, unlikely
turn of events!(2)
Scripture does not tell us how long Moses remained with his
natural parents before moving to the palace. Long enough,
obviously, for him to learn his true heritage and be shaped and
formed by it. Jewish legend has it that he grew to be so
handsome that people turned in the street, and even ceased their
work, to look at him. He was so wise that he was far beyond all
other children in learning and in knowledge. When he was still a
child, the princess took him to her father and told him how she
had found him. She placed him in the Pharaoh's arms, and he was
so entranced by the child that he embraced him and, at the
request of his daughter, promised to make him his heir. By way
of jest he took his crown and placed it on the child's head, but
the little lad snatched the crown from his head and flung it on
the ground.(3) Prophetic symbolism, to be sure. But still, how
unlikely a scenario!
Our hero's next adventure comes when he defends a fellow
countryman who is being beaten by an Egyptian taskmaster. Defend
is too mild a word - Moses kills the Egyptian, then buries him in
the sand. He thought that would be the end of the matter, but
word got around and soon Moses was high-tailing it out of Egypt
to escape prosecution. He ends up in the land of Midian.(4) At
age 40 his career as prince and heir to the throne was over - now
he would be a shepherd in that desert region, in the process
learning the terrain of a country that, as events would come to
show, he would one day need to know. Still, an unbelievably
unlikely switch!
Almost forty more years go by. Moses is out in the desert
tending the family flocks. Over yonder, he notices something - a
bush on fire but not burning up.(5) He approaches to investigate
and, from the midst of the bush hears his name called out.
"Moses...Moses." It is God's call to another career change. God
says, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt;
I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed,
I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them...
Come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the
Israelites, out of Egypt."
Moses tries to beg off. "Who am I that I should go to
Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" I'M NOBODY!
God answers, "No matter. I am with you!"
Moses responds, "I don't know what to say, or who to tell
them has sent me!"
God answers back, "Say to them "I AM, the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob has sent you!"
"They won't believe me!"
"If they don't believe you, I will give you miraculous signs
to perform. Check this out. Drop your shepherd's staff on the
ground." Moses complies, and as it hits the sand, it becomes a
snake. Moses backs away. God says, "Now pick it up again."
Moses reluctantly obeys, and as he does, the snake becomes a
staff once more. God says, "Put your hand inside your cloak."
OK. "Now pull it out again." OK, and Moses recoils in horror -
his hand is eaten up with leprosy. "Put it in again." OK. "Now
pull it out," and all is well. Hmm.
But Moses is still not ready. "I am not eloquent. Public
speaking is not my thing."
God answers, "I made your mouth; don't worry or whine about
being a poor speaker!"
One last gasp. Moses says, "O my Lord, please send someone
else."
God responds, "I will send your brother Aaron to help you.
He can be your mouthpiece. But you ARE going!"
So Moses embarks on career number three. At the vigorous
young age of eighty, he makes his way back to Egypt, the nation
of his birth, the nation from which he had fled for his life a
generation before. One more unlikely event in a life full of
them.
Moses makes his way to the palace, confronts the Pharaoh and
says, "Let my people go."(6) As might be expected, the demand was
not greeted with enthusiasm. It took a series of plagues that
climaxed with the death of the first-born sons of Egypt's
households for freedom to be reluctantly granted. Then there was
the mass exodus, the hot pursuit of the Pharaoh's military,
finally climaxed by the miraculous deliverance of the Hebrew
people at the parting of the waters of the Sea of Reeds.
Memories, memories. As Moses stares forward across the
Jordan at the new homeland of his people, his mind must have gone
back over the past forty years. What an experience! How many
insurrections had he faced...even from his own family? How many
complaints about running out of food? Water? These people never
knew when they were well off. They even went so far as to ask
for their old slave life again.
What should have been his finest hour, his meeting with
Yahweh on Sinai and the gift of the Law, was ruined by what he
found when he came back to the people - his dear brother Aaron
was leading them in worship around a Golden Calf, an idol which
Aaron said just popped out of the fire full blown when the folks
dropped their jewelry in.(7) Duh. Moses first reaction had been
to throw down the tablets of the Law in rage, smashing them to
smithereens, precisely what he would have liked to do with his
suddenly pagan people. But when the anger and frustration
subsided, underneath was a love that would not stop. Up the
mountain Moses wearily climbed once more to intercede for his
foolish friends. He even offered for God to blot HIM out if
necessary rather than give up on these children.
For forty years the wilderness wandering had continued. Now
it was done. Soon the people would make a new home for
themselves. As Moses looked back, it must have struck him how
unlikely this all had been, and the only explanation could be
that it was all in God's hands all along. Perhaps Yahweh might
even be called The God of the Unlikely:
As we move through scripture, the message is hammered home
again and again. "Many who are first will be last, and the last
will be first."(8) Unlikely. "The greatest among you must become
like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves."(9)
Unlikely. The Savior of the world comes as a humble infant.
Unlikely.
History is equally clear. Unlikely heroes arise. They
quickly pop to mind. A poor boy raised in a log cabin and
educated by the light of his fire becomes President and saves his
nation from splintering. Lincoln. Unlikely. The inventor of
the light bulb and the electrical system which made it generally
available, plus a practical telephone, the phonograph, the
dictaphone, motion pictures, the storage battery, along with
improvements in uncounted other materials and processes, the
holder of almost 1100 patents, Thomas Edison, only had three
months of formal education before his teacher decided the he was
retarded and could not manage the life of the mind. Unlikely. A
black preacher's son who became a preacher himself changed the
racial face of this nation - not a military leader or powerful
politician, a preacher. Unlikely.
It is interesting that just before his murder, Martin Luther
King, Jr. harked back to the story of Moses. It was the spring
of 1968, and Dr. King was heavily involved with organizing what
was known as the Poor People's Campaign, but in the midst of that
he took time off to travel to Memphis, Tennessee to lead a
demonstration in support of higher wages for the garbage
collectors of that city. At a rally on April 3rd, the day before
he was gunned down on that motel balcony, he said,
No, Dr. King did not make it. He died outside the Promised
Land of racial justice. He could see the land, but he never got
there himself. It was the same with Moses. The Broadway or
Hollywood ending to his life would have him marching triumphantly
ahead of his grateful people as they enter Canaan, accompanied by
a full-throated score played by soaring strings, crashing
cymbals, and the rumble of drums. But no. For reasons which
scripture never makes entirely clear, Moses would not cross over.
In his one hundred and twentieth year, Moses died there on the
mountaintop, and was buried in some secret place known only to
God. One more unlikely turn.
Moses, the liberator. Moses, the lawgiver. Moses, the
leader. And as the scripture plainly acknowledges, Moses, "the
servant of the Lord." But we would have to add UNLIKELY in
every case.
The message in all this is very simple: God chooses and God
uses people and events that are often utterly beyond
comprehension. Perhaps even me and you. We have all seen it.
So, be open to it. Look forward to it. Even celebrate it.
After all, you and I are servants of the God of the Unlikely.
Amen!
1. Exodus 1:15-22 2. Exodus 2:1-10 3. William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, CD-ROM edition (Liguori, MO: Liguori
Faithware, 1996) used by permission of Westminster/John Knox Press 4. Exodus 2:11ff. 5. Exodus 3:1ff. 6. Exodus 5:1 7. Exodus 32:21-24 8. Matthew 19:30 9. Luke 22:26 10. Quoted by Fant and Pinson, 20 Centuries of Great Preaching, Vol. XII, (Waco, TX: Word,
1971), pp. 352-353
I don't know what will happen now. We have got
difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me,
because I've been to the mountaintop. Like anyone
else, I want to live a long life. But I'm not
concerned with that. I just want to do God's will and
He has allowed me to go up the mountain. I see the
promised land. I may not get there with you, but I
want you to know tonight that we as a people will get
to the promised land. I am happy tonight that I am not
worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the
Lord."(10)
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