Journal of James's Journey with Jesus

THE MOST DOWN-TO-EARTH MAN ON THE EARTH

God has been speaking to me a lot about Moses, using the experiences He has been putting me through to help me understand Scripture regarding Moses. There are powerful lessons to be learnt from the life of Moses. But before that, we have to know a bit of Israel’s history.

Moses was a Jew born in the land of Egypt, where the Jews were living before God led them out by Moses to the Promised Land. The Jews had settled there after Joseph the son of Jacob(Israel) grew in favour with the Egyptians and eventually became prime minister of Egypt, though he was initially sold as a slave to the Egyptians.

And just to digress a bit to talk about the life of Joseph, because it is crucial to understanding this story.

Joseph was seventeen when he was sold by his brothers to traders because they were envious of him being the favourite child of their father, Jacob, and especially after he told them about a God-given dream about his brothers and parents bowing before him one day.

But even as he seemed to be stuck in the worst of circumstances, God prospered him, such that whatever was entrusted to him abounded in success. He also had a gift of interpreting dreams and eventually became the Pharaoh’s favourite subject.

One day, God showed him that there was going to be bumper harvests for six years and then a great worldwide famine on the seventh. He stored the excess grain from the bumper harvests and was even able to sell grain to other nations during the famine.

Among these people were his siblings, who had come from their hometown of Canaan. They did not recognize him but Joseph recognized them. To cut the story to only the necessary details, they were reunited, with deep remorse from his brothers, and Joseph fulfilled the God-given dream of saving his family.

And the whole family of Jacob(Israel) moved to Egypt. After Jacob(Israel) died, Joseph’s brothers were afraid that he would take vengeance on them. But Joseph showed himself to be godly, mature and forgiving. He understood Romans 8:28 even before it was written in the Bible.

Genesis 50:19-20 tells us of Joseph’s words to his brothers.

But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

This is one of the crucial points that I want to share in this entry; that God works through bad circumstances for the good of those who love Him.

The sooner we get out of the blame game and pity party, the sooner we’ll realize God’s calling for us and fulfill His will for us. And we must learn to love and glory in our tribulations.

Romans 5:3-5 tells us why.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

Perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

I have learnt more from the single bad circumstance of being removed from leadership than when I was leading. I have gained more perseverance, character and hope than ever before. But before I talk about that, I want to talk about Moses.

Moses was born a few generations after the death of Joseph and the Pharaoh, and a new ruler of Egypt arose; one who did not know Joseph and was afraid and jealous of the Jews, who were multiplying and prospering more than the Egyptians.

The new king made all the Jews slaves who supplied manual labour and ordered the throwing of all male newborns into the river. Moses’s mother laid him on a basket made of reeds and put it on the river. But Pharaoh’s daughter had compassion on him when she saw him and adopted him as her son.

As Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s court, he was given the best education money can buy at that time. He saw the oppression of his fellow countrymen and decided to do something about it. He was strong in body and martial arts, killing an Egyptian slave supervisor, who probably was skilled in martial arts and strong-bodied too.

Exodus 2:11-15 records what he did,

One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.

Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"

The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."

When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

He thought he was doing Jews and God a favour by killing the Egyptian. He wanted to be the deliverer and ruler of the Jews. But you can see from the ungrateful reaction of the Jewish man who he helped that Moses was arrogant and probably killed the Egyptian just to display his strength.

Like Joseph, he had a dream to do something great one day. He probably had a urge to free the Jews and did what he did out of some good intentions. But he had no respect for human life and thought he could please God by killing all the Egyptians, by doing it his way.

I want to tell you that Moses was by no means a guy who was humble. He had much to be proud about, receiving the best education in the world from his Egyptian teachers in the Pharaoh’s house.

Acts 7:22 confirms this,

And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.

Yet God desired none of the world’s excellence. The odd thing about God is that Moses was used by Him when he was reduced to nothing. He wanted a man so humble, a man who would turn his other cheek to his enemies when hit, and not revile them.

So God let Moses alone a long time, dwelling in a foreign land and afraid of being punished for his crime. He let him rot in despair and self-pity till he became a mouse of a man. He was humbled so much that he forgot about Egypt and his dream to free his people.

He was so unconfident and fearful that he shrinked away many times from taking up the calling of God back into Egypt. He did this despite hearing God’s voice and assurance and seeing the burning bush and other miracles from God.

Exodus 3-4 records how he argued with God that he was not the best man for leading the Jews out of captivity, with God assuring him each time. He kept making excuses and angered the Lord with his lack of faith and confidence in His strength.

There is a great difference between who he was years ago when he boldly killed the Egyptian and who he had become now.

Exodus 3:10-12 records his first excuse and God’s answer.

Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

So He said, "I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

In these verses, God assured him of His power and ability to bring him back safely. But it was not convincing enough for Moses.

Exodus 3:13-14 records his second excuse and God’s answer.

Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?"

And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

You can already sense how irritated God was getting when He shouted “I AM WHO I AM”. But He continued to entertain Moses’s foolish excuses.

Exodus 4:1-9 shows how God used miracles and signs to try to convince Moses to go.

Then Moses answered and said, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.'"

So the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
He said, "A rod."

And He said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail" (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand),

"that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."

Furthermore the Lord said to him, "Now put your hand in your bosom." And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow.

And He said, "Put your hand in your bosom again." So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh.

"Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign.

And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land."

If anyone else had seen these miracles, they probably would have been filled with awe and confidence. But not Moses. And this angered the Lord.

Exodus 4:10-17 shows how God became angry.

Then Moses said to the Lord, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

So the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?

Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say."

But he said, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send."

So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.

So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.

And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs."

Can you imagine Moses telling God he was not eloquent in speech? Was not Moses learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and mighty in words and deeds? But Moses had lost his confidence totally after the Pharaoh sought after his life.

After he could not make any more rational excuses, he asked God to please send by the hand of whomever else You may send. That was a plea from a pitiful man, not a man of the stature of a prince of Egypt.

But God loved Moses and changed His will so that he would change his mind. His original plan was to use Moses only, but now He included Aaron.

He did not look for someone else more capable than Moses, though the number of competent and confident men was as the sand of the sea. God desperately wanted to use Moses, because of his humility.

Numbers 12:3 records Moses’s humility.

Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.

God used Moses mightily, more than He used anybody in the history of the Old Testament, when he was the humblest man in all the earth. God will speak and perform great things in you when you’re weakest and humblest.

I want to show you Moses’s humility even further. Aaron and Miriam, Moses’s Jewish siblings, grew jealous of him and reviled him. Yet, he turned the other cheek. But God Himself grew angry for his sake and punished those who opposed him on his behalf.

Numbers 12 records the story.

Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.

"Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't He also spoken through us?" And the LORD heard this.

(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)

At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you." So the three of them came out.

Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; He stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, He said,

"Listen to My words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal Myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.

But this is not true of My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house.

With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?"

The anger of the LORD burned against them, and He left them.

When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam—leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy;

and he said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.

Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away."

So Moses cried out to the LORD, "O God, please heal her!"

The LORD replied to Moses, "If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back."

So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.

When I read this, I wanted so much to be like Moses. Can you imagine the Almighty God treating Moses like His best friend? God spoke to Moses face to face while others received His Word through dreams or visions. Moses was the only one who ever saw even the form of God on Earth.

And God was so angry about them accusing Moses He punished Miriam with leprosy. I want to be God’s best friend, like Moses was. I want Him to speak up for me even when I don’t defend myself. I want to be humble and forgiving Moses who did not hold anything against his sister.

In contrast, God seemed more angry than Moses was, and the unforgiving one. I am not saying God is unforgiving, because no evil is in Him, only righteous anger. I just hope that you understand how humble Moses was, when he did not get angry even when it was right for him to be.

Moses lost his confidence, just like Jacob lost his confidence when he was struck in the hip muscle, the strongest muscle in our body, by the Angel of the Lord (Genesis 32). God always wants to take away our strength and what we pride ourselves on so that we will learn to depend on Him and not glorify ourselves.

Psalms 51:17, part of the song that David sang after being convicted by the Lord about his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband, says,

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart--
These, O God, You will not despise.

Just when Moses expected himself to do no great thing, God called him. The irony is that He will use you when you do not wish to be used. He will use the weak to shame the strong, to bring glory to Himself, who strengthens the weak.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 says,

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;

and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,

that no flesh should glory in His presence.

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—

that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord."

1 Peter 5:6-10 instructs us further on humility and waiting on the Lord.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

The only thing God requires us to do to go to the next level is to be patient, humble ourselves and wait. Don’t get angry when you do not understand His ways. Sometimes I get tired of waiting but God says, “Wait, you’re not done yet.” And slowly but surely, I gain perseverance, hope and character.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 encourages us not to lose heart.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

What is important for us to do in our trials is to seek the secret place where God is and listen to Him explaining the really important things, what is already found in His word.

To be led to the place where we cannot go by ourselves; the footstool of humility, faith, patience and hope. To listen to the things we just did not believe or understand before; the truth about His love, peace, joy and the fruits of His Spirit.

What strength I had in the past I hold in contempt. It was my undoing, a source of pride. I am even afraid whenever I feel myself rising up to that facade of strength and self-sufficiency.

Because true strength lies in knowing how weak I am and how much more I still lack and should pursue. I know now that growing fast is useless, only growing deep is profitable and it is what I must do.

I am only beginning to practice half of what I preached. The rest was just pompous talk with an air of hyper-spirituality. Because I thought I knew what Christianity was about from men’s wisdom, I was blinded from God’s wisdom and could not see the whole picture.

1 Corinthians 10:12 says

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Because I was proud that I stood, I stumbled so that I may be made humble. I am still not humble, just humbled. I no longer find any pleasure in the vanity of pride. I am still waiting for the future of Moses to fall upon my life as I live out his past, seemingly left alone by God and men.

Now I am afraid of being wise in my own eyes, like so many before me. Because Solomon was a man like that. He had a ‘been there, done that’ attitude. And he ended up pursuing the things of the world, not of God.

He was the wisest man alive and died the biggest fool in history. That’s why his 1000 songs were never included in the canon of the bible. What I want is a ‘am there, am still doing that’ attitude.

Moses was the prince of Egypt but became an ordinary man with a contemptible bodily presence like Paul and no sign of a swagger or aura of a great leader. Paul was an expert in the law of Moses and was humbled by God on the road to Damascus, finding himself an ignorant fool in the law of Jesus’s grace and love. He went on to suffer many things for the Gospel he rejected and persecuted.

Yet, they became the two biggest heroes in the history of the Old Testament and New Testament.

Moses’s face shone with the manifest glory of God and he was used so much by God. God is looking for servants who will only glorify the master, not themselves.

If you humble yourself, you will be exalted. If you have exalted yourself, humble yourself before the Lord or He will humble you. Trust me, you do not want to be humbled.

Proverbs 16:18 says,

Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Daniel 4:30-33 tells of Nebuchadnezzar, which the Bible describes as 'a king of kings'. However, he did not humble himself before the King of kings and was thus humbled to a lowly state.

The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?”

While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice fell from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you!

And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.”

That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar; he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.

I will leave you with two Bible verse to remind and humble yourself whenever you start taking glory from God.

James 1:17 says,

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

1 Corinthians 4:7 says,

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?