Several years ago, Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Bob Patterson described one of his pitches, which the Cincinnati Reds' Barry Larkin hit for a game-winning home run: “It was a cross between a screwball and a change-up. It was a screw-up” (Wall Street Journal, 7/9/96; Leadership, Vol. 17, no.3; www.PreachingToday.com)
That describes life sometimes, so what do you do when you screw-up? What do you do when you fail? What do you do when life doesn’t go as you planned? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 2, Exodus 2, where we see what Moses did after he failed miserably.
Exodus 2:1-10 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water” (ESV).
Moses grew up a very privileged individual. Certainly, these were difficult days for the Hebrews, but Moses had a birth mother who had a strong faith in God.
Hebrews 11:23 says, “By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” (NIV)
Then, when they could hide him no more, they put him in a basket and placed it in the Nile River.
I agree with Warren Wiersbe who said, “It took real faith to put the child in the river, the very place where the young boys were being destroyed!” (Warren Wiersbe, Expository Outlines on the Old Testament)
To be sure, Moses’ mother was not stupid in her faith. She obeyed the letter of the law which demanded that every Hebrew boy be thrown into the Nile River (Exodus 1:22), but she did everything she could do to insure the child’s safety. She lined the basket with tar and pitch so it would float. She put it among the reeds so it wouldn’t be carried away by the current, and she put it in a place where she knew Pharaoh’s daughter would discover it.
You see, not everybody bathed in the Nile River. That’s because the Nile was worshipped as a god itself, considered a sacred river by the Egyptians, so only the very privileged could bathe in the Nile.
I’m sure Moses’ mother knew the exact spot where Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe on a regular basis, so she had her daughter put Moses’ basket right near that spot. But Moses’ mother had no idea what Pharaoh’s daughter would do with that Hebrew baby boy. She could have thrown the boy in the river as her father had ordered, but instead God touched her heart with the baby’s tears, and she adopted Moses as her own.
Imagine what went through Moses’ mother’s heart when she turned her just weaned child over to Pharaoh’s daughter. Pharaoh’s daughter was a stranger, a foreigner, living in an anti-Semitic home, whose father was pursuing genocide, trying to wipe out the Hebrew race.
Moses’ mother had to feel like Tracinda Foxe when she dropped her one-month-old baby, Eric, from a third story window to save him from a fire in their apartment. Several years ago (December 2005), Foxe's apartment building in the Bronx caught on fire. With flames quickly engulfing her third floor bedroom, Tracinda leaned out the window with her baby. A group of onlookers had gathered some 30 feet below her open window and watched with growing concern as smoke billowed around the mother and her baby.
Finally, with all other options exhausted, Tracinda let go. The infant tumbled three stories down into the waiting arms of Felix Vazquez, a Housing Authority employee and catcher on a local baseball team. Vazquez, trained as a lifeguard, performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the baby, which saved its life.
Moments later, Tracinda was rescued from her apartment by firefighters, and was reunited with her child. Neither was seriously injured. Later, when someone asked her about the painful decision to drop her baby from the window, Tracinda said: “I prayed that someone would catch him and save his life… I said, ‘God, please save my son’” (Catherine Donaldson-Evans, “The Good News of 2005,” Foxnews.com, 12-30-05; www. PreachingToday.com).
I’m sure Moses’s mother felt the same way, dropping her little boy into the arms of Pharaoh’s daughter, praying that God would save his life! Moses had a birth mother who had a strong faith in God.
And he had an adopted mother who was very powerful. Pharaoh’s daughter, here, is none other than the great Hatshepsut, who later became ruler of all Egypt. When Pharaoh died, his son took over, but he died shortly thereafter and the next son in line was too young to rule. That’s when Hatshepsut stepped in; and for more than 20 years, she led Egypt into a time of tremendous prosperity. She ruled with a brilliance that far outshone any of her predecessors, and she was the one who insured that Moses had the best training Egypt could offer, no doubt grooming him to be her successor.
Acts 7:22 says, “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (NIV).
Moses, no doubt, went to school at the Temple of the Sun where all the privileged boys went. Archeologists and historians have called it “the Oxford of the Ancient World.” There, he would have learned hieroglyphics, science, medicine, astronomy, chemistry, theology, philosophy, and law. He would have studied the great literature of his day and dabbled in the arts – sculpture, music and painting. More than that, Moses would have also studied the battles and combat strategies of that nation’s proud military history… (Chuck Swindoll, Moses, pp.38-39).
As a result, Acts 7 says he became “powerful in speech and action” (Acts 7:22).
Josephus, a First Century Jewish historian tells us that after Moses grew up, he led the Egyptian army to a great victory over the Ethiopians who had invaded Egypt. Previously, the Egyptian army had fled before the Ethiopians, but when Moses took over as general, the Egyptians experienced one victory after another. They were able to rout the Ethiopians, overthrow their cities and “indeed (as Josephus says) made a great slaughter of these Ethiopians” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, Chapter X).
Moses had become a bold military strategist, wise in worldly matters, and a competent leader. He was a self-made man, or so he thought, and that’s clearly evident as he begins to take on another mission.
After Moses delivers the Egyptians from the Ethiopians, he tries to deliver his own people, the Hebrews, from the Egyptians. Verse 11 “One day, when Moses had grown up”—Acts 7 says Moses was 40 years old at this time.
Exodus 2:11-15 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well (ESV).
This was a low point, in fact THE low point in Moses’ life. He had failed in his mission to deliver his own people. Now, the Egyptians want him dead and his own people don’t want him at all.
G. K. Chesterton once said, “There is nothing that fails like success.” And that’s exactly what happened to Moses. He trusted his past success to carry him to future success. Verse 12 says he glanced “this way and that.” He looked to the left and he looked to the right, but he failed to look up.
Moses undertook this mission on his own without seeking God’s help or guidance. As a result, he failed miserably. I like the way Chuck Swindoll put it in his book on Moses: “Finding himself highly qualified to be completely useless, Moses tucked up his royal robes and ran like a scared coyote (Chuck Swindoll, Moses, p.48).
Now, according to Acts 7, Moses will be stuck in the Midian wilderness for another 40 years where the only thing he can lead is a bunch of dumb sheep. But God was at work behind the scenes. God was at work preparing Moses to lead a great nation, not the nation of Egypt as his adopted mother had hoped, but the nation of Israel, which was far beyond his birth mother’s hopes and dreams.
God let him grow up in a palace for 40 years to teach him the fine points of governing a great nation. Then God let him wander in the wilderness for another 40 years to teach him how to lead that great nation to depend on God.
As Moses himself writes about all this towards the end of his own life, I’m sure he marveled at all God did for him during these years. I’m sure he marveled at his upbringing in the palace. And I’m sure he marveled at the lessons he learned in the wilderness.
You see, Moses would come to the point where he was able to appreciate his past. Moses had failed greatly, but God brought him through that failure and turned him into an even greater leader than he could have ever been on his own. Eventually, Moses would come to appreciate all that. And this is exactly what you must do if you’re going to rebound from failure and turn it into a springboard to success. Like Moses, learn to…
APPRECIATE THE PAST.
Learn to see your past as GOD’s preparation for the future. Grow to the point where you can value the lessons God has taught you through your past experiences, good or bad. Mature enough to let the past inform you without defining you or controlling you.
Cha Sa Soon from South Korea made international headlines in 2009 when she passed the written part of her driving test on her 950th attempt. She would go on to fail two road tests at least four times each before finally clinching her elusive driver's license a year later.
She was 69 at the time.
She had decided to pursue a driver's license in April 2005 as transportation in her village in the mountainous region of Sinchon was what she called “frustrating.” According to the New York Times, the only way to get to and from the village was by way of a bus that operated once every two hours.
Madam Cha, who sold homegrown vegetables for a living, wanted to learn how to drive, in order to maintain her business. The mother of four also told the Times that she wanted to be able to take her grandchildren to the zoo.
During the first three years, Madam Cha took the written test once a day, five days a week. She eventually reduced her attempts to twice a week and continued until she finally scored the 60 out of 100 points needed to move on to the driving test.
“I didn’t mind,” Madam Cha said at the time. “To me, commuting every day to take the test was like going to school. I always missed school.”
The woman reportedly spent about $7.69 won (or 58 cents) every time she took a test. In the end, Madam Cha forked over 5.125 million won (the equivalent of $3,857 US dollars) for her driver’s license.
Ms Park Su Yeon, an instructor at Jeonbuk Driving School, told the Times in 2010, “When she finally got her license, we all went out in cheers and hugged her, giving her flowers. It felt like a huge burden falling off our back. We didn't have the guts to tell her to quit because she kept showing up.”
Mr. Lee Chang Su, another teacher at the school, added, “It drove you crazy to teach her, but we could not get mad at her… She was always cheerful. She still had the little girl in her.”
Later, Madam Cha's inspiring story caught Hyundai’s attention, which gifted her a brand-new car. She even starred in a popular commercial for the automotive company. Then, in November 2020, Guinness World Records celebrated the South Korean woman’s achievement in a tweet noting that she had set the record for “most driving theory tests taken” (Izzah Imran, “South Korean grandma who took 960 tries to get driver's licence goes viral again, holds World Record for most theory tests taken,” Today, March 31, 2023; www.todayonline.com/world/south-korean-grandma-licence-record-2141901).
I love that woman’s attitude! She wasn’t going to let her past failures control her future. She kept learning from them until she overcame them.
And that’s the only way you can move on from your failures. You cannot let your past failures discourage you. On the other hand, you cannot let your past success give you a false sense of security and think it guarantees future success. Instead, you must learn from both your successes and failures so you can accomplish what God wants in His time and in His way. What do you do when you fail? 1st, like Moses, appreciate the past. Then 2nd…
BE FAITHFUL IN THE PRESENT.
Be dependable in the little things that are put before you. Be reliable to carry out the lesser tasks God gives you to do. That’s what Moses did.
Exodus 2:16-17 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock (ESV).
Moses had wanted to deliver a nation from oppression. Here, God gives him the opportunity to deliver seven girls, and that’s exactly what Moses does. He defends 7 girls against a bunch of bullies, and then he goes the extra mile to water their flocks.
Exodus 2:18-22 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land” (ESV).
Gershom means “alien” or “migrant.” And that’s exactly what this great prince of Egypt had become—a migrant in a foreign land where he had no status. Even so, Moses faithfully completed the little tasks God gave him to do. He protected seven girls, watered their sheep, and later married one of them.
Chuck Swindoll says, “Moses, who would have been in line to marry an exotic Cleopatra-type beauty back in Egypt, settled down with a shepherdess” (Chuck Swindoll, Moses, p.66).
Despite his failure to accomplish the big things he wanted to do, Moses remained faithful to the little things God gave him to do. And that’s exactly what you must do if you want to rebound from failure.
Matthew Henry writes, “When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can. And he that is faithful in a little shall be entrusted with more” (Matthew Henry, A Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol.1, p.279). Or as Oswald Avery once put it: “Whenever you fall, pick up something (Oswald Avery, Christian Reader, Vol. 32, no. 4).
Maybe you can’t preach to thousands right now, but you can teach a Sunday School class. Maybe you can’t change the world with your business, but you can make a customer’s life a little better tomorrow. Maybe you can’t lead multitudes to a better life, but you can influence your children or grandchildren. Just be faithful in the little things God gives you to do. Then, just like He did for Moses, God may entrust you with greater responsibility in the future.
Sometimes people wonder, “What can one person do? What difference will my small effort make?”
Philip Yancey describes watching a series on public television based on interviews with survivors from World War II. The soldiers recalled how they spent a particular day. One sat in a foxhole all day; once or twice, a German tank drove by, and he shot at it. Others played cards and frittered away the time. A few got involved in furious firefights. Mostly, the day passed like any other day for an infantryman on the front. Later, they learned they had just participated in one of the largest, most decisive engagements of the war, the Battle of the Bulge. It did not feel decisive to any of them at the time, because none had the big picture of what was happening elsewhere (Philip Yancey, "Reaching for the Invisible God," Christianity Today, 9-4-00).
You, too, do not have the big picture of what God is doing in the world. So just do the one thing He gives you to do today. Love your spouse. Take care of your children. Do your work with integrity, and let God use those little things to accomplish His big plan.
What do you do when you fail? 1st, like Moses, appreciate the past. 2nd, be faithful in the present. And 3rd…
TRUST GOD FOR THE FUTURE.
Depend on the Lord to work things out. Wait patiently for God to act in His time and in His way. That’s what Moses did.
Exodus 2:23-25 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew (ESV).
Notice, Moses didn’t rush back and try to save the Israelites. Instead, he simply rested and relied upon God. He waited on the Lord, who was just as concerned, if not more so, than Moses was. And that’s what you must do if you want to rebound from failure. Just rest and rely on God.
Isaiah 40:31 says, “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (ESV).
Don’t rush ahead of the Lord. Don’t push yourself and your agenda on people. Just wait patiently for the Lord to act, because He really cares. In fact He cares even more than you do.
I’m sure when Jesus hung there on the cross, His followers thought they had just wasted the last three and a half years of their lives following Him. They no doubt thought that they had just made the biggest mistake of their lives. That was Friday. What they didn’t understand was that Sunday was coming. There was a resurrection just a few days ahead, and the cross was all a part of God’s plan to save the world.
All they had to do was trust God. All they had to do was wait on Him, and He would demonstrate his power in a way they couldn’t even imagine. So you too, when you think you’ve made the biggest mistake of your life, trust God to use that very thing to demonstrate His power in His time. Don’t force it. Just wait on Him.
Rudy is the true story of a young man with a big dream to attend Notre Dame and play football for the Fighting Irish. The problem was he was small and dyslexic. His height gave him a next to nothing chance that he would ever make the team, and his dyslexia kept him from getting good grades in high school, which made it almost impossible for him to be accepted by the prestigious university in the first place.
Even so, Rudy refused to give up. He took a Greyhound bus into South Bend, Indiana, and met Father Cavanaugh, a priest who agreed to get him into a semester of Holy Cross Junior College. If his grades were good enough there, perhaps Notre Dame might consider letting him in.
But three semesters and three rejection letters later, Rudy is devastated and hopeless, despite a dramatic improvement in his grades. He has done everything he can to get into Notre Dame, but it hasn’t been enough. So he goes back to the chapel where he first met Father Cavanaugh. Take a look (show video: Rudy—there is a God and I’m not Him, www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Jroh-5KlA).
“Maybe I haven't prayed enough,” Rudy says, almost frantic.
Father Cavanaugh answers with kind, narrow eyes, “I'm sure that's not the problem. Praying is something we do in our time. The answers come in God's time.”
Rudy isn't satisfied. There has to be something else he can do. “Have I done everything I possibly can? Can you help me?”
To which Father Cavanaugh's says, “Son, in 35 years of religious studies, I've come up with only two hard, incontrovertible facts: There is a God, and I'm not Him (Rudy, Tristar, 1993, directed by David Anspaugh, DVD track 17, 01:02:47 – 01:03:41; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, that’s a lesson we all need to learn: There is a God in heaven who really cares, but you and I are NOT Him. He operates on His own time in His own way, and when you try to take control as if you were God, you only make a royal mess of things.
So just wait on Him. Let Him be God even in your situation, and trust Him to accomplish His good will in your life. You trusted Him to save you from your sins. Now, trust Him to use you in His time and in His way for His glory.
What do you do when you have failed? Appreciate the past. Stay faithful in the present. But most of all, trust God for the future. For as Rodney Reeves says, “God… delights in showing up in the midst of loss—the resurrection of Christ proves it. God turns losing into gain, death into life, sorrow into joy, weakness into strength, futility into glory” (Rodney Reeves, Spirituality According to Paul, Intervarsity Academic, 2011, pp.188-189; www.PreachingToday.com).
Just trust Him to do it in your life, as well.
