A Study of the Life of Moses
Sermon # 3
“Learning in the School of the Desert”
Exodus 2:15–25
Dr. John R. Hamby
You will remember that when Moses stepped out on his own to become the deliverer of Israel it was an unmitigated disaster. He ended up killing an Egyptian and then hiding his body in the sand. In his failure we saw how no matter how talented or educated we may be we can do nothing without God. We saw that we are capable of terrible things if we persist in our own ways. We discovered that hiding our wrongs does not erase them it only postpones its discovery. Verse 15 tells us that, “When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.”
When we left Moses last week he had fled from Egypt into the desert of Midian. Fleeing to the land of Midian, Moses ended up at a well, to which the daughters of a priest of Midian have brought their father’s flocks. [The Midianites were also descendents of Abraham (through his second wife - Kethurah- Gen. 25:1-2) and may have remained worshipers of the true God.] We find the story beginning in verse 16, “Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. (17) Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.”
After traveling a long way across the desert wilderness Moses “sat down by a well.” While he is there the seven daughters of the priest of Midian came to water their father’s flock. As they began drawing water to fill the troughs some shepherds came and ran them off, intending to use the water that had already been drawn to water their own flocks.
Moses who noticed what was happening “stood up and helped them.” I like to think that words “stood up” have a double meaning, he not only stood to his feet but he stood up for and protected these young women. He “helped them” by running off the offending shepherds and he then helped them to water their flocks. Notice that the former prince of Egypt helped these women to water a flock of smelly sheep. Moses was already beginning to learn the lessons of servanthood.
The young women then returned to their home where the scripture says in verse 18, “When they came to Reuel (roo’-el) their father, he said, “How is it that you have come so soon today?” (19) And they said, “An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock.” (20) So he said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”
Their father who is called Reuel (which means “friend of
God”) is later called Jethro (3:1), one of names is probably the family name and the other is his title.
Jethro wants to know why they are back so early. They told him how “an Egyptian” (no doubt his speech and dress had led to this conclusion) had defended them from the shepherds and drew water for their flocks. Jethro responded by saying, “where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” Their father gently chastised his daughters for not extending the hospitality of a meal to this stranger who had helped them. So the daughters go out to bring Moses to their father.
With the great economy Moses records how his chance encounter at the well resulted in a length stay in Midian, his marriage and the birth of his first son. According to verse 21, “Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses. (22) And she bore him a son. He called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”
Can you believe it? A man with an advanced knowledge of science, literature, and military tactics eking out an existence on the backside of the desert, living with his father-in-law, raising a couple of boys and watching over a flock of sheep that did not even belong to him.
Moses entered the desert at the age of forty and didn’t leave until he was eighty (Acts 7:30). So during what most people would have been considered by many as the most productive years of a person’s life – Moses tended sheep in what must have seemed like Hell’s backyard. He was a man who did not become productive for God until he was eighty years of age. According to the account in Acts 7 the life of Moses can be divided into three 40 year segments. The first forty years he was nursed by his mother and educated in the courts of the Pharaoh. The second forty years he spent in the desert taught by God and the final forty years he sent with the spend with the Hebrew people in the wilderness.
Dwight L. Moody phrased it this way, “Moses spent his first forty years thinking he was somebody. He spent his second forty years learning he was a nobody. He spent his forty years discovering what God can do with a nobody.” [as quoted by Charles Swindoll. Moses: A Man of Selfless Dedication. (Nashville: Word, 1999) p. 20]
Moses now enters into the second aspect of his schooling. “God’s School of the Desert.” Perhaps you have taken some courses there too. The desert is a place of desolation. Some people spend a few weeks in the wilderness. For others it is months. Moses walked this barren land for forty years.
Your wilderness experience may involve caring for an ailing family member over an extended time. For others your dry and desert time is a physical condition that does not improve. It could come in the form of an absent spouse or a rebellious child. It could be a thankless job or an unending routine. The desert can wear any number of faces. It can be crowded with people, yet lonely. Does God know? Yes! Does God care what you are going through? Yes! After all he is the one who allowed you to be there. His schooling includes some time in the wilderness, for it is there that he gets our attention. Sometimes God has to take us to the barren wilderness places before he can teach us what we need to learn.
When faced with time in the wilderness we are prone to offer one of three responses. The first is, “I don’t need it!” My spouse may need it, my sister may need it, my neighbor may need it, but I certainly do not need it.”
The second response is, “I’m tired of it.” No matter how long we may have been in a desert experience it seems to long. But Moses remained in the desert for forty years!!! Do you ever feel like saying, “Lord I weary to the point of death with this situation, this person, this circumstance. I feel trapped, and I have had it.”
The response that God is waiting to hear is, “Here I am Lord what is that you want me to learn?” You will really never graduate from the school of the desert until you do.
God never does Anything without a Purpose.
God put Moses through forty years in the wilderness and then had him turn right around and lead the children of Israel for forty more years in the desert. Moses had a forty year course of study of survival in the wilderness so that he would know how to lead a whole nation through a similar wilderness.
Why does God lead us through desert places? Moses himself tells us that it is in order that God can humble us, and test us, that the true condition of our heart might be revealed. It is not so that God can know us, he already does, it so that we can know ourselves. In Deuteronomy 8:2 says, “And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”
God taught Moses some important lessons in the desert that he could not have taught him anywhere else. The first thing that I want to consider is that God taught Moses how to deal with failure in his past, he taught him how to deal with memories. As Moses marched off into the desert his heart was heavy with regret. Have you ever been truly disappointed with yourself and your own actions? Have you ever felt that you messed things up so badly that you feel that it is hopeless? That you have whatever it is can never be straightened out. Well I believe that Moses felt that way about himself. He must have believed that God could not, would not ever use him again. God used the years in the wilderness to teach Moses how to forgive himself. Can you imagine what the 40 years guiding the whole nation of Israel through the wilderness would have been like if Moses had not learn to first forgive himself so that could forgive others.
A Second important thing that God taught Moses in the “School of the Desert” was how to handle monotony, how to wait on God. God is not at all concerned about your concept of time.
God is not limited by time. He has His own perfect plan and His own perfect timetable. Forty years in the desert taught Moses how to wait on God.
God never leaves us Alone in the Desert
In Deuteronomy 32, verses 10 we read, “He found him in a desert land And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.”
These verses can be personalized for use. The “He” in these verses is God. These verses would say to us today, “God found you in a desert land…God found you in a howling wilderness. God encircled you. He instructed you. And kept you as the apple of his eye (literally the pupil of his eye).”
When we find ourselves in a wilderness experience we feel that God has either abandoned us or that he does not care.
Neither of course is true. But before giving into feelings of abandonment we need to take a closer look at those verses in Deuteronomy 32. These verses tell us four things that God does for us. First, He encircles us. Second, He instructs or cares for us. Third, He guards us as the pupil of his eye. Have you ever thought of how protective you are of your eyes. One of the reasons that I do not wear contact lenses is that no one and I mean no one is going to put anything into my eye. The last time the ophthalmologist tried to do one of those glaucoma test that they do by putting an instrument against your eye ball, he finally had to do it on the outside of my eye lid. I am very protective of my eyes and so are you. That is the point God shields us with the greatest of care. God has neither abandoned nor forsaken you.
In the two verses that follow verse 10 we are given the fourth thing that God does for us in our wilderness experience, he guides us. The verse says, “As an eagle stirs up its nest, Hovers over its young, Spreading out its wings, taking them up, Carrying them on its wings, (12) So the LORD alone led him, …”
Although we may “feel” like we are alone in our wilderness experiences we are not. “Whether you have known it our not, felt it or not, even believed it or not, God has not taken His hand off your life….It is dry. It is lonely. You feel dismal and sad. But whatever your emotions may be telling you, the Bible says you not alone. ”[Charles Swindoll. Moses: A Man of Selfless Dedication. (Nashville: Word, 1999) pp. 76, 77]
God Never Forgets His Promises
Just based on what we have read thus far we might be tempted to think that the life of Moses ended in obscurity. But in spite of the appearances, God is very much at work as we see in the final verses of this chapter. In verse 23 we are told, “Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. It is highly probable that Moses hidden away in the wasteland of the Midian desert still heard about the plight of the Hebrew people. His heart must have ached to do something to help them but this time he did not go charging back he waited and he rested and relied on God.
Verse 24 tells us, “So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. (25) And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.
Humanly speaking it looks as if everything is working against Israel. But our text uses four verbs to record the depth of God’s response to the groanings and the cries of his people; “God heard…, God remembered…, God looked…, God acknowledged (was concerned).” The facts are that God is very informed, involved and intent upon fulfilling His promises and His purposes for Israel.
Application
If you find yourself in “God’s School of the Desert” don’t despair. God has a purpose for you being there. God does not do anything without a purpose. God has some things that He wants you to learn. Could it be like Moses that you need to learn to deal with some memories of past failures, you need to learn to put them in the past? Perhaps you have received the forgiveness of God and of others but you have not forgiven yourself. You keep beating up yourself for past mistakes and shortcomings. It is time to put it in the past.
Remember that there are no short cuts through the wilderness time, it time to stop running from one dead end to another and wait until God moves you. It is here that you will learn things that you will not learn anywhere else.
