15. THE SERVANT OF GOD (DEUT 34)
A friend sent me an e-mail with the subject “God’s resume.” The cover letter reads:
To Whom It May Concern,
I heard you were considering a new manager in your life. I would like to apply for the job. I believe I am the most qualified candidate. I created the heavens and the earth. I AM. I AM the only one that has ever done this job successfully. I was the first manager of human beings. In fact I made them, so naturally I know how humanity works, and what is best to get people back into proper working condition. It will be like having the manufacturer as your personal mechanic. If this is your first time considering Me, I would just like to point out that My salary has already been paid by the blood of Jesus on the cross of Calvary.
What I need from you is the acknowledgment that the price is sufficient to pay for all of your sin and your independence from Me. I need you to believe this in your heart and to tell somebody else about your decision with your mouth. The next thing I ask is the right to change and fix your life so you can learn how to stay close to Me. I will make some major changes and revisions. They are not for you to worry about. I need your permission to execute these changes, My way and in My time. I will change your desires and give you the strength to make the changes. Please keep your hands out of the way. Don’t try to help Me and don’t resist Me. I really do need your full commitment and cooperation. If you give Me those, the process can go smoothly, without delays. My resume is included below.
Yours Sincerely,
God
The resume includes these particulars:
ADDRESS: Omnipresent
EXPERIENCE: From the beginning of time. Before the beginning of time. From everlasting to everlasting. I made time.
ABILITY: Omnipotent
PRIOR EMPLOYMENT: Created the universe, put the galaxies in place, formed man. Established heaven and earth by My spoken Word and am currently holding up the world by My power.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Omniscient
AVAILABILITY: Willing and ready to take over your life. Able to put your life together again. Will bring all of who I AM into your life. Can start now. Will transform your life if you let Me.
SALARY REQUIREMENT: Work in your life has already been paid for through the blood of My Son, Jesus. Your only responsibility is to commit initially and on a daily basis. To trust and obey what Jesus has done and wants to do in your life.
It’s been said, “Forty years Moses thought he was a somebody; the next forty years he discovered he was a nobody; and the last forty years he realized that God could use a nobody.”
Moses’ life was a paradox. He was a prince without a kingdom, a leader without a following, and a hero without a farewell. His experience included the peaks, the valleys, and the flatlands, but he lived a courageous life, chose a humble existence, and complete life’s foremost goals. He was a born winner and an eternal optimist, and never an abject failure or a sore loser. Though he stumbled, he never stagnated in his relationship with God. He lost touch with the Israelites, but he ever lost hope in them. In the end, the Precious Landowner, and not the Promised Land, was his better portion.
What do you live for? What do you leave behind? How do people regard you?
SERVE THE LORD AND GIVE YOUR BEST
5 And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said.
(Deut 34:5)
Several decades ago, the Standard Oil Company (Chevron today) was making preparations to establish itself in Indonesia. Company executives were seeking a manager for their Indonesian operations. They were informed that the man best qualified for the job was a certain missionary.
The company approached the missionary in reference to his availability for the position. Their offer was large: $30,000 yearly (a huge sum in those days). The missionary declined. Those seeking his services raised the offer. Still, he declined.
Finally they said, “Just name your salary. We’ll pay it if the salary we have named isn’t large enough.” “Oh,” replied he, “the salary is big enough, but the job wasn’t big enough!” (7,700 Illustrations # 3489)
The highest designation given to Moses was not something popular like “The Prince of Egypt,” something spectacular like “Prophet” (Num 12:6, Deut 34:10), or something historical like “Lawgiver” (2 Chron 34:14). The humble Moses would have cringed at those names; a simple and modest name would do for Moses. The most rewarding and satisfying accolade (2 Ki 18:12) Moses received was from God, and not man. God affectionately called Moses “My servant” (Num 12:7), putting him in select company and among famous luminaries such as Abraham (Gen 26:24), Jacob (Isa 44:1, 2), Caleb (Num 14:24), David (2 Sam 7:5), Job (Job 1:8), Isaiah (Isa 20:3), and Jesus (Matt 12:18). Elsewhere the Bible specified Moses as “His servant” (Ex 14:31, Josh 9:24, 11:15, Ps 105:26), and future generations respectfully identified him as “Thy servant Moses” (Neh 1:7).
After his death, Moses was granted the title “The servant of the Lord.” Moses was called “The servant of the Lord” seventeen times in the Bible (Deut 34:5, Josh 1:1, 1:13, 8:31, 8:33, 11:12, 12:6, 12:6, 13:8, 14:7, 18:7, 22:2, 22:5, 22:4, 2 Kings 18:12, 2 Chron 1:3, 2 Chron 24:6), more than the only other two recipients of the title, Joshua (Josh 24:29, Judg 2:8) and David (Ps 18:1, 36:1), who were both called that twice.
However, the supreme, the peerless, and the exclusive title accorded to Moses in the Bible was the uncontested title “The servant of God” (1 Chron 6:49, 2 Chron 24:9, Neh 10:29, Dan 9:11, Rev 15:3). Moses owns and monopolizes that title, though he did not conceive or hijack the title. The recognition was posthumous, too. No other biblical character shares in that. Others such as Paul (Titus 1:1) and James (Jas 1:1) depicted themselves as “a servant of the Lord,” and never as “the servant of the Lord” – with the article.
SERVE YOUR GENERATION AND GUIDE GOD’S PEOPLE
6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. 7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. 8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over. (Deut 34:6-8)
Lou Holtz, the football coach whose name is synonymous with Notre Dame football after many years at the university, was asked why he was retiring from the school where he made his name, with many successful years of winning seasons, football championships, and a lot of wonderful memories at he school, said, “I really didn’t want to go in on Monday. It was OK after I got around the other coaches and started to work, but it was like a kid not wanting to go to school, and his mother says, ‘You have to go to school for two reasons: No. 1, you’re 41; and No. 2, you’re the principal.’” (Los Angeles Times 11/29/96)
A coach explains the stress behind managing a team: “The key to being a successful coach in this day and age is not the Xs and O’s. It is trying to be a motivator and baby-sitter and psychologist all rolled into one, trying to get into their head.”
Not enough credit has been given to Moses part in establishing and shaping the nation of Israel. Israel, the tribes, and the people owed their existence and stability to the commitment, the resourcefulness, and the selflessness of Moses. No one had left a bigger mark or a more lasting legacy on Israel’s society and foundations. Moses was the Founder, the Historian, and the Lawgiver of Israel. He appointed judges (Ex 18:26, Deut 1:16), enacted laws, and made, shaped, and wrote history. He gave everything to and withheld nothing from the people that doubted, defied, and derided him continuously.
Moses served through troubles with the Egyptian masters and fellow Israelites, the previous generation and the new generation, and of his own doing. He was faithful in all of God’s affairs (Num 12:7, Heb 3:2, 3:5) - through thick and thin, from start to finish, and in big and small matters. The servant of God shied from the spotlight, kept a low profile, and did what he could. He battled through troubles with his arch-enemy Pharaoh and his fellow Israelites, through misunderstanding with his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam, and through conflict with the old and new generation.
When he knew of his imminent death, Moses approached God for someone to lead the Israelites out, so that the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd (Num 27:15-17). Even when he learned of his exclusion from the land, the tireless and relentless Moses never backed off from his work; he assigned to the Reubenites and Gadites their inheritance (Num 32), and completed the allotment of land to other tribes (Num 34).
When his task was over, Moses exited in a heartfelt, dignified, and remarkable manner. In life and in death, God honored Moses with His personal presence, primary care, and private company. God showed Moses the land (34:1), verified His promise (34:4), and bade him farewell and send him off with a closed, glorious, and unique burial, No fanfare, gravestone, or crowd was necessary with God present. The last person Moses heard from was God, the last thing he saw was the land, and the last assurance he received was the fulfillment of God’s promise to his forefathers. God buried Moses (v 6) - He picked the spot, attended the funeral, and gave the eulogy. The single mistake Moses made was not rehashed when he died, after his departure, and in the New Testament.
SERVE ONE ANOTHER AND GO IN PEACE
Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the LORD had commanded Moses (Deut 34:9)
Lucy and Charlie Brown were standing side by side to each other and staring blankly into open space when a pensive Lucy in deep thoughts asked Charlie Brown a serious question: “Do you think that life has its peaks and valleys? Charlie Brown answered, “Yes, I’m sure that it has.”
Lucy was puzzled at, confused by, and dissatisfied with the answer, and she gestured with open hands and continued asking, “Then, that means that there must be one day above all others in each (one’s) life that is the happiest, right?” Charlie Brown turned to face her and replied, “Yes, I guess that’s probably true.”
Lucy got to her point: “What if you’ve already had it?”
Robert Woodruff said, “There is no limit to what a man can do or how far he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.”
Moses’ life and work did not end with his death; Joshua picked up where he stopped and completed what he had started. The best thing Moses did for the new generation was to mentor the loyal Joshua, groom him for leadership, and encourage him to succeed (Deut 31:7-8). When Moses was willing to let go, Joshua stepped up courageously, the Israelites obeyed him, and God received the glory. Ironically, Joshua succeeded where Moses failed: the Israelites listened to Joshua (v 9).
The Hebrew word in verse 9 for “hear” or “obey,” translated as “listen to” in NIV, aptly contrasted Moses and Joshua’s leadership record among the Israelites. Not too long after leaving Egypt, the Israelites started to “pay no attention” to Moses (Ex 16:20), or they did not “hear” or “obey” Moses. The Israelites, however, paid the heaviest rice for their disobedience at Kadesh-barnea, where the Lord indicted Israel for disobeying Him and testing Him ten times (Num 14:22) when they refused to enter the land after reaching its borders. Moses recounted famously in Deuteronomy that they not only disobeyed him (Deut 1:43), they even disobeyed God (Deut 9:23). So Israel’s transformation from recurring disobedience to ready obedience was nothing short of a miracle, a feat previously unheard of. Joshua had a less antagonistic, resistant, and strained relationship with the new generation. The new team worked comfortably, naturally and harmoniously with one another. The Israelites renewed their vow to obey the Lord even when Joshua’s task was done (Josh 24:24).
Moses was a model leader and mentor. He did not leave the younger generation without a capable successor and an old hand. He prepared, appointed, and encouraged Joshua to complete the task and fulfill his destiny. His three-fold task was to commission or charge Joshua, to encourage or inspire him, and to strengthen or equip him to in leading Israel to inherit the land (Deut 3:28). Joshua’s friend, co-laborer, and teacher laid his hands on him, trusted him with the job, and rode off into the sunset. Moses never held his assistant back, doubted his sidekick’s ability, or begrudged his partner’s destiny. They were different people, with different personalities, gifts, and tasks, but they had mutual respect, common goals, and extraordinary skills. Joshua had the spirit of wisdom (v 9), but Moses was never described as wise.
Conclusion: God sees all, not just part, of a person’s life; the sum of a man’s character, not just one single mistake. Believers are expected to exalt the Lord, employ their gifts, and edify one another. We have the same Creator and the same commission, but with a different calling and course in life. Don’t regret the talents, opportunities, and breaks that you do not have, but recognize your uniqueness, you path, and your destiny in life.
Victor Yap
http://epreaching.blogspot.com/
www.riversidecma.org
preachchrist.com (Chinese sermons)
