# Moses in Midian CHARACTER STUDIES Language: en Author: by Lee Rufener Athens, WI Original issue: The Heartbeat of the Remnant, Fall 2022, Number 3 Source pages: 8–11 Read article: Original PDF: Fall\-2022\-Remnant\.pdf [The Heartbeat of the Remnant, Fall 2022]() *Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father\-in\-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb –Exodus 3:1\.* The back side of the desert has long been understood as God’s school wherewith He has instructed many of His servants, of whom Moses stands chief\. At the prime age of 40, he found himself *…learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds\. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel –Acts 7:22\-23\.* I have no doubt that God can, and does, use men of great ability, capacity, and training, but spiritual leadership requires an ingredient that is not derived from doing, attaining, and accomplishing\. The bane of the zealot is often too little confidence in God and too much confidence in the flesh\. This pride and restlessness is not dealt with in a seminary nor is it normally exterminated during vigilant duty\. For many of God’s servants, it is extracted from the soul on the soil of deserted sands\. This arid and abandoned acreage that appears void of life and fruitfulness is where many servants learn to put their face in the dust and yield to what may seem to be inactivity, unfruitfulness, and rejection\. Moses’ life could be divided into three sections\. He spent his first forty years learning the wisdom of Egypt, the next forty as a shepherd in Midian, and a final forty as the shepherd of Israel\. We can imagine that the first third of his pilgrimage was filled with tremendous activity, advancement, and accomplishment\. It had undoubtedly been rehearsed to him that at his birth he *…was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months –Acts 7:20\.* The miraculous river rescue by Pharoah’s daughter would serve to confirm that he was destined to be an instrument of God’s divine orchestration\. As a centerpiece of national attention, it is certainly understandable how this man who *…was mighty in words and in deeds –Acts 7:22,* was brimming with self\-confidence in his ability to accomplish God’s bidding\. In today’s economy, Moses would be esteemed as the ideal candidate for church leadership\. He was in every way qualified\. He stood above his countrymen in education, and he possessed above\-normal natural, financial, and spiritual endowments\. He had emerged from the “University” of Egypt as a man mighty in word and deed and he had an obvious call from God upon his life\. He was a conservative man who chose *…rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season –Hebrews 11:25\.* Still, amidst all his fine credentials he was yet deficient for the work that God had called him to\. And so, God conveniently conducted him into the land of Midian to enroll him in another school to feed upon the bitter herbs of disappointment and rejection, obscurity and loneliness, and unfulfilled dreams and longings\. While it was his earlier ambition to voluntarily align himself with the people of God, this chapter of his life was enacted by compulsion\. We learn from the account in Exodus that the latter third of his life was loaded with intricate involvement and major ministry\. While the exit from Egypt is an exciting read and provides great insight, most of us cannot honestly relate to the mighty Moses and his dynamic coalition with God\. Rather, it is the uneventful 40\-year mid\-section of his life that many of us find ourselves in\. Though there are but a few dozen verses that represent these four decades of his life, we assume that it was a thorough schooling that inscribed immense patience, soul searching, and perhaps a bit of frustration\. For us, it represents a period when the parched sands of time about us seem to be producing nothing more fruitful than a revelation of our dry, crusty heart—shriveled and wasted by the consequences of our failures and past sins\. It is at these times that we can have a lapse in faith, not that we blame God for our circumstances, but that we may begin to see our lives as futile, and that each day is the same as the previous one\. Perhaps we begin to walk around in a visionless stupor—through a fog of spiritual depression—as we grope for encouragement and a reminder that God has not forgotten us\. At times, it even seems that our prayers hit the ceiling and bounce back, laughing and lying to us in grim mockery that our usefulness in the Kingdom of God is over\. During extended times of trials and testing, we can feel abandoned\. We can even imagine that God has turned against us\. We look up to Heaven and ask, “Why Lord?” We will never experience rejection and being forsaken to the extent that the Lord Jesus did, but when we experience them in our petty little realm, it seems to sap all our spiritual strength and vigor\. We think… *If the Lord should require forty years of this from us there would be no time left in our lives to capitalize on what we have learned\.* But God’s timing is perfect\. Thus, it behooves us to not concern ourselves so much with the longevity of our schooling, but to be thoroughly acquainted with the message from Midian\. While some receive the bitter strokes of Midian and retreat to stand cynically on the sidelines, we must shake off the dust of the desert and arise with an understanding of… ## God’s Purpose God has a purpose for every detail of our lives\. He may plant us in a difficult position, to forge in us a new vocation\. It was alone in Midian where Moses learned of his own pride, self\-confidence, lack of faith, and the utter folly that his own hands had participated in\. Here in his Midian, he was alone and yet not alone; numerous other saints have joined him there\. The sons of Jacob and the wife of Potiphar sent another vibrant servant there—Joseph\. The wild rage of a jealous king sent a gifted young harpist there\. Even an old and foolish king who refused to be taught found himself in a wilderness eating grass like an ox until he recanted of his pride\. Throughout the pages of history, countless saints have realized that ‘the darker the valley, the more I learned to pray’\. While they arrive at the threshold of the new day loaded down with bountiful exuberance, they are soon stripped naked in a metamorphic change and finally emerge with nothing but the rod of God in their hands\. Gone are the days when they were swift to speak, swift to act, and slow to hear\. In Midian, the student learns to shift his focus from, “I will do great things for God” to “What wilt thou have me to do?” *And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do –Acts 9:6\.* The new arrivals in Midian have many answers, but most of them involve a one\-act\-play with self as the main character\. The graduates walk out silent and sober, for they’ve come through the arduous process of separating the flesh from the spirit which was accomplished by… ## God’s Purging *The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts –Proverbs 17:3\.* As Moses passed through the gates of Midian, the first scene that God set before his eyes was an injustice at a well\. *Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters… –Exodus 2:16*, who were being driven away by a band of uncouth shepherds\. But Moses had been well trained in every dimension of Egyptian plutocracy, which would have included all aspects of military expertise and worldly leadership skills\. Thus, when he stepped in to assist the helpless shepherdesses, he would have been quite capable to do so\. These daughters of the priest of Midian appreciated the help which they recounted to their father that *…An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock –Exodus 2:19\.* Upon hearing this tale, their father, Reuel, was so impressed that he gave Moses a reception, a job, and a wife… all in one verse\. *–see Exodus 2:21\.* *…Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them –Mark 10:42\.* While Moses’ quest for justice may have been noble, his orientation was merely Gentile\. This may work for establishing pecking order in a hen house, but it is destined for failure in leading forth the people of God\. *But … whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all –Mark 10:43\-44\.* This doctrine was foreign to Egypt and to Moses as well\. Many good and talented men can successfully operate a business using Gentile authority, but it rarely works in their home, and it is even more futile in a church\. Thus, God moved His chosen vessel from royalty to proletariat \(the working class\), almost overnight\. He is then given a job which was loathed by the people who had trained him—*…for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians –Genesis 46:34\.* This fining pot is not just to teach us a much\-needed lesson, but to guide us into… ## God’s Provision *The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way –Psalm 25:9\.* God will never abandon us on the back side of the desert; instead, He tailors our life circumstances to bring us into His fullness\. If we resist the temptation to espouse an attitude of anger, then God will be able to teach us His ways\. But to Moses, the situation presented itself such that God’s divine direction was the last thing he would suspect was happening\. Happening…? It seemed that nothing was happening\. The weeks melted into months, the months into years, and the years into decades, all the while the gifted Moses remained an underachieving shepherd\. One of the hardest things that we struggle with is “waiting\.” Almost every Christian will face a long time of tribulation and we are told to: *…think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you –1 Peter 4:12\.* But we should not judge God’s means by our feeble sense, for in the meantime, the wonderful working of waiting prepares us for… ## God’s Promotion 38, 39, … 40 years\. *Come **now** therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt –Exodus 3:10\.* Perhaps God is enamored with the number 40, but more than likely, it was the time that it took for Moses to land at the seat of resignation\. His self\-esteem has been fully extinguished, and he humbly asks: *…Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? –Exodus 3:11\.* Moses was not less qualified than he was forty years prior to this time, but his presumption had evaporated in the heat of the desert sun\. The experience gleaned in the rugged pastures with the stubborn sheep has brought him to the understanding that this will be nearly an impossible feat\. But there is no ordained calling issued independently from… ## God’s Promise *…Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain –Exodus 3:12\.* Not that Moses had attained perfection, for we find Moses provoking God to anger in the very next chapter—*And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses… –Exodus 4:14\.* Then soon again he is the direct object in the path of God’s sword—*And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him –Exodus 4:24\.* Even so, while his vessel is still made of clay, it has met with a firing that has prepared him for the Lord’s service, and for us God will not revoke His promises in the wind of our whims\. Thus, the great I AM THAT I AM *–see Exodus 3:14*, has laid upon human shoulders the immense and eternal task of leading His people\. But this charge is not to be executed without… ## God’s Power What was the real refinement from Moses’ time spent in the desert? We notice his rash willingness to wield the sword before his arrival, but upon his exit, he only bore a rod in his hand\. With the sword he had overcome an Egyptian offender, but with the rod he overcame the entire forces of Egypt\. The rod of God brought forth the water in the wilderness\. It was the rod of God, that, when lifted high by feeble hands secured the victory over Amalek\. What is the rod of God? Before his days in Midian, he hardly knew it existed\. Forty years later there hardly exists a scene without it\. The rod is the power of God unto salvation\. It is the wisdom of God, the truth of God, the testimony of God, but more than all of these it is the chastening of God\. Without it, man does not receive nor perceive the love of God for without it man is not connected to God\. *For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth\. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons –Hebrews 12:6\-8\.* This same Moses, who at one time was willing to exercise lordship \(Gentile authority\) over God’s people now finds himself entreating God and staying His wrath from destroying them\. The people who accused Moses of leading them out to kill them and even at one point were ready to stone him are now at the center of his heart and affection, even though they are at the cause of his failure to enter the promised land\. This is the love of Christ\. But where is this learned except under the rod of God, on the back side of the desert, in the Egyptian dungeons, in the caves of Adullam, in the straits of Arabia, and in the silent solitude of the back burner where God has ordained that many of His people go until they learn to *…learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls –Matthew 11:29\.* Surely that is where Moses secured the character known to the biblical scholar as the meekest man to walk the face of the earth\. Surely there is no more opposite place on earth to learn it but in the school of suffering\. And so here we shall abide as well, so that we *…may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death –Philippians 3:10\.* ![A broad desert valley beneath layered mountains and clouds]() ## Magazine citation - [A broad desert valley beneath layered mountains and clouds](): Adobestock\.com