Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Mistakes

Acts 7:17-29
New International Version (NIV)

17 “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. 18 Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’[a] 19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.[b] For three months he was cared for by his family. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’
27 “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’[c] 29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

Something I had never thought about and was not mentioned in the Old Testament, was Moses education.  In my footnote it stated that this is something that is imbedded in the Jewish tradition.  Verse 22 stuck out to me as if it were in large, bold, italicized, all caps, in my Bible.  “Powerful in speech and actions.”  Forty years later he responded to God, saying “no” to the calling he was being given by saying, 10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.(Exodus 4: 10) (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+4%3A10&version=NIV)

You may say, “Either Steven was wrong or Moses was lying to God because these two verses contradict themselves.”  I don’t think they do.  I think that Moses was most likely pretty sure of himself during his first forty years.  He did what he thought was right by defending his people but someone took that and turned it around for evil.  In Moses’ eyes, he viewed himself as being a failure, one that was never good with words.  Yet, we see that he was trying to help his brothers with a dispute that did not turn out the way he would have liked.  I can feel for Moses. 

I have tried to do things in the past that did not turn out the way that I would have liked.  By God’s design I am an introvert that has learned to become more of an extrovert.  My little world of being an introvert was once nice and safe but as I grew and became more vocal with my opinions but those opinions were not very welcomed.  To this day I can hear people spout out some pretty awful things and people just let them do it.  They may say, “well that is just who they are”.  When I say something that others don’t necessarily agree with, I get land blasted.  I think the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that the fact that the introvert values the opinions of others to a fault.  They have thought through what they are saying and when others reject it they are hurt.  I truly believe this was the case with Moses.  He was trying to help and got land blasted then ran to avoid any more confrontation.  When he told God that he had never been eloquent in speech it was because of this one incident that he felt this way.  If he could not help his people 40 years ago, how could he help them now?

Another thing that stood out to me was his age.  I am now in my fifty’s.  I took a chance at the 50 year turning point in my life to do something a little different in my career.  I tried to take a step up and did a pretty amazing job at it.  At no fault of mine, that task got shut down.  Now, I am looking for another opportunity to make an impact and frankly I feel like an utter failure.  Ask most people and they will say I am not a failure but, right or wrong, that is exactly how I feel.  I cannot figure out what I am supposed to do or where God is leading me.  I cry out and tell Him that I don’t have that many more years to do the work that I love.  I remind Him that we don’t live as many years as they did in the Old Testament times.  I don’t know many 80 year olds that could spend 40 more years in the desert these days, or for that matter, climb a mountain to talk to God!  What I learned in this lesson today is:
1.    One mistake does not have to define who we are.  Moses let the mistake of killing the Egyptian define who he was.  God can take our mistakes and use them to glorify Him. 
2.    Just because others reject our words, does not mean that our words were wrong.  Moses was trying to help these two individuals, he was right!
3.    I can and will be rejected by man but God never rejects me.  I should not ever get the two confused even though I do so often.
4.    God’s timing is always right.  I may have struggled for four year but for me to say that I am running out of time would be like saying that God is running out of time.  Well, we all know that God has all the time in the world!

As I continue to seek Him and His will in my life, I need to continually realize that He is in control.  I can say it over and over again.  I can cry out to Him time and time again.  I can accept that He is in control or I can be miserable trying to take control.  I hope that you too can learn from my many mistakes and be blessed to know that God is still at work today in you and in me. 

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila


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