Vision Quest, Learning From Men Of Vision
Part 3 – Moses
We still today continue our series on Vision Quest, Learning From Men Of Vision. Today’s Man of Vision is Moses.
Have you ever sensed God leading you to do something but you hesitated to follow through because you knew it would upset your routine, confuse your schedule even change your life? Maybe you heard God speaking to your heart but you knew deep inside that following the Spirit’s lead would likely bring you pain and misery.
Let’s consider Hosea who heard God calling him to marry a prostitute. Or what about Jonah who heard God calling him to go to a foreign land, to a very large city, full of pagan sinners to preach the message of repentance. Now that would put a damper on your day. I can just hear the conversation between God and Jonah:
“Pssst, Jonah, here’s what I want you to do. Go down to the docks in Joppa and catch the first ship you can to the city of Nineveh.”
“Nineveh! I’ve never even heard of Nineveh! What? Why me Lord?”
“Never mind that. Now when you get there I want you to preach against the people of that city because their wickedness has finally driven me to anger.”
“God, excuse me but… ARE YOU CRAZY ! You want me to jump a ship to Nineveh, a city full of people I’ve never met, and quite frankly, couldn’t care less about, and to ice the cake, You want me to preach to them! Tell them all that they’re bad, bad people who must turn from their sins or be destroyed! Is that all you want me to do!”
Now Jonah had a pretty peaceful life. He was the president of the famous football club in town. He was very popular among his neighbors. You really couldn’t ask for a better life than Jonah had. Then suddenly, without notice, enters God.
Isn’t that just like God? I mean we live our lives in peace and harmony. We obey the law, we look both ways before crossing the street, we even support, contribute and pay our monthly dues to the Ruling Political Party in Power in Africa every year. We go to church. We faithfully give a percentage of our income back to the Lord, we pray and read our Bibles. By and large we have pretty safe and peaceful lives and then God breaks in.
And He says… Hey Kofi Wayoo…, I’d like you to leave the U.S and take a little trip to AFRICA and demonstrate My love and support to as many Ghanaians as you possibly can… I want you to share My Gospel with your fellow Ghanaians instead of your so called Political ambitions and aspirations towards the Presidency in Ghana? Uh-hum, excuse me ? I’d like you to tell your fellow Ghanaians that I love them. But God….? Just please laught it off! Just an illustration!
Ladies and Gentlemen, God is no respecter of our comfort. It just never fails, as soon as one of His children settle into a peaceful rhythm of life, all of a sudden one hear hear such call as this… Kind of gets your attention in a nerve-wracking way doesn’t it?
If you have your Bibles turn with me to the book of Exodus. Let’s watch how God interrupts the peaceful life of Moses, the shepherd. Now Moses wasn’t always a shepherd mind you. In fact, Moses was about as prestigious as one could get in his day. You see, he had been adopted by the daughter of pharaoh into the royal family. Moses grew up as a prince. So how did he end up herding sheep in the deserts of Midian? Good question.
Turn to Exodus 2:11-12 & 15
Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. [12] So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
[15] When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.
Hard to believe. Moses a well-respected prince of Egypt became a murderer. As a result, pharaoh sought to kill Moses and thus Moses fled into the wilderness until he finally decided to rest at a well in the land of Midian.
Before he knows it, Moses is married to a fine girl by the name of Zipporah and becomes a father. Yeah, right about this point in his life the ex-prince kind of figures life is good. After all, better to be a simple shepherd in Midian than a corpse in Egypt. Reasonable thinking. However, God has a plan for Moses and forty years later, God interrupts the shepherd with a vision. Turn over to Exodus 3:7-8:
[7] The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. [8] “So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…
Isn’t that just like God? For forty years Moses has led a peaceful existence in the land of Midian working for his father-in-law when suddenly HELLO … God interrupts everything!
Moses is suddenly confronted with God’s vision for his life which included returning to the land he had fled from 40 years prior. Understandably Moses is just a bit hesitant. After all he had murdered a man in Egypt. Certainly his own people, the Hebrews, would remember the incident even if the new pharaoh didn’t. I mean who was Moses to go back to Egypt and free his people, he had long accepted and embraced his new life as a simple shepherd.
Truth be told, Moses just wasn’t interested in God’s Vision for his life. Listen to the conversation between God and Moses in Exodus 4:10-13:
But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I’m not now, even after you have spoken to me. I’m clumsy with words.”
[11] “Who makes mouths?” the Lord asked him. “Who makes people so they can speak or not speak, hear or not hear, see or not see? Is it not I, the Lord? [12] Now go, and do as I have told you. I will help you speak well, and I will tell you what to say.”
[13] But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send someone else.”
Sound familiar? Now let’s be completely honest with ourselves. Haven’t you sensed God calling you at one time or another and failed to answer the call? I know I have…
“But God, you got the wrong person here.”
“Impossible Lord, I’m just too shy”
“No way God, I’m a lousy speaker”
“Sorry Jesus, I’m not educated enough to pull that off”
“But God, I don’t have the training”
“Are you crazy Lord! I can’t speak in front of people!”
We all have a myriad excuses and yet isn’t it true that God calls us to do things that are beyond our abilities? Doesn’t our Lord call us to do the impossible so that He can receive the glory? Where do we Christians get the idea that God will only call us to do things that are comfortable, or possible or realistic?
I mean even Paul says,And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. [10] Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Cor. 12:9-10
Friends, God has not called us to go where we think we ought to go. Where we think we would be most comfortable or effective or even happy. God has called us to obey. Obedience means we listen to the Master, and then go precisely where He sends us. In other words we must embrace God’s Vision for our lives. ...
