Moses, 11...who Is More Humble Than Any one else on The Face of the Earth! / Paul's Bible Characters

 

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Moses, 11...

...who Is More Humble Than 

Any one else on The

 Face of the Earth!

[Num 12:3] 

 

/ Paul's Bible Characters 

 

 

/ By Paul

 

 

If you look at the religious

figures in the Bible,

 

 

you can see that most of them

became great figures in history

through obedience and faith

in difficult circumstances.

 

 

(Abraham, David and

the 12 disciples)

 

 

However, as for Moses,

God changed his life from

the highest position to the

lowest position

 

 

and raised him up again

to do wonderful things. 

 

 

He was

indeed a man of faith

who received special

guidance from God.

 

 

Humans experience trauma,

depression, despair, and

abandonment in their lives,

 

 

depending on the severity

of their circumstances.

 

 

From this point of view,

we can guess that the shock

to Moses' life must have been

quite severe when he fell from

 

 

the leadership status of

a prince to the low status

of a mere shepherd.

 

 

Nevertheless, he faithfully

spent the most important

40 years of his life tending

sheep in the fields.

 

 

And he received God's call

and lived the last 40 years

of his life as a servant of God,

carrying out His work.

 

 

He was a special figure who

had lived his life in three

different environments.

 

 

Even though he went through

a bigger change than anyone else,

Moses faithfully fulfilled

God's will in his life.

 

 

We, too, must imitate Moses

and strive to become Christians

who can overcome the changes

that may come to us.

 

 

1. The 40 years in Egypt were

the best period of Moses' life.

 

 

Moses was the third child

born to Amram and Jochebed,

descendants of the tribe of Levi,

 

 

among the Israelites who

were slaves in Egypt.

 

 

He had an older sister, Miriam,

and an older brother, Aaron.

 

 

Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt,

ordered all Hebrew-born

male children to be killed,

 

 

and Moses was an unlucky

child born at that time.

 

 

Moses, who was destined to die

as soon as he was born, was

put in a box made with faith

 

 

and love by his mother,

Jochebed, and put the box

among the reeds along

the bank of the Nile.

 

 

In the end, Moses was led

by Pharaoh's daughter

and became her son,

 

 

and his real mother, Jochebed,

became a nurse and raised her

son with her own hands.

 

 

What an amazing 

providence of God this was!

 

 

The name of Moses means

the one who was drawn

out of the water.

 

 

He entered the royal court

at the age of about 3 or

4 and could learn all

the studies of Egypt.

 

 

1) Moses grew up to be a

great person with all the

virtues of a worldly leader.

 

 

(1) In (Exodus 2:11), the word

'gadal' meaning 'grown up'

means 'to be great'

 

 

or 'to be highly regarded',

so Moses participated

in various state affairs

 

 

and major and minor affairs

of the country as a prince of Egypt.

 

 

You can see that he became a

person with high achievements.

 

 

(2) Until he reached the age of 40,

he must have participated in

the war to conquer Ethiopia

 

 

and led the victory,

and he must have achieved

extraordinary results in building

a castle for King Pharaoh.

 

 

(3) He knew how to command,

manage, and handle people,

 

 

which means that he himself

was sensible, dignified,

and virtuous.

 

 

Finally, he was nominated

as the next king to succeed

the throne, overtaking

the prince of Pharaoh.

 

 

(4) To become a worldly leader,

you must reach the highest level

in life centered on your soul

 

 

and body,

receiving education

and training centered on

academics, bravery,

and achievements.

 

 

2) Worldly leaders try to

solve problems in the

world's way.

 

 

One of Moses' anguish

was the fact that he

was a Hebrew.

 

 

Just as we all live with

our own secrets, this must

have been his own secret

 

 

that he had wanted to forget,

and hide from others.

 

 

Regarding whether to become

a king or a slave, Moses

acknowledged

 

 

and accepted the identity God

had granted to him according

to his own conscience.

 

 

He felt the pain of his fellow

countrymen's persecuted life

and tried to help them

to save them.

 

 

However, the problem was

that he chose the method

of violence in order to defeat

the abusive forces with

his own strength.

 

 

The worldly victory can be

proved in the way of violence,

 

 

but the religious victory

is proved by the work of God.

 

 

For the first 40 years of

Moses' life, he lived a successful

life in the world by making

the most of the ways of his

soul and body.

 

 

However, it was the life

that could not have any

influence on spiritual things.

 

 

2. The 40 years of his life as

a shepherd was the best

period of faith and soul

for Moses.

 

 

Before God called Moses

and gave him a mission,

 

 

He granted him a period

of learning about God

in the Midian wilderness.

 

 

Moses came to know God

in nature, and through this,

he learned humility,

 

 

and as he learned life

while tending sheep, he

realized that he was an alien.

 

 

After being identified as a

Hebrew because of the murder

of an Egyptian, he fled to

the wilderness of Midian

 

 

and began his life as

a shepherd.

 

 

After being identified as a

Hebrew because of the murder

of an Egyptian, he fled to

the wilderness of Midian

 

 

and began

his life as a shepherd.

 

 

As a result, the two words

representing him, who lived

as a shepherd for 40 years

 

 

in the middle of his life, were

'an alien and humility'.

 

 

1) The one, who knows

that life on this earth is the

life of an alien, has a

longing heart for eternity.

(Exo 2:22)

 

 

He expressed the reason

Moses' first son was named

Gershom as below,

 

 

"I have become an

alien in a foreign land."

 

 

The principle of nature is that

everything returns to where

it comes from.

 

 

(Ex: Water comes from the sky,

so it becomes steam again

and returns to the sky,

 

 

the body comes from the earth,

so it returns to the earth when it dies,

and the soul returns to the sky

because it came from God.)

 

 

This land is not a permanent

residence, but like an alien,

we passed through Egypt,

 

 

and now we are going through

the wilderness and heading

to a place we do not know,

 

 

and eventually we will go

to heaven in the future.

 

 

Moses experienced

a dramatic life from a prince

to a shepherd and realized

that his life was nothing

in the great nature.

 

 

Life of man is not found

in a royal palace built by man,

but is found in nature purely

created by God,

 

 

and when we realize that

we human beings are nothing

but creatures built by God,

 

 

we feel lonely and come

to learn nature.

 

 

2) Those who know how

to assimilate to nature can

find and resemble God's

character in nature.

 

 

"Now Moses was a very

humble man, more humble

than anyone else on the

face of the earth."

(Num 12:3)

 

 

Among the nature that

people have, there is

'meekness' and 'humility.

 

 

Meekness is an innate

character of man, while humility

is the nature of man changed

by God's grace.

 

 

Therefore, a meek heart

follows the will of man with

a human nature, while

humility is a heart

 

 

that follows

the will of God with the

nature of the Holy Spirit.

 

 

Moses did

not have meekness

in nature but he was

hot-tempered and

quick-tempered.

 

 

All that Moses could see

in the field all day was sheep,

grass, wells, sky, and mountains.

 

 

(1) Silence: 

 

 

There are wind, lightning,

storms, floods, and

earthquakes in nature.

 

 

They can occur anytime.

However, they just stay silent.

 

 

(2) Obedience:

 

 

By obeying God's providence,

no matter how severe the

changes are, all things can

keep themselves as

they were built.

 

 

(3) Beauty:

 

 

All things are

satisfied and delighted. 

 

 

Feeling calm and relaxed

is the greatest beauty.

 

 

It is nature to show calmness

even in times of drought or crisis.

 

 

Through this, Moses learned

nature in God's providence, 

and he was assimilated

into nature.

 

 

He became a humble man

when assimilated into nature.

 

 

3. His 40 years as a servant of God

was the best period of his

ministry for Moses.

 

 

Born in the flesh, Moses walked

the path of a leader with

a desire for the world.

 

 

However, Moses,

who was born as a soul in nature,

learned from nature that life

was only an alien's path

 

 

and that human beings

must have humility in

God's providence.

 

 

Moses, who was finally

called by God and was

born again as a servant of God,

 

 

realized that he had to fulfill

the role of a faithful servant

in all God's house

 

 

and lived as an

obedient spiritual worker. 

(Heb 3:5)

 

 

Likewise, like Moses,

we Christians experience

three births of body,

soul, and spirit.

 

 

God has entrusted us

with a mission on this earth,

and through spiritual birth,

 

 

we can realize what it is

and lead our lives to fulfill

the true will of God.

 

 

The providence predestined

by God in the life of Moses

was in the end neither

a prince of Egypt

 

 

nor a shepherd in the

Midian wilderness,

 

 

but the life to fulfill his

mission as a leader to lead the

Israelites out of Egypt.

 

 

Even though he could not

come to the destination

where he wanted to go,

 

 

Moses,

who realized God's will,

was able to devote his life

to this ministry.

 

 

1) As a servant in all God's house 

 

 

Moses worked hard to fulfill

his mission, but in the end,

 

 

God did not allow him to

enter the land of Canaan

and enjoy rest and blessings.

 

 

Why did God allow Moses

to go up to Mount Nebo

and look only at the land of 

Canaan, the promised land,

 

 

and then die there in the

land of Mohab?

 

 

We may be sorry to think

about what God did to Moses.

 

 

However, God tells us through

Moses that there are things

we must do, and there are

things we must never

do as believers.

 

 

This means that Moses

acted rudely in front of God.

 

 

(1) As soon as he saw the

people worshiping the golden

calf, Moses threw down the

 

 

stone tablets of the Ten

Commandments and

broke them.

(Ex 32:19)

 

 

God commanded Moses to

chisel out the stone tablets

and bring them back.

 

 

(2) Moses took a Cushite woman

and made her his wife.

(Num 12:1)

 

 

God punished Miriam,

the complaining sister,

with leprosy even at this time.

 

 

(3) God rebuked Moses for

striking the rock twice with

his staff in Kadesh Barnea. 

(Num 20:10-11)

 

 

'You did not believe me

and did not show my holiness,

' God rebuked him.

 

 

In the case of (1) and (2),

God tolerated them,

but in the case of

 

 

(3) above, we must pay

attention to that God

disciplined Moses.

 

 

In other words, for the sins

we have committed ourselves,

God can take a closer look at

them and forgive them.

 

 

However,

 

 

we must know that

it can be a great sin if we do

what God has commanded

 

 

us to do according to our

will and cover the

glory of God.

 

 

"Listen, you rebels,

must we bring you water

out of this rock?"

 

 

In this way, Moses replaced

the glory of God with 'we'.

 

 

Moses

was clearly a man of faith,

so he produced numerous

miracles by faith,

 

 

such as dividing the Red Sea

and healing the bitter

water of Marah.

 

 

As a result, he regarded

the miracles God performed

through him as if he had

done them himself.

 

 

It was this kind of spiritual

arrogance that ultimately

kept Moses from entering

the land of Canaan he

longed for.

 

 

He must have repented

of his sins until he died at

Mount Nebo according

to God's command.

 

 

And what he finally realized

was that he was just a

servant in God's all house.

 

 

It is God who saved

Moses' life from the water.  

 

 

It is also God who saved him

from thirst in the desert. 

 

 

It is also God who dramatically

saved him, who was about to

die from Pharaoh's pursuit.

 

 

It is also God who divided

the Red Sea and led him.

 

 

In the end, Moses came to

realize that he was only a servant

in all God's house, that is, in

the entire congregation of Israel.

 

 

Although Moses did not

enter Canaan, his repentance

could reach God, and he could

be taken up to heaven.

 

 

When Jesus was transfigured

on the mountain, Elijah

and Moses appeared

and talked with the Lord.

 

 

This might prove

the ascension of Moses.

(The Ascension of Moses:

Apocrypha)

 

 

2) Faithfulness in faith

(Num 12:7)

 

 

Faithfulness is 'pistos' in Greek,

which means faith.

 

 

In other words, faithfulness

to God is possible only through faith.

 

 

God is invisible being,

not visible being.

 

 

Therefore,

faithfulness to God

is based on faith, and faith

already implies faithfulness.

 

 

God called Moses a faithful

man because he revealed

the most words to Moses,

 

 

and he obeyed God with faith.

(law, decrees, ten commandments)

And because he saw God's back

and heard God's name.

 

 

Through this, Moses realized

that grace rather than ability,

revelation than knowledge,

supply than effort,

 

 

and healing

than pain are the much

greater grace of God.

 

 

That is, Moses realized that

relying only on God was the

beginning of life.

 

 

That's what

made him faithful.

 

 

A person of true faith is one

whose life is in God's control

 

 

and who entrusts all of

his life to His grace

and lives with joy.

 

 

Moses was a man of God

who showed success and

failure in his life of faith.

 

 

However,

at the moment of his final

death on Mount Nebo,

 

 

he became a servant who

ascended to heaven after

being acknowledged by God

through repentance and

obedience.

 

 

Human status and ability

are never what we can rely

on completely.

 

 

These are what God allows

us from time to time.

 

 

Therefore, like Moses,

we should serve God with

humility and faithfulness.

 

 

 

- To Be Continue - 

 

 

2023/08/30

 

 

/ By Paul