The Making of a Man (or Woman)

A wise man in the faith once told me, "God is interested in making men -- not ministries." Now I'm sure Elder Taurel borrowed that saying from someone else, but God certainly used him to speak it into my spirit that day. And the meaning of those words has never left me. Rather than concern ourselves with God making a name for us -- with using God for our own glory, for our own agenda -- it's better to concern ourselves with God making US -- with His molding us and shaping us into His Son's likeness. After all, that's what Romans 8 says God's all about. That famous "all things works together for good" passage has less to do with God guaranteeing us a happy ending (on our terms) and more with God guaranteeing us His ending, which seems to be forming a people who reflect His nature and character to the world, so that then the world can be drawn to Him and more folks can join in worship of Him. And to accomplish this purpose, God will leave no stone unturned (in the words of another wise man in the faith, Pastor Reeves).

When I search the Scriptures to find someone who was formed by the Master's hand, molded into a man displaying God's character, my man Moses comes to mind. From Moses' birth it was obvious that God's hand was on the brother, protecting him from the vicious decrees of a fearful Pharoah and securing his physical and spiritual safety by paradoxically arranging for his earthly upbringing in Pharoah's house and for his moral training by his nurse who happened to be his mother.

The first picture we get of Moses himself shows a man in whom resided a strong sense of compassion and justice. Moses, who obviously has been told he is a Hebrew, sets out to learn of the condition of his people. Acts 7 says at age 40 "it entered his mind to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel" (nothing but God's Sovereignty at work). Incensed at an Egyptian overseer who is beating a fellow Hebrew, Moses intervenes, almost like he can't help himself. (Acts 7:24 says, "And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian.") He ends up killing the Egyptian and burying him in the sand, in order to help rescue his fellow Hebrew. The next day, this same streak of fairness and compassion comes oozing out of Moses again, this time spreading to his own people in the form of a rebuke (sign of a God-implanted trait -- it doesn't discriminate). Moses spies two Hebrews fighting and makes an effort to solve the problem (Acts 7:26 says he "tried to reconcile them in peace"), only to get his first taste in Disappointment 101: his own people reject his efforts to help, and even cast a stinging false accusation about his motives (trying to be prince and judge over us), rather than admit their own fault and reconcile with one another. One of these Hebrews even lets Moses know he's aware of the murder Moses committed the day before, a comment that, along with the disillusionment of trying to help and seemingly not making a difference, sends this man reeling into the desert far away from the powers that be who wanted to retaliate and away from the realization that his efforts to rescue were spurned by the very ones he wanted to help. (Acts 7:25 says, "And he supposed that his brothers understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.")

But Moses cannot escape the ingrained tendency to rescue -- even while away from Egypt, we see him rescuing Jethro's daughters from men who bothered them when they were at the well. In fact, that's what these sisters tell their daddy -- that 'an Egyptian' helped (literally, delivered) them that day. Again, Moses' sense of compassion and justice could not bear the thought of defenseless women being bothered. ("Then the shepherds came and drove them [the sisters] away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock." -- Exodus 2:17)

Reading about Moses' sense of inadequacy, so much so that God seemingly gets frustrated trying to convince Moses to take the job of leading Israel, is a testament to the power of God to 'make a man'. And so is seeing how God developed Moses, from the firebrand murderer in
Egypt to the shepherd on the backside of the mountain (plus being an alien and a father), even to being a long-suffering leader of millions of Hebrews. Far from Moses being the star of this narrrative, though, God is the Hero. He shines through as the True Deliverer (He tells Moses HE'S going down to deliver Israel, in the same conversation where He commissions Moses to go, so it's clear who's in control), as the One who is moved by the cries of His oppressed people, as the powerful One who decimates one of the greatest civilizations of all time in order that they may know that He is God. Even though Acts 7:35 tells us that "this Moses whom they disowned, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer...", we are also told that Moses did this "with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush" (same verse), and we hear God's words to Moses about Himself saying, "I have certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groans, and I have come down to rescue them; come now, and I will send you to Egypt." The beauty of all this is that the spirit of a deliverer or rescuer that resided in Moses actually came from God -- Moses could have such compassion on folks and have such a strong desire for fair treatment of all because that's what His heavenly Father had. And, His heavenly Father enabled Him to act on that spirit and bless others.