What Moses Can Teach Us About Life
What Moses Can Teach Us About Life
The other day my daughter made a timeline for history class. She printed the pages and taped them together. It was a nice, neat line of events and special memories. But our lives are not straight lines. There are twists and turns and 180-degree pivots.
Maybe we don’t need to look back at our lives in order to see how it might have been. We can look back to see where to go next. As we look at our life, even the disappointments, let’s look through the lens of someone who has been there too. The Bible is full of men and women who faced setbacks in life. Ruth, Naomi, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, and even the disciples in the New Testament had things in their lives that they didn’t sign up for. But perhaps the best person to teach us about disappointment is Moses.
Over the course of his life, Moses faced one blow, disappointment, or disillusionment after another. Yet through it all, Moses was viewed by the writers of Scripture as one of the most humble servants used by God. He is revered as a father of our faith, the prophet who led the greatest rescue plan for the Jewish nation. This leader and lawgiver lived a long life listening to God. His legacy is summed up in one word: servant. He served God.
So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Ps. 90:12 ESV)
Moses knew that life would be short and frail, and his words are not a warning but an opportunity. We don’t need to fear that our “days are numbered.” We don’t need to worry that unforeseen changes and unexpected detours in our life will ruin what little time we have. We can rest in the fact that each day counts as we move closer to the end. The days we wake up, wash our face, and go do life are precious days. Moses teaches us how to learn wisdom and listen to God, even when we’re not sure where we’re headed. If we were to trace Moses’s life, we would have to make a winding path, but I think Moses would agree that our life is less like a line than a series of steps.
Each step is ordered by the Lord (Ps. 37:23) and they don’t always follow a pattern or a path that we can see. Our life is a mixed bag of ups and downs. Good things. Bad things. Unexplained heartache. Disrupted plans. Moses knew what it was like to face rejection, plagues, miracles, floods, death, judgment, weariness, disappointment, and much more. With each turn of events, Moses remained true to God. He continued to lead the people and, most importantly, to listen to God. In the middle of plans being rear- ranged, Moses remained a servant of God.
Tweet ThisA lifetime could be spent studying the life of this great man of God. As we look through Scripture and see a large view of Moses’s life, we are going to go through several books from the Old and New Testaments. We will ask: Who was this servant, friend, companion, and leader of God? What does his story tell us about our own? Might we gain perspective and practical tools to navigate our own challenges and changes?
Moses faced the end of his life, knowing he would never see the fulfilled promise of God’s leading the people into the land of Canaan, with these words:
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. (Ps. 90:14 ESV)
“Excerpt taken from I Didn’t Sign Up for This, by Sarah E. Frazer, B&H Publishing Group, Brentwood TN. Copyright © 2023. Used with permission. All rights reserved.”
Preorder Sarah’s book, I Didn’t Sign Up for This here.
