Day 4: A Time Of Cleansing

At the age of forty Moses fled from Egypt into the wilderness.

Acts 7:23

He must have, on occasion, gazed over the rolling dunes towards Egypt and wondered what might have been. Probably the first few years were the hardest for this well educated sheepherder from the comfortable household of a king. He married and was faithful to his task, but he had tried to save his people from their hard labor—and dreams die hard.

The danger with ambition is that it can be too farsighted. It can lead one to haste rather than patience, to run rather than walk. Too often, the call of God mingles with our own ambition and His way appears slow and His means inadequate. 

Moses wanted to lead an uprising but

    God led him to watch wayward sheep.

Moses wanted to demonstrate his power and knowledge but

    God placed him where no one cared.

Moses wanted revolution NOW but

    God set him in a desert for forty years.

Moses suffered forty years of obscurity before he could enter ministry.

We need not pretend we enjoy the dust or crave the bitter heat of our own desert. We need not say it will soon be over because it may much longer. It could be forty years or more. What we do know is that with God there is always a purpose.

We remember the sufferings of Jesus not because of how great they were, but because they were full of purpose. In fact, they are incidental to the purpose. Our “present sufferings” too, though real, “are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). 

This is hard medicine when the pain is a sharp and lasting one. This truth is hard medicine especially when the pain that plagues us is beyond our control. 

Whether or not we leave the desert to lead or to follow let us leave renewed in our mind and refreshed in our soul. Be it two, ten, or forty years, let us trust the one who leads us into the desert for our supply. He has not led us there to die. No! He is the author of life and out of the desert too He brings life.

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