By Pastor Donald Parker
As kids we grew up watching TV and regarded many of the characters as heroes and no matter whom your hero was, you wanted to be just like them. Of course, those characters were just make-believe.
The Bible is full of heroes. God used ordinary men and women to do extraordinary things and one of those heroes’ in the Bible was a man named Moses. The story of the parting of the Red Sea and how Moses lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt is one of the most familiar story in all the Old Testament.
Now in the first 40 years of Moses’ life, he lived in the palace with Pharaoh who ruled the entire area around the Mediterranean Sea. Moses was intelligent, well educated and among the biggest political influences of that time.
Then one day Moses went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they had to work. He also saw one of the Egyptians beating one of his fellow Hebrews. So Moses looked around, hoping that no one saw him, and he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.
The next day, two Hebrew men were fighting. Moses tried to break it up and one of them asks him who he thought he was? What are you going to do, kill me like you did the Egyptian? That question frightened Moses. He realized everybody must have heard what he had done and sure enough they had and it got back to Pharaoh who got so angry that he wanted to kill Moses. So Moses ran for his life and hid in the desert.
Moses got married and worked for his father-in-law watching his sheep. Moses went from the palace to watching stinking sheep; what a change of events; from the palace, to the desert. Moses, the one we all see as a hero, went through some really difficult times. Moses was a man just like you and I.
In Exodus chapter 3, Moses was taking care of the sheep and noticed a bush burning. What was unusual was that this bush wasn’t being consumed by the fire. Verse 4 says, “When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” Then in verse 7 the Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.”
God could have taken care of things Himself but chose not to. God allows us to be part of His plan and get in on what He is doing. God said to Moses in verse 10, “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” And Moses said to God in verse 11 “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
Moses was shocked. In today’s words it would sound like this; “Whoa wait a minute Lord, me! You want me, to go back and tell Pharaoh that I’m taking the Israelites out of Egypt!” “Really Lord? Who Lord am I to do that?”
But, you see, God had prepared Moses for the plan He had for him, the same way He prepares us, through difficulties. God uses difficulties in our lives to make us heroes. So, the difficulties in our lives have a purpose.
Romans 8:28 says, “We know that in all things (even difficulties) God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God uses difficulties in a couple of ways. One reason God allows difficulties is to humble our high opinion of ourselves.
James 4:6b “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Being humble doesn’t mean that we become doormats; being humble means we’re free from pride and arrogance. Being humble means we are aware that outside of the grace of God, we are inadequate to do the things God calls us to do.
Moses most likely had a pretty high opinion of himself when he lived a pampered life in the palace. So God humbled Moses while he was in the desert. There was no one to stand over him, fanning him while he ate grapes and drank wine. Instead, it was a hot desert and stinky sheep. God used those difficulties to prepare him for the plan He had for him; to prepare him to lead the Israelites.
Other times, God allows difficulties to cause us to depend on Him. Romans 9:16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. Difficulties make us realize that we need God’s mercy, because we can’t do life on our own, we need God. The same thing happened to Moses and God told Moses in verse 12, “I will be with you.”
God promises us that He will be with us and never leave us. Sometimes God allows difficult times in our lives so we would turn to Him and rely on His grace, His mercy and His strength to see us through it.
God wants you to be a hero in someone else’s life. Think about it for a moment; if you’re a Christian you’ve had a hero. Someone invited you to church. Someone told you about Jesus, and because of that someone, that hero, you gave your life to Jesus Christ. Will you be a hero in someone else’s life? Who do you know that you will invite to church with you next week. Who do you know that needs Jesus?
If you don’t have a church home, we invite you to worship with us at FBC Van Horn, A Place to Belong.
