Moses...Champion through self-sufficiency
Midian
Exodus 2:13-15 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, 'Why do you strike your companion?' He answered, 'Who made you a Prince and a Judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?' Then Moses was afraid, and thought, 'Surely the thing is known.' When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
Here we plainly see the end result of what happens when we trust in our own strength. You see, as strong as Moses was, he ran into something so much bigger, greater and stronger than himself: Pharaoh! When Pharaoh heard what Moses had done, he set out to kill the mighty Prince of Egypt and the only thing Moses could do was crumble in fear and run for his life. And this is the point: no matter how strong and confident we are in our own strength, one day we will run into something so much bigger, greater and stronger than we are and all we can do is crumble and run away in fear. This is why God must crush our strength, with all of its confidence and boast, and raise us up in His strength. Only His strength can stand in those places where human strength cannot stand.
So Moses fled into the desert of Midian. When he finally felt he was far enough from the Pharaoh's death-sentence, we find him sitting by a well. What does Midian represent at this point in Moses life? Sitting silently in this desert place, more than ever Moses is feeling the weight of his own failure. He is terribly sensing how much his own strength has let him down. Probably for the first time in his life he is feeling utterly defeated. He is utterly crushed in spirit.
This is what Midian can represent in our lives as well, any place where we come face-to-face with our failure. The place where we see how miserably our own strength has let us down. The place where we have no choice but to admit our utter defeat.
Yet, even in these places God's promises do not fail us. Though Moses does not perceive it, Midian holds a great promise for him. You see, in this desert place Moses is sitting by a well. In this hot, barren wilderness Moses is sitting in a little spot that holds the promise of life and hope. This well represents the well of God's transforming grace. It is at this moment God's marvelous grace is going to begin to work gloriously in Moses life. Forty years later he will return to Egypt a totally transformed man.
Beloved, if the bible teaches us anything about grace it teaches us that often grace performs its greatest work through time of failure. Failure was the turning point in Jacob's life; failure was the turning point in Moses life; and failure was the turning point in Peter's life. At some point failure will be a turning point in our lives as well.
You see, there is something about failure that opens the channel of humility in our lives and allows the power of grace to perform its greatest work. Failure births a humility in the heart that God says this is a humility I can do great things with.
Oh my brothers and sisters in Christ, take heart! Are you in the dregs of discouragement today? Have you been crushed by bitter self-disappointment? Be of good courage. You are sitting by a well that is filled with God's grace, able to make you into something you could never become in your own strength.
UNDERSTAND: MIDIAN WASN'T AN EASY PLACE FOR MOSES, BUT IT WAS A BENEFICIAL PLACE.
The word Midian actually means, Discord; place of inner conflict.
Midian represents all the inner conflict and turmoil that comes with dying to self. Moses did a lot of dying in Midian-dying to pride; dying to his own strength; dying to reputation; dying to human achievement-yet, Midian was a needed place in Moses life.
Why was it a needed place for Moses? Because it was the place where great humility merged with great strength. In the Midian wilderness Moses was reduced to such weakness and dependence upon the Lord. In Egypt he was a mighty Prince who trusted and boasted in his own great strength, but after forty years in the barren wilderness of Midian, he came to the realization that he could not even walk without the Lord holding his hand. The Lord brought him to such a realization of just how much he needed God. However, with this great humility came a great strength. The bible says that after forty years in the wilderness of Midian, Moses walked out of the Midian desert the meekest man on the earth.
What is meekness? Many say it is humility. That is only half of it. If I was to give a definition for meekness by looking at Moses life, it would have to be God's strength poured into a humble man or woman. Moses was humble. The wilderness made him that way. His absolute dependence was upon the Lord. In this humble heart God filled this humble man with tremendous strength.
Beloved, we will all walk with God through places of death, dying to all our own sufficiency, but the more God-dependent we become, the more He fills us with His divine strength. This is how it works: the more God-dependent we become, the more He fills this dependence with His own divine strength.
Praise be to God!
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