Title: Ready
Contents
♡♥♡♥♡ Those who are ready / Exodus 3:1-10
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Everyone in the world expects their life to be successful. But success is not just a given. “Success belongs to those who work hard,” he said. If you expect your life to be successful, you have to work hard to make it happen.
However, there are people who misunderstand ‘trust in God’. It is believing that God will do everything for you, and praying blindly and waiting. We believe that if we just pray, God will do everything. It is true that God grants to believers who believe and pray. However, even people of faith who trust in God must have the loyalty to give their lives for the task given to them.
God uses people who prepare by faith. In 2 Timothy 2:20-21, he tells a parable. “In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also vessels of wood and earthenware, some of which are noble and others of lowly use. , a preparation for every good work.”
So the Bible shows a long or short preparation process for many people who are used by God. When God intends to use a person for a certain task, he first provides a process to prepare them for the task. ‘Moses’ is one of the few figures who detail this process. Moses is the greatest figure in the Old Testament. Correspondingly, from birth to death, it is recorded in great detail.
In this time, through the process of preparing Moses to be used as God's instrument, we would like to think about what we must do to be used as God's instrument.
The text is the scene of Moses receiving a call from God. This was when Moses had just passed the age of 80. Since Moses lived 120 years, it is 40 years from the time he was called to the time of his death, and it is the period used as an instrument of God. Then, the 80 years before that would be a ‘preparatory period’. It took 80 years of preparation for 40 years of ministry. That is why the work entrusted to Moses was so great and important.
Moses started with crisis and adventure from birth, and for 40 years as a prince of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, he received all the customs and education of Egypt. And because of his national love, he killed the Egyptian soldiers and fled to the wilderness of Midian, where he took care of the sheep as the son-in-law of Reuel, the priest of Midian, and learned life in the wilderness for 40 years. This led to the rescue of the Hebrew people, who were slaves in Egypt, from Pharaoh, and led them into the wilderness, and finally made it possible to spend 40 years in the wilderness until they reached the promised land of Canaan. This is God's providence.
This providence of God is the same today. The person God uses is prepared through training and refinement. What we have to do in this process is to faithfully and faithfully carry out the work given to us as God leads us.
When Moses was a prince in the palace of Egypt, he faithfully learned the customs and life of Egypt as a prince. In Acts 7:22, Esau says, “Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was able to speak and act. If he was a Hebrew and led a life of hostility and rebellion against Egypt, he would not have been able to be used as an instrument of God. Also, while living as a shepherd for 40 years in the wilderness, if he was frustrated or dissipated while insisting on the luxurious life and habits of the former royal palace, it would have been unsuitable as a tool of God.
This is one of Aesop's fables.
There was a famous horse whose speed and power were so great that it drove its owner to the battlefield countless times, but kept him from getting hurt. Its owner, of course, was proud of his horse and looked after it with special care and affection. To what extent, if he did not bring enough barley and water to prey on the horse, he would not eat at all. He took good care of his hair every day, and he did not forget to apply plaster carefully to any wounds.
But when the war was over, the owner drove the horse into the field to work. Horses had to pull plows, carry heavy boulders, and labor wagons. Despite the hard work, they only fed chaff and straw.
Then, war broke out again. The master got on his horse after he was fully armed. However, the exhausted horse was unable to run properly after not eating well and telling him to just die. With every step he took, he limped here and there and limped, and it didn't really matter. When the master rebuked the horse, the horse said:
“If you wanted me to run like a steed on the battlefield, why did you treat me like a farm donkey?”
Although God's people live in the flesh, they are clearly spiritual beings, and at the same time, they are citizens of the kingdom of God. Then you should be ready to return home one day. The preparation is not something that can be finished in an instant. For a year, a month, a day, a moment, you must be faithful to the given task and be prepared with faith.
There is an old saying in our country that says, 'A gourmet that leaks inside leaks even when you go outside.' Will someone who is not normally prepared for work suddenly become gifted and capable? A person who succeeds in any field must not forget that there was a preparation process that took a lot of time and effort behind the scenes. Especially when it comes to faith. Moses had 80 years of tremendous preparation for his 40 years of ministry.
There is another surprising fact in God's providence. That is, many people and processes follow for one minister.
For Moses, God prepared a family of faithful faith. And when Moses was born, there was Pharaoh's oppression against the Hebrew people. The Hebrews had such a high fertility rate and growth rate that they feared that they would surpass the Egyptians. Pharaoh commanded, 'When the Hebrews give birth, all male children are to be killed.' As a result, Moses was raised hidden as soon as he was born, and after three months, he could not hide it anymore, so he was put into a reed and dumped into the Nile River. But God prepared the princess, the daughter of Pharaoh, at just the right time so that she could be raised as the princess's son. The princess immediately sought a nanny, and Moses' sister recommended her mother to be a nanny, so Moses was legally raised by her again.
This is the providence that God considered so that Moses could receive an education as a Hebrew nation. Moses was the first to receive the religious education to fear God and learn the history of his people. This was the first step in God's use of Moses. And Moses was sent to the palace of Pharaoh, where he learned the orthodox education of the Egyptian royal family and the history of Egypt. This was the second step in God's use of Moses.
Moses still had the wilderness education to lead the nation in the wilderness. To this end, He made them see their people being oppressed, and in anger, He had the Egyptian officials put to death. As a result, Moses was forced to flee into the wilderness. This was the 3rd step in God's use of Moses. Another instructor was prepared to train Moses in the wilderness. There, you will learn the geography of the wilderness and how to cope with the environment for 40 years. This was the fourth step in God's use of Moses.
Now everything is ready. At that time Moses was 80 years old. In a human sense, the question arises, ‘How can I work at that old age?!’, but this is God’s method that He sometimes uses. This is also a considerate providence that allows us to depend only on God.
God called and met Moses through the miracle of the thorn bush on Mount Horeb. This is the text of this time, and it was the 5th step for God to use Moses. This is the most important step. And as the last step, Moses is going through the difficult 40 years as God's instrument.
How many people, events, and hours did it cost for one Moses? This is true not only for Moses, but also for each and every one of you. Although the preparation process, time and tasks will vary depending on the mission given.
In this way, we are precious to God, and God's consideration is so deep. How should we live, how should we be prepared, and how should we be used, living under God's love, grace, and providence?
If 2002 is a preparation process, it is a process, and if a minister is used, I pray that you will become saints who are prepared for the kingdom of God by faithfully and faithfully obeying.