Moses: The Servant of God

HE conception of Moses, which I have elaborated
in the foUov.ing chapters, was suggested years
ago by contrast with Michael Angelo’s statue of
him, colossal in proportions, hewn in stone.

Yet one turns away from that mighty head, that pregnant brow, that towering height, hopeless of repeating aught of a life, which, if that conception be the true one, must have had so little in common with our own. It is a comfort, therefore, to turn to the record of the New Testament, which tells that he did not spring at a leap to the throne on which he has sat through the ages, but that his character took years to form, and that his mighty deeds were due, not to some rare combination of personal qualities, but to the faith which he had in common with the rank and file of the great army of the saints.

I have tried, therefore, to show that Moses was a man like other men; with great quahties that needed to be developed and improved; with flaws that veined the pure marble of his character; with deficiencies that had •endered him powerless but for the all-sufficient grace that he learned to appropriate; and that he wrought his life-work by the simplicity of his faith, by communion with God, and by becoming a channel through which the Divine purpose was achieved.

I wish to express my special obligations for geographical and other details to the works of the late Dean Stanley; to the monograph on Moses in the “Men of the Bible” Series; as well as to “Modern Science in Bible Lands,” by Sir J. W. Dawson, F.R.G.S.

HE writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews lays bare the secret of the marvels effected by the heroes of Hebrew story. Obedient to his summons, they range themselves in one great battalion, and with united breath, cry, Why marvel ye at these things? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had effected them? The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, made bare his holy arm and wrought by us. And his name, through faith in his name, hath done all these wonderful works.

We make a profound mistake in attributing to these men extraordinary qualities of courage, and strength of body or soul. To do so is to miss the whole point of the reiterated teaching of Scripture. They were not different from ordinary t men, except in their faith. In many respects it is most likely that they were inferior to ourselves. We should probably be much surprised if we were to encounter them in the daily walks of modern life, and should find it almost impossible to believe that they wrought such prodigies of valour, endurance, and deliverance. Gideon and Barak, Samson and Jephthah, were rather of the type of the sturdy Borderers of olden days, whose wild doings kept our northern counties in constant agitation, than like our modern clerics or Christian philanthropists. But there was one characteristic common to them all, which lifted them above ordinary men, and secured for them a niche in the Temple of Scripture — that they had a marvellous faculty of faith; which, indeed, is but the capacity of the human heart for God. Four times over this is cited as the secret of all that Moses did for his people.

The same truth is repeatedly corroborated in the teaching of our Lord. He never stops to ask what may be the specific quantity of power, or wisdom, or enthusiasm, which exists in his disciples. In his judgment these things are as the sm’all dust of the balance, not to be taken into serious consideration, and not likely to affect the aggregate results of a man’s life. But his incessant demand is iox faith. If only there be faith, though it be but as a grain of mustard-seed, sycamore trees can be uprooted; mountains cast into the midst of the sea; and demons exorcised from their victims. To a father He once said: “There is no if in my power; it is in thy faith. If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”

And what is this faith? It is not some inherent power or quality in certain men, by virtue of which they are able to accomplish special results unrealized by others. It is rather the power of putting self aside that God may work unhindered through the nature. It is the attitude of heart which, having ascertained the will of God, and being desirous of becoming an organ for it, goes on to expect that God will work out his purposes through its medium. It is, in brief, that capacity for God which appropriates Him to its uttermost limit, and becomes the channel or rehicle through which He passes forth to bless mankind. The believer is the God-filled, the Godmoved, the God-possessed man; and the work which he effects in the world is not his, but God’s through him.

There are, therefore, these necessary conditions of all true faith : —

The sense of helplessness and nothingness.

An absolute assurance of being on God’s plan.

Entire consecration, that He may work out his will through heart and life.

The daily food of promise.

A daring to act, in utter independence of feeling, on a faith which reckons absolutely on the faithfulness of God.

It will be our contention throughout our study of the remarkable life before us, that, though Moses may have had commanding features of mind and body, and have been versed in all the learning of his time; yet the marvellous outcome of his life-work was not due to any of these qualities, but to the faith - which knit his soul to God. His faith sufficed to do what all his other qualities, without his faith, must have failed in doing.

We hope to go further, and show that all the blessings which God in his mindfulness of his covenant bestowed on Israel, came, to that rebellious and stiff-necked people through the channel of Moses’ faith. It is God’s method to seek the co-operation of man in the execution of his purposes, and to fulfil his promise through his servants’ faith. In this case it was Moses who was called into partnership with Jehovah, and it was through his faith that God fulfilled the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Each of the above-mentioned conditions of a mighty faith was fulfilled in the history of Moses.

He was allowed to make his first efforts for the emancipation of his people in the energy of his own strength, and to fail egregiously; so that he fled away to Midian, abandoning all hope of delivering them, and spending his years in solitude and exile, until it was with the greatest difficulty that he could be induced to undertake the Divine commission. He was reduced to the last extreme of helpless nothingness when the burning bush flamed in his path, a symbol of utter weakness, possessed and indwelt yet unconsumed by God, who is a consuming fire.

He could have no doubt as to God’s plan; for that lay unfolded before him in the promise made to Abraham long years before, fixing four hundred years as the limit of the Egyptian sojourn. And, in addition, God distinctly told him that He had come down to deliver.

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