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My paternal grandparents had 160 acres of tillable farmland. That made it easy for the inheritance to be divided since they had four boys. They could choose by birth order the Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, or Southwest parcel of 40 acres each. Not everything in life is divided that clearly and obviously. Our lifespan could also be categorized in appropriate proportions, if we live long enough. There's childhood, adulthood, & the final frontier, which I'm not sure how to name since I'm smack dab in the middle of it! Some days I think I'm just "extending adulthood", while on other days I feel like I'm making a "Beeline" towards "Geezer Hood". That usually depends on if I've had a doctor's appointment with a young "Doogie Howser", who begins his medical assessment of me with the phrase, "for a man your age". Maybe you've heard that phrase used before. If not, it's just a matter of time. I love the privilege of looking in the Bible in this season of life and seeing the divisions of a person's life & how God uses each season in a unique way. One of the most clearly defined "ages & stages" of a biblical hero is seen in the life of Moses. If Moses' life could be divided into three sections, it would be similar to my grandparents' inheritance of 160 acres equally divided to their four sons. Moses got a Front 40, Mid 40 and Final 40. He didn't need "another forty" in going into the promised land. God could use Joshua as a military general and let Moses bow out gracefully. Our son Nathan had a quote for me the other day that gave me great perspective. In one of his readings, he found a quote that said, "the reason Moses seemed to be accepting of only 'seeing & not going' to the promised land was because at that point in his life, he realized GOD HIMSELF was his Promised Land!" Is that a cool thought or what? Let's take a look at each of the three "40 year eras" & see how God used Moses' life to deliver the Jewish people FROM slavery in Egypt & TO the Promised Land. And please know that as we end this simple study today, we'll need to take a look at our own life and see how God has worked in our "ages & stages". The FRONT 40...(birth to age 40) It begins in the book of Exodus in Chapter 1 where we see several things happening as time marches on for the Hebrew nation. The "70 person population Israelite nation" in Joseph's era grew like crazy & got more powerful all the time which didn't sit very well with the new king who came to power. The King James Version says, "there arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph or what he had done". That means the Israelites are now a threat to the Egyptians, not just "company over a long weekend that needs a place to stay". So Pharaoh devised a plan to ENSLAVE them, put brutal slave drivers over them and FORCED them into LABOR without mercy that was BITTER and ruthless. Pharaoh took it even a step further by telling the MIDWIVES to make sure the little Jewish boys (they typically helped deliver) die at childbirth through intentional negligence. And in time, Pharaoh even commanded them to drown the baby boys after they were born by throwing them into the Nile River. But God bless the midwives because they were having no part in that and spared every little boy. SIDENOTE... Don't know if you've seen the TV series "Call the Midwife". Our oldest granddaughter, Bella, loves that and Sue Linn and I have actually seen quite a few episodes with her. It's a great English TV kind of a thing that depicts very compassionate hearts of young catholic ladies who come alongside assisting childbirths 60+ years ago. I really enjoyed watching it for quite a while. Great drama, acting, scripting and soundtrack. But at some point, I just didn't know if I had another C-section in me to watch. Thank God for catching some ESPN to balance all that out! And we're back...., But these midwives in Exodus were HEROES, even though they were Egyptian. They honored the "SANCTITY of LIFE" and I believe with all my heart, that any nation who does that will be blessed by God. (I'd probably better try to stop there) So as the story of Moses is recorded in a very clear account, in chapter 2, we see him being born and growing up in the next 10 verses which covers 40 years. Like all the other little boys, he was to be thrown in the river by a midwife, but that didn't happen. His parents hid him as long as they could, then put him in a special waterproof basket that protected him well. And contrary to my previous scriptural assumptions, they didn't drop him in the Nile and let him go "rollin, rollin', rollin' on the river" in Proud Mary style. It appears he was strategically placed in the bulrushes. I think those would be like in our ponds back home called "cattails". And that made it much easier for his sister, Miriam, to keep an eye on him and Pharaoh's daughter to find him and fall in love with the idea of adopting a little baby boy who did not look like her. So Moses grew up and was a "two culture kid" with a dominant identity as a Hebrew, and yet fully integrated and accepted into the Egyptian culture. Now with that dualistic cultural identity, came also two "separate spiritual heritages & loyalties". However, this was a perfect recipe for an identity crisis & it seems God allows Moses to be surrounded in another culture for the express purpose of allowing his "identity of origin" to emerge for God's glory! Now I'm assuming you know the story of Moses & how his "protective nature for his kinfolk" and his "accumulated anger" towards the abusive Egyptian slave drivers "welled up within him" and he killed an Egyptian, then hid him in the sand. The homicide became public the next day when Moses tried to intervene in a conflict among his own people. Moses wanted to DELIVER God's people, but they just weren't ready or willing to be delivered at that point! But when the time was right, God would invite Moses to help HIM! So now he becomes a fugitive on the run, winding up in Moab, becoming a shepherd after an "impressive rescue" of some sisters at a well. Moses even gets a wife for such a heroic effort! For you Charlton Heston fans, we know that in the movie, "the 10 Commandments" by Cecil P DeMille, Moses's wife, Zipporah was played by Yvonne deCarlo, who also played the role of Lily Munster in "the Munsters". Just a bit of "our age trivia" for you guys! And as we see the first 40 years of Moses' life come an abrupt end, we now are about to launch the 2nd 40 year section of his life. The MID 40...(age 40-80) So our hero is officially "PROMOTED to the OBSCURITY" of watching sheep. Up to this point, he was the "hope of Israel" & nearly a "prince of Egypt", by way of adoption. But now his "identity crisis" calms down, since he's not AMONG his people, but neither is he among the people who ABUSED his people. OUR LIFE APPLICATION... One of the more difficult things for all of us to endure is a season of "feeling DISPLACED". It's when we lose our sense of "who we are", amidst a culture that is "equally uncertain" of their own identity. It happens when you RELOCATE. It happens when you are minding your own business & simply "AGING". It happens when there's a MAJOR LOSS of a loved one, a lost job , or your own health or mobility. And when we feel displaced, we wrestle with who we really are down deep. Moses did. So have most of us at some point. Moses, then HAD to ask, "what's up with this?" He now has a new family with no connection to his past. But God is not done with him yet. And neither is He done with you and me! It's been somewhat of the battle cry of our "finishing well ministry" as we approach the end of our first official year. "If you ain't DEAD... you ain't DONE!" But if you'd be so kind as to let me ask, have you ever felt displaced like you don't know how or where to fit in? It will most likely happen in one way or another at some point in our life. Maybe you don't feel that now. I hope not. But maybe if you sat down with a friend over a cup of coffee, and if that person was a "safe person", you could very easily share with them just how hard that time in your life WAS, or perhaps IS for you. Now the next 40 years has very little commentary on Moses' life. Like I said, he was "promoted to obscurity". His "Karate Kid wax on / wax off" training & childhood discipline was an Egyptian education in the palace. It was of the highest level. But what in the world can he do "with a degree like that" now as a shepherd? He was totally out of his element. He once would be among academic scholars, but now he's hanging out with sheep. And he's out in the sun & integrated into a whole new family that appears to be "godly, but doesn't know the true God". For a good Jewish boy, that's a dilemma. But Scripture is silent on whatever spiritual conflict Moses might've felt during this time. He had to feel "conflicted if not tormented"! COMING SOON..... THE BURNING BUSH MOMENT... We'll deal with this one next week because it is the essence of "reluctance to serve". But as a preview, it will be a pivotal moment for Moses, and in all honesty, every one of us needs to take it to heart. He was 80 before he had a defining moment that led to his "MAJOR CALLING". Now brace yourself for next week, because in this encounter from Exodus 3:1-4:31, God gets pretty angry because of Moses's resistance. He gives Moses every reason to TRUST Him and no reason to DOUBT Him. But Moses finds himself still so wounded from his failure if 40 years ago that he can't IMAGINE God could use him in any significant way! And we'll try our best to cover the burning bush, his heading back to Egypt, dealing with Pharaoh & the 10 plagues, the Passover, and the crossing of the Red Sea if we have time. And then our 3rd & final week, we'll take it all the way from Exodus 16 through Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy! Yes, it will be a brief overview! OK, not brief, but not overly detailed. OK I'll try my best. We'll hit the highlights. FINAL QUESTIONS... #1...Can you see the hand of God in guiding your life for your first 40 years? How so? For some He's done the miraculous & gone out of His way to protect you and provide for you. That could probably be said of all of us. But can you see it? As we studied about Joseph recently, have you developed a "providential perspective" like his? #2.. And can you see there may be a "pattern developing" throughout your life that you wish wasn't there? For Moses, it was anger. He couldn't handle the abuse of his own people without taking justice into his own hands. Later, we'll see him throw the 10 Commandments down in a fit of rage & God had to do a "quick reprint" of everything. And towards the end of his life, he "misrepresents the holiness of God" in pretty much another "angry meltdown" along with his brother Aaron because they'd had it "up to here" with the Israelites! Next week, we'll also look at Moses' reluctance to allow his son to be circumcised, which was the mark of "Jewishness". It's obvious his wife did not understand it's significance. That leads me to believe that Moses took 40 years of being a "silent follower" of God before his calling. He was humble and God was getting him ready to lead His people through the wilderness, just as he led sheep for 4 decades. And in all honesty, can you blame him for being a "silent believer"? God had been silent. And sometimes when He's silent, we just don't know if He's there or if He just thinks we're "beyond usefulness"! I'm here today to tell you He CAN and WANTS to use you! And He WILL if you ENGAGE (or reengage) with Him through His Son, Jesus! So go ahead and skim thru Exodus 15 if you wanna get ahead for next week! Then the 3rd week, we'll cover the rest of Exodus, take a peek at Leviticus, highlight some events in Numbers, & blitz Deuteronomy, since it's simply the "second giving of the law of God". Remember, our lives have "eras" with "pivotal moments". And although we're not with Bob Evans "down on the farm", we are in the "back 40" of our time here on earth. Praying for you & all God has "on your plate" this week. May we continue to "assist one another" as we attempt to "finish well together", entrusting our health, wealth, & loved ones to His care! Love you guys, george
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