A meditation on Moses

OURS IS A TIME OF CHANGE that will permanently alter the world. Such change fosters uneasiness as we adjust to new technology, to a new economy, and to the reality that we may not achieve our most important goals. This last adjustment is in line with what management expert Peter Drucker states: "In a knowledge society...we expect everyone to be a success. This is clearly an impossibility. For a great many people, there is at best an absence of failure. Wherever there is success, there has to be failure."

The Story

Embarked, as we are, on an irrevocable journey, not of our own making and not under our control, the story of Moses-especially the later part of his life-offers a very modern message. This telling of the story contrasts sharply with the usual focus on Moses' recruitment by God to deliver his people from bondage, the court scenes with Pharaoh, and the escape from Egypt through the dramatic parting of the Red Sea. Initially, Moses is largely successful. However, after years of sojourning with the Israelites in the wilderness, the situation is very different. By this time Moses could see change all around him. Jethro, his father-in-law, who taught him how to delegate authority in the early stages of the exodus, returned to his homeland. Aaron, who served as a spokesman in his audiences with Pharaoh, challenged Moses' leadership, in part because Moses had married an Ethiopian. Not long thereafter, Aaron dies. Finally, a new generation of Israelites, born in the wilderness, emerges.

After years in the wilderness the burden of leading a disobedient people weighed heavily on Moses. Exasperated, he complained to the Lord: "I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee out of hand ..and let me not see my wretchedness." Knowing that neither he nor the generation of Israelites he led out of Egypt would enter the Promised Land added to Moses' weariness. He knew as well that despite all of his trials during the exodus, the Israelites would continue to be "stiff-necked."

Perhaps Moses felt like a failure. One wonders whether the feelings of inadequacy that he felt at the beginning, when God appeared to him in a burning bush and directed him to lead his people out of bondage, returned near the end of his life as he realized that he had not brought his people closer to God nor to the Promised Land. If so, Scripture provides little supporting evidence. Instead, Moses prepares for his eventual passing. Lest the Israelites forget who is responsible for their deliverance and survival, lest they forget the importance of faithfulness, Moses teaches them a song that underscores God's steadfast commitment to them, admonishing them to "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee."

Moses: The Servant

Moses' story reminds us of what it means to be a servant: that we have only a part-often a difficult, frustrating, and exhausting part-to play in God's plan. It is not for any one of us to accomplish the whole plan, the unfolding of which encompasses more than a single lifetime. The inexorable passage of time sharpens our pain at what we think we have not accomplished, and at the loss of and changes in those on whom we have depended. Failure, however, only comes from avoiding the journeys God intends for us and from being unfaithful once they have begun.

James Sanders, Ph.D., is a government employee who resides in Annandale, VA. He is a member of historic Christ Church in Alexandria, VA, where he founded a small ministry concerned with midlife issues. He received a Ph.D. in African History in 1980 from Northwestern University.

Copyright Spiritual Life Fall 2001
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