LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Moses' Dilemma
At the end of the first forty years of his life, Moses had to face and resolve an acute dilemma. He was Hebrew by birth, but Egyptian by training. A rather strange mix for a man of God. If he had wanted it, he had at his disposal a career superior to Joseph's in Egypt, because he had more rights than Joseph to apply for it. But before going that way, he needed to decide that prior matter: to which he would go to consecrate his life, to Egypt or to Israel, to the world or to the promises.
Moses was at the age when the pleasures of sin were the most fascinating and alluring. The allure of a world of power and glory was tangible and real. In contrast, the prospects and rewards of eternity were all at a great distance, intangible, except to faith.
At this crossroads, if we look from the perspective of later history and, above all, eternity, Moses made the right choice. Scripture says: "By faith Moses, when he became great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the temporal delights of sin, counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the Egyptians; for he looked unto the reward" (Heb. 11:24-25).
These two highlighted verbs denote a double-sided act of decision. On the one hand, Moses rejects, and on the other, he accepts. On the one hand he rejects what Egypt offered him, on the other, he accepts what faith offered him. On the one hand, his high education in the Egyptian universities influenced him; on the other hand, his mother's influence, and God's promises for his people.
Not only the promises given to Abraham weighed on the heart of the pious Israelite, but also the bones of Joseph, which were mute witnesses of a faith that awaited the day of departure from Egypt (Ex. 13:19). Weighing all this in his heart, Moses inclines to the way of his fathers, which is the way of faith in the promises of God.
However, the path from then on was not an easy one. The decision was the right one, but he was to face serious failures. Shortly after, he kills an Egyptian, and assumes a voluntary exile of forty years, for fear of Pharaoh's punishment.
They were forty years of exile and solitude -a great loss-, but from God's perspective, this event pushed Moses into the most important period of his spiritual formation. The desert, instead of nullifying the call and rendering null and void the difficult decision, corroborated both things, for it transformed the impulsive and proud character into a meek and humble one, ductile in the hand of God.
Forty years of age seem to be a time of extraordinary decisions in the life of every man. Moses opted for the best, and the word of God clearly testifies to that. Will God one day bear witness to ours?