The Strange University Education of Moses

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The Strange University Education of Moses
He went from Scholar . . . to Shepherd . . .
to Savior . . .
THE HARD WAY!
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Acts 722-36 - Moses was educated in all the
wisdom of the Egypt-ians and was powerful in
speech and action. When Moses was forty years
old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.
He saw one of them being mistreated by an
Egyptian, so he went to his defense and aveng-ed
him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that
his own people would realize that God was using
him to rescue them, but they did not. The next
day Moses came upon two Israelites who were
fighting. He tried to reconcile them But the man
who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside
and said, Who made you ruler and judge over us?
Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian
yesterday? When Moses heard this, he fled to
Midian, where he settled as a for-eigner After
forty years had passed, an angel appeared to
Moses in the flames of a burning bush...he heard
the Lord's voice I am the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now come,
I will send you back to Egypt. This is the same
Moses whom they had rejected with the words, 'Who
made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be
their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through
the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led
them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous
signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty
years in the desert.
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For 40 years Moses
lived in Pharoahs palace
received one of the finest academic
educations in the world
was trained to rule the great- est kingdom on
earth
was on course to reach the pinnacle of human
achievement
He was a man of power in words and deed.
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BUT, to qualify for the work God had selected for
him-to deliver Israel and lead them to
Canaan-he needed even more education
So God enrolled him in a 40-years graduate
program at D.U.M. (Desert University of Midian)
to humble him through obscurity
to hone mature him through time
to purify him through austere living
Gods curriculum was thorough and effective.
Because of his desert training, Moses developed
qualities that could not be gained by reading
text books or by sitting at the feet of
professors. This 40-year course turned him into
a prepared, seasoned servant of the Lord, ready
for the task of spiritual leadership. All
together, Moses had 80 years of schooling!
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Moses Graduate Study Program in Becoming Ready
to Serve Gods Purpose
Location. Midian a flat, barren desert land
covered mostly by sand, shrubs, and rocksnot a
desirable place to study!
Vocation. Shepherd in a desolate land
he spent his time pasturing the flock of
Jethro his father- in-law (Ex. 31).
Here was a man highly educated in the finest
universities of Egypt, one who lived a
life of wealth, luxury, power, great influence.
Now, he was living in a tent in a wasteland,
trying to meet his familys needs by working as a
lowly shepherd. Compared to his previous
situation, the bottom had fallen out of Moses
life.
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Education. A 40-year course in Self-Discovery,
taught in the harsh classrooms of
Obscurity taught Moses, who had been a VIP,
how to cope with being a nobody by
putting him in charge of a flock of
dumb, dirty sheep instead of the nation
of Egypt. And it wasnt even his sheep! The
man who had lived in the limelight of Pharoahs
court was reduced to living with working for
a relative in the middle of a desertand w/o
any explanation from God. Nobody knew who he
had been, and nobody cared.
Time helped him learn how to wait. He had been
impatient w/Gods timetable for delivering
Israeltried to speed things up by killing an
Egyptian, thinking the Hebrews would rally to
follow him out of Egypt. To his surprise, he was
soundly rejected and had to flee for his own
life. He had to learn patience. So God sent him
in the desert classroom and let him think about
it for 40 long years.
Solitude gave him a lot of desert-time to
think, ponder, and reflect to deepen his
understanding of who he was and who God is.
Discomfort the harsh environment strengthened
him phyly spiri- tually w/o it he would not
be prepared to lead Is. thru 40 yrs. of trials
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God did the same with stubborn, rebellious Israel
Deut 82-6, 19-20 - And you shall remember all
the way which the Lord your God has led you in
the wilder- ness these forty years, that He
might humble you, test- ing you, to know what
was in your heart, whether you would keep His
commandments or not. And He hum- bled you and
let you be hungry, and fed you with man- na
which you did not know, nor did your fathers
know, that He might make you understand that
man does not live by bread alone, but man lives
by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of
the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you,
nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus
you are to know in your heart that the Lord your
God was disciplining you just as a man
disci-plines his son. Therefore, you shall keep
the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in
His ways and to fear HimAnd it shall come about
if you ever forget the Lord your God, and go
after other gods and serve them and worship them,
I testify against you today that you shall surely
perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to
perish before you, so you shall perish because
you would not listen to the voice of the Lord
your God
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God did the same with stubborn, rebellious Israel
Deut 82-6, 19-20 - And you shall remember all
the way which the Lord your God has led you in
the wilder- ness these forty years, that He
might humble you, test- ing you, to know what
was in your heart, whether you would keep His
commandments or not. And He hum- bled you and
let you be hungry, and fed you with man- na
which you did not know, nor did your fathers
know, that He might make you understand that
man does not live by bread alone, but man lives
by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of
the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you,
nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus
you are to know in your heart that the Lord your
God was disciplining you just as a man
disci-plines his son. Therefore, you shall keep
the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in
His ways and to fear HimAnd it shall come about
if you ever forget the Lord your God, and go
after other gods and serve them and worship them,
I testify against you today that you shall surely
perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to
perish before you, so you shall perish because
you would not listen to the voice of the Lord
your God
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Their desert experience with God
1. was willed by Him for their benefit.
2. taught them important lessons they would not
have learned in a comfortable, easy setting
Are our distressing times to be used for the same
purposes?
1. Through them we can discover who we really are
and what we truly are made of, spiritually.
2. With our strengths weaknesses clearly
exposed, we are more likely to humble
ourselves before God. It is at this stage of
being naked and open before God that He can
do some of His best refining work in our own
lives.
3. Our desert classrooms take different forms
ill health, handicaps, broken romance, broken
home, rejection, failure at work, a death
4. In these lonely, desperate situations Jesus
will not abandon us. He will mold, shape,
and educate us to enable us to serve Him as He
wishes, on a higher level than we would have
thought possible.
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Our response to Gods desert classrooms
We may be suffering through a spiritual,
physical, emotional, or relational desert. Gods
purpose of letting us go to desert school is to
help us discover in ourselves what we are not
likely to discover any other wayand to learn His
all-sufficient resources for molding us into
servants of His glory. If we respond to the
desert inappropri-ately, we never will learn
what He intended. I can think of 4 reactions
1. I dont need this! A reaction of fear or
pride saying that I do not need this kind of
training. Nothing will be learned or gained.
2. Im tired of this! comes after much fatigue
or anxiety in trying to endure the struggle or
pain not abnormal but suggests more self- pity
than self-discovery.
3. I just dont care anymore! means weve
failed the course, making no attempt to learn,
grow, and be more useful than before.
4. I will get through this! Promotes the highest
degree of learning. If you find yourself in
Gods desert school, dont fight it, run from it,
or fall victim to it. Pray and search for how
you can grow into the servant He needs you to be.
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Deut 3210-11 In a desert land he found him, in a
barren and howling waste. He shielded him and
cared for him he guarded him as the apple of his
eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and
hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to
catch them and carries them on its pinions.
When our struggling and hurting are at their
worst, thats when we are most likely to hear the
spreading of His wings.
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