On the Backside of the Desert
…tending another man’s flock…on the backside of the desert, the far side of the wilderness…and then he came to a mountain…
Can you guess who those words speak of? Think about it for a minute…you know…Moses. Moses is the man tending his father-in-law’s flock.
Temporarily remove the rest of the Moses’s story; sit with just these few words. marinate your imagination on them— let yourself picture it, try and smell it, even feel it — would you be ok if those words described your tomorrow? Don’t reflect on Moses’ life before or after this brief description. Instead really look at this “40 year season” he passed through…yes, Moses tended another man’s hoofed treasures for f-o-r-t-y years.
Moses livelihood, what he ate, where he slept, what he did, and who he lived beside, all rested in the hands of another man — his father-in-law.
How humbling. How simple. How challenging it had to have been — FORTY years of it! And yet, there was something about Moses that was able to not just endure it, but he actually grew in it. God was shaping Moses during those 40 years for He knew another 40 years in a different wilderness was ahead.
Those 40 years, and even some of the years prior to them, was a time of intense struggle for Moses. Gracious we know it’s true, for in the injustices he saw in Egypt, he struggled to the point of defending the weaker slave and killing the stronger guard. Moses struggled. But his story did not end after he murdered the guard and was exiled from all he had ever known. Moses amazes us by what he did in the struggle. We are like Moses in that we too have our own private, deep, personal struggles. We might not have committed murder…with our hands. Oh but in our hearts, we might have “ended” others.
The struggle inside us takes us to places of wanting our way, our logic, our plans. If we care nothing for God, we won’t notice the struggle. However, if we love Jesus and want to honor God with our lives — it’s a struggle. The Bible exposes time and again the battle that rages between following God’s way vs. choosing our own way. In 1 and 2 Kings it’s overwhelming the back and forth, up and down, obedience and rebellion of kings and kingdoms. God has endured so much. But Moses…what an extraordinary soul his was.
Moses had been saved from death as a babe, raised in a palace, educated opulently, and prepared for a life of indulgent power. And yet, all along, God knew the plans He had for this man.
God knew that before Moses would be ready for the call on his life — first — he would carry him to the backside of the desert, caring for another man’s possessions, with a mountain in front of him. There would be no angel singing to him or visiting him in a dream. Instead God would do something He had not done before and has not done since (that we know of). He placed a burning bush in the distance, and then waited to see if Moses would respond. He is a God of free-will. God waited.
I always, always, always stop at this moment in Moses’ amazing story and ask myself — have there been burning bushes in my life that I have completely missed because I was so preoccupied with other things, other distractions, other people’s words or suggestions or opinions? It’s such a valuable question that both humbles and aligns. In a world filled with too much of too much — we must be ever so careful to keep our focus on the path God has us on, doing what He guides us to do, ready to notice His nudge or whisper or burning bush. Never forgetting that your nudge or whisper most likely will not look like someone else’s. He’s a wonderfully personal GOD.
These words ministered to my soul this past week. From the devotional Streams in the Desert, Oct. 22~
My Father God, help me to expect You on the ordinary road. I do not ask for sensational happenings. Commune with me through ordinary work and duty. Be my Companion when I take the common journey. Let my humble life be transfigured by Your presence.
Some Christians think they must be always up to mounts of extraordinary joy and revelation; this is not God’s method…
There were but three disciples allowed to see the transfiguration, and those three entered the gloom of Gethsemane. No one can stay on the mount of privilege. There are duties in the valley. Christ found His life-work, not in the glory, but in the valley and was there, truly and fully, the Messiah… — (author unknown)
What Heavenly poetry to realize where Moses was and what he had endured, when suddenly, as he is doing the simple, honest, ordinary work of another day, there before him is something meant only for his eyes with a message only for him.
And then that wonderfully humbling moment when even in the midst of the burning bush’s invitation to come near and see, God’s holiness requires something immediately, “Take off your sandals…you are on holy ground.”
Are we willing to do the mundane? Are we willing to be unseen by the world…on the backside of the desert places in life…and yet called upon by the One who knows why He formed us? Do we want our calling to be magnificent? What if it is something only Heaven will see, but God will flow Himself into?
Ruth gleaned…
Joseph sat in prison…
Mordecai waited outside the palace wall…
Abraham walked without a plan…
The widow gave all she had…
David ran…
Elijah despaired…
Mary pondered…
Paul endured…
John wrote alone…
Jesus wept in a garden… then bled on a cross…
Oh but— the Lion of Judah, the great I AM, the King above all, El Roi — He saw each one and He responded. He never sleeps, never wastes, never wonders over what is needed. He comes to those humbled on the far side of the wilderness, the backside of their desert-place — and when knees are bent and the moment arrives, He turns the place into HOLY GROUND and invites us into the beautiful.
“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight — why the bush does not burn up.”
When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:1-5 NIV
Settle your heart to it. Embrace the humbling, adore the aligning. We can trust His hand. When the whirl of the world notices not — Heaven does.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. 2 Chronicles 16:9a
