Humility and Moses…Humility and ME?!

Numbers 12:3 “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.”

Seriously?  Wait he was hidden as an infant, but he was raised in the royal household.  I highly doubt humility was taught there.  However, I have to wonder, he was a Hebrew being raised in an Egyptian royal household.  Did his step-siblings tease him or treat him differently?  Was he treated just like his Egyptian step-siblings or was he a second rate family member?  Scriptures don’t tell us, but what they do say, is when Moses was older and watching the Hebrew slaves working he didn’t like how one particular Egyptian slave master was treating them.  So what do you think he does?  He knows he has an in with Pharaoh and goes to talk with him?  No…  He knows he has authority being raised in the royal household as the princess’s son so he yells at the slave master?  No…  He gets so angry he murders the guy and hid him in the sand.  Doesn’t seem too humble to me…I mean seriously, he checks to make sure no one is looking murders the guy and hides him.  However somehow word gets out.  He has to run…Not too humble to me at least not yet…

Moses has to run and hide.  He hides in Midian…You have to wonder if it was in the desert that Moses learned humility.  He was a shepherd for his father-in-law Jethro (as I understand it, ancient Egyptians looked down on shepherds, I mean WAY down).  However aren’t those the moments when we learn humility?  The moments in the desert, when life is hard and things are dry.  When everything is hard and painful things are going on all around us.  When our pretension of control is stripped away and we have to acknowledge that we are not all that.  That there is NOTHING we can do, but pray.  Isn’t it sad that we often have to get to the “end of our rope” before we turn to God in prayer?  Sorry that was a side note, but true none-the-less.  We often allow our pride to run wild, convincing us that we can handle this situation and we will consult God on the difficult things.  Don’t you think that God is the God of the big things as well as the little ones?  Don’t you think God wants us to pray for missing hubcaps as the pastor from my childhood church put it…(Yes Jim, I did listen at least a little ;-).   He is the God of every detail.  He is not just the God of all creation, but the God of the tiniest element.  He is the God who created the smallest molecule and yet knew how it fits perfectly in the vastness of the cosmos.  He is the God who wants us to humble ourselves to Him in the little things as well as the big things.

Moses was also slow of speech in some way.  He was deeply concerned about this deficiency, but God assured him it didn’t make him unfit to serve God.  He still wanted Moses to confront Pharaoh.  When Moses continued in his fears, God gave him a partner in Aaron so that Moses didn’t have to do the public speaking.  Here is where I wonder if Moses was pretty proud.  He was more concerned as I often am about what others will think instead of about what God thinks.  He didn’t want to be laughed at because he talked funny.  How true that is of me, Lord I would love to do ________ (something God is calling me to do), but I can’t because…..I am too busy, I am not smart enough, I don’t have all the answers, I don’t have a degree, my kids are too young, my friends will laugh…Yikes, the excuses that I am willing to make to get out of doing what God is asking me to do.  That humbles me…

So Moses the most humble man on earth, had his moments of not being humble.  Isn’t it great that God sees us in view of His son, in view of our forgiven sin and not in view of our past failures.  Moses this man who clearly fought pride was also the man who got to talk to God face to face.  I can’t seem to separate the idea that Moses’s humility opened the door to his closeness with God.  He talked to God face to face.  Who wouldn’t want to do that and yet when challenged by his brother and sister Moses was humble enough to let God take care of the situation.  I think I would go off and start giving my resume of how God had spoke to me face to face and how God chose me first and how Aaron was only along because I stuttered.  Yet Moses stayed quiet.  He made room for God’s wrath to take care of the situation.  In doing so both his brother and sister were restored to relationship with both God and Moses.  What might happen if we were do this in our relationships.  Be humble enough to let God convict and restore our loved ones.  To not fight for our rights or our point of view or the respect we deserve, but to humble ourselves…to honor God and others above ourselves.  Wouldn’t humility be better?  My pride yells no!!!!  My God in His still small voice says yes it is better.  May I hear that small voice through the cacophony around me.  May that Godly humility draw me into a deep personal and intimate relationship with my God and Savior.