“Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.”
~ Deuteronomy 34:10
Hi James and Ellen,
Ask your dad to describe himself in a couple of words. Ask your ma to describe herself in a couple of words. Your grandpaa’s dad described himself one day as a nonconformist. A nonconformist is a guy, gal or kid who does not conform to existing norms. Instead of buying a Ford or Chevrolet to drive – which over fifty years ago were the most popular cars to buy, your grandpaa’s dad bought a Nash Ambassador – a car that looked like an upside down bathtub, to drive. Instead of buying one of the more popular tractors to use to haul threshed oats straw on a flatbed from a straw stack to the barn for bedding for his livestock, to spread cow manure cleaned out of the gutter on fields using a manure spreader, to pull a binder that cut and tied ripened oats into bundles, to pull a grain wagon that has been filled with corncobs to the coalbin that was connected to the farmhouse where your grandpaa lived when he was a kid – where the corncobs were dumped through a hole into the coalbin and burned in the winter in a furnace to heat the farmhouse, etc., your grandpaa’s dad bought a M John Deere. No other farmer in the Volga, South Dakota area – which is where your grandpaa’s dad’s farm is located, had. Do you like to do things differently than what the other kids who are in your classes do? Do you think that you are – in some ways, like your grandpaa’s dad?
Ask your dad to describe Moses in a couple of words. What do you remember about Moses? Moses lived on planet Earth for 120 years. When Moses was born, an Egyptian Pharaoh’s edict or order required all boys who were born to Israelite people groups mas and dads be killed. Moses’ dad and ma were from the Levite tribal clan. The Levite tribal clan was one of the Israelite people group’s twelve tribal clans. Because Moses’ ma did not want to kill her newborn baby boy, she put her baby in a small reed boat at a place on the Nile River where a daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh – when she went down to take her daily bath, would find him. When the daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh spotted Moses on the Nile River floating in the small reed boat where his ma had put him, she took Moses to her dad’s palace. Moses grew up in a palace where he would receive an education and where he had access to unlimited wealth and life security. Moses lived in opulent surroundings for the first forty years of his life. Because of a rash, spontaneous reaction to an injustice, Moses lived his next forty years in a barren desert region. Moses went from having inviable status – because of living in an Egyptian Pharaoh’s palace, to being a sheepherder for a Midian priest. Moses – when he was eighty years old, had God make him be – for the last forty years of his life, the guy to lead a grumbling, murmuring mob of over two million guys, gals and kids – the guys, gals and kids from the twelve tribal clans who made up the Israelite people group, to a land area called Canaan that God was giving them to always to have to live in as their very own land. Even though Moses had communicated being really reluctant about doing what God asked him to do – as he knew that he had an ugly smear in his life testimony, that his communication skills were not good at all and . . . which was to lead the Israelite people group guys, gals and kids to Canaan’s land area, Moses finally acquiesced to do what God asked him to do. During what became a forty year exodus to Canaan’s land area, Moses had to a couple of times desperately intervene and intercede for his people group of guys and gals after God began to kill them because of their hardheaded stubbornness and rebellious disobedience. In spite of all their complaining and crabbing, Moses – after forty years of meandering in a desert region, was finally able to lead the Israelite people group guys and gals – God’s specially chosen guys and gals, to a place just east of the Jordan River.
Because of a rash, spontaneous spirit that haunted Moses – that caused him to do something without thinking through the consequences of what his action might lead to, God would not allow Moses – as a punishment, to enter into the land area that He was giving to the Israelite people group guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land. The first time that the rash, spontaneous spirit got Moses to do something that was irrational or imprudent – which was to kill an Egyptian guy who was beating up an Israelite people group guy, resulting in Moses running for his life to a desert where he lived for forty years. The second time that the rash, spontaneous spirit got Moses to do something impatiently or recklessly was soon after Miriam – his sis, died and the Israelite people group guys and gals had gone back to grouching and grumping again about not having water to drink. Moses – after God had specifically told him to only hit a rock once with his staff, frustratingly hit the Meribah rock an extra smack with his staff – which did not please God. Deuteronomy 34 succinctly sums up Moses’ life – which per verse 10 was an extraordinary life, “Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.” Even though God would not let Moses go into Canaan’s land area, God let Moses see Canaan’s land area from the top of Pisgah. Even though Moses twice had a rash, spontaneous spirit seemingly ruin his life, God still used Moses to do divine things for Him. To be a Moses is to live your lives in ways that no other guy, gal or kid has ever lived his or her life. Faithfully doing what God is asking you to do will have God bless you.
Deuteronomy 34 (755)