When Moses Sat at the Well

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work.  During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews.  After looking in all directions to make sure no one was watching, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand.  The next day, when Moses went out to visit his people again, he saw two Hebrew men fighting.  “Why are you beating up your friend?” Moses said to the one who had started the fight.  The man replied, “Who appointed you to be our prince and judge?  Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?”  Then Moses was afraid, thinking, “Everyone knows what I did.”  And sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had happened, and he tried to kill Moses.  But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian.  When Moses arrived in Midian, he sat down beside a well.  Exodus 2:11-15

Even people with a marginal connection with church and Scripture know of Moses’ great events, dividing the waters, getting more water to gush from a rock, the Ten Commandments, and so-on.  But today’s text takes us back to long-before the hero stuff. 

The context is that Moses has just found out his true heritage is Hebrew, not Egyptian.  When, at age 40, you find out your whole history has been hidden from you, it’s bound to produce a crisis, filled with poor knee-jerk reaction choices.  For the one chosen by God to lead Israel out of bondage, that is an understatement.  Before he even begins to understand the culture from which he was bred, Moses begins to use the power-tactics of Egyptian taskmasters to right the wrongs of Egyptian domination…killing, threats, and totalitarian bondage.  He was wrong.

As a result, Moses finds himself banished to the wilderness.  He arrives at Midian and sits down at the well, where he meets Zipporah, whom he eventually marries, and it leads him to all the hero-stuff when he starts doing things God’s way. 

But, for this moment, let’s look down the deep well where Moses was sitting.  It wasn’t a new age reflecting pool…this was a life-giving watering hole for sheep.  But for Moses it was the needed rest from fleeing Pharoah’s threats.  We can only imagine the thoughts running through Moses’ mind as he looks down the hole:

·       Oh…I’ve really messed it up!

·       Life will never be the same.

·       What was I thinking?

In all transparency, this is exactly what I have said at times.  In retrospect, each time I’ve gone to that well, it was always after a period of failing to do things God’s way.   And I think that is always God’s way…He leads us through the wilderness of wondering to give us time to pray, understand our wrong direction, and repent.  That took 40 more years for Moses, but at the end, the bush burned brightly, and he learned to say:  thus saith the Lord, instead of, listen to me! 

As with Robert Frost’s poem about two roads diverging in a yellow forest, Moses eventually took the one less traveled by, and that…made all the difference.

For You Today 

For any of us who truly admits what we find when we stare down the well of our history, the road less-traveled is always God’s way.  In our disobedience we find He dips into the cool, life-giving water, and offers us a better way.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Once Again; Slowly This Time

Thursday, February 23, 2023

Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time:  “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”  This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.  On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds:  “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”  The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.   Jonah 3:1-5 

I’ve never spoken to anyone who has never heard of Jonah.  Most of the time, whether it is someone who has been in church all his life, from the cradle roll to Senior Adult class – or someone who has never set foot inside a church, their immediate recollection of Jonah is his disobedience and being swallowed by a huge fish.  Thus proving the point, being a bad boy gets a lot more press than obedience.

I get the feeling that after Jonah’s unplanned submarine ride God spoke to him that second time a little more slowly, and with a tone somewhat like what my Dad used to have when I was dangerously close to my last chance to get it right (and treading on his last nerve!). 

God said:  Jonah…son…let me say this one more time….slowly…

NIN-E-VEH….NOW!

Seven of the sweetest words you’ve ever heard followed:

This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command…Jonah 3:2^(NLT)

While most people remember Jonah’s disobedience, it is the best news to recall how he began to get it right by repenting and being forgiven and used in God’s service. 

Certainly Jonah still had attitude problems to deal with later, but with his bigger problem solved – obeying the unmistakable command of God to proclaim a message of love to his enemies – Jonah was now able to hang around and have God do some major repair on the prophet’s sense of compassion.

And doesn’t that sound like somebody YOU know?

Well, more slowly this time…isn’t that US?

For You Today 

If you went to Ash Wednesday service yesterday, you may have had a cross drawn on your forehead with some ashes.  

Every year that cross of ashes helps me remember the Jonah in me – disobedient, running from God – apprehended by grace – marked by the ashes of repentance, mixed with the oil of healing.

I don’t mind that being remembered about me.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

(Today’s devotion is a re-posting of this title from 3/2/17)

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Do What?  and  Pyxis Points      

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©