Sunday morning (Remembrance Sunday, so we began our service with a short act of remembrance) was the second week of a new series I am preaching on the life and times of Moses. Last week I started with an overview, looking at the three phases of his life which DL Moody famously summarised as 40 years becoming a somebody, 40 years learning that he was a nobody, and 40 years learning that God uses nobodies.
The second message looked at the first 40 years, the formative years. I highlighted the theme of choices (which is also highlighted in Hebrews 11’s treatment of his life). Some of the choices that affected Moses were made by other people. Some of these were evil choices: Pharoah’s policy of ethnic cleansing was evil. Some of them were good: his mother’s choice to save him, his sister’s quick-witted decision to find a nurse, Pharaoh’s daughter’s choice to take care of him, in defiance of her father’s policy. Our lives too are influenced by the choices that others make and we have opportunity to influence future generations by choices we make on their behalf.
Moses, of course, made his own choices, notably his choice to identify himself with the Hebrews. It was a decision that made little immediate sense, but he knew that the future was in God’s hands. Behind all the choices was the plan of God whose invisible hands were at work.
In the evening I preached from Acts 12 on prayer and the triumph of the gospel. The story of Peter’s deliverance and Herod’s death show us the church at prayer. They prayed despite the perplexity of Herod’s atrocities (he had killed James); they prayed despite their own personal doubts (although they prayed for Peter, they were unable to believe that he was standing at their door); and their prayers were worthwhile because God was ultimately victorious.
