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I had never wanted importance or a prominent leadership position. It never occurred to me. As a young man, I had the upbringing that was the best that I could have had under the circumstances. I am Moses (bows). I was born to parents who were slaves to Pharaoh. We were descendants from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Our people have suffered hundreds of years in Egypt under pharaohs who were unkind to the Hebrew people after Joseph died. To keep me from being murdered, my mother put me adrift in the Nile River to see if I could be saved from Pharaoh's soldiers who routinely killed Hebrew infants. I was rescued and raised by Pharaoh's daughter. I had an elite existence and was highly educated. I did not experience the misery that my fellow Hebrew people had. I did not really know my mother or what became of her. I was of course acquainted with both the Hebrew and Egyptian cultures and I was born Hebrew, but I was raised as an Egyptian. One day, I saw an Egyptian hurting a Hebrew and I took it upon myself to kill him. I was young and immature then, and considered it my right to do that. Pharaoh found out what I had done and wanted to kill me. I ran away from Egypt, from Pharaoh's wrath, and from the murder I had committed, and I ended up in a desert wilderness called the land of Midian near the Gulf of Aqaba in the Sinai Peninsula.

I married into a nomadic family and had sons. I began the hard life of a desert shepherd. It was quite different from Pharaoh's palace, but I had little choice. I was a different Moses now and of course far more alone than I had ever been before. I had nothing but mere day-to-day existence and I lived as best I could. I am a man who knows extreme, almost unbearable aloneness. I knew Pharaoh wouldn't find me where I was because it was such a harsh environment, and that was what I wanted. One day when I was watching my father-in-law's flock, I noticed a burning bush that did not extinguish itself. It was burning alone in the desert. As I looked at it closer to make sure I wasn't imagining something, God spoke to me. I knew it was God almost immediately although I had not heard his personal voice before. When God speaks to you, you know it. His voice was clear and distinct.

He told me about himself, about the problems of the people of Israel and his plan for my life. I did not want to hear what he explained to me about his plans. He wanted me to return to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of bondage and to the land of Canaan. I was to be the leader of the Israelite nation. This idea shocked me. I did not want to do this because I was only a ragged shepherd living in obscure poverty. On a daily basis, I often knew hunger, loneliness, and obscurity and faced constant death from the elements or wild beasts. I had never considered myself a leader to a nation, and the idea seemed impossible. I did not have the ability, and I was terrified of the power of Pharaoh. I thought I would die in his presence. God performed miracles then in my sight to prove his power was divine. I pleaded with God about my inadequacy of speech. I thought God would give up his plan for using me then. I am not a public speaker and was hardly equipped to deal with leading the Israelite nation. But, God did not give up on that issue of my inadequacy, and decided to use Aaron, my brother, as a person who could speak for me.

I was a man running away from my past mistakes and I thought I had been successful. I had no choice but to obey the God who knew me there alone in the wilderness. I knew he was the God who created me and who had seen me my entire life. I belonged to him. God said he had heard his people crying in Egypt. He said he was going to deliver them. God was specific, telling me what he knew about the Israelites and Pharaoh. He was a very personal God whom I had not known before. He was a God who cared passionately about his people. I asked my father-in-law for permission to leave the home he had provided me and return to Egypt. I gathered my wife and my sons and explained to them what God had commanded of me. It was extremely difficult for me to do that. My wife had married a desert shepherd, not a leader of a nation. And, of course, I also had the small matter of explaining to her about the murder I committed in my past which had to be dealt with. She hadn't known anything about that. My sons knew only about living in the desert with the flocks. From then on, God was the most important person in my life. My wife and sons had to yield to him and what he wanted me to do. They became secondary. It was not their choice to go to Egypt and see me become a leader of the Israelites; they were not Hebrew people and they had not heard God speak to them.

It was a long and treacherous trip back to Egypt. I met Aaron and we began our mission to persuade Pharaoh to let our countrymen leave Egypt. Pharaoh was a hard person to deal with and he always refused our requests. He wanted to own the Israelite people as part of his personal property and to do what he wanted to with them. Economically, Pharaoh had gotten accustomed to the convenience of Hebrew slaves doing so much work for his country, and he was powerful because of them. He knew his power came from domineering cruelty and he could not exist without controlling our people. I knew God was divine and only wanted the best for us. I knew God had more power than Pharaoh, but the man was insidious. He was evil in his dealings and in his intent. He had no regard for human life, and when we confronted him, I felt a chilling fear go through me. He was a human being, but did not have respect for life. I did not understand this. I don't know what, if anything, he respected.

Hymn "O God, Our Help In Ages Past" (verses 1 and 2)

God proved time and again his own power to me and also as a sovereign God to Pharaoh. God sent him ten severe plagues which came over the country of Egypt as warnings of his supreme power. We told him God would do this. Each time, we warned him about a coming plague. Pharaoh thought he was more important than God. Each time he became concerned about the depth of the problem that overcame his country, but each time when the plague subsided, so did his concern about God's power. To me, there seemed to be nothing that would reach the man's heart, if he indeed had one.
The last plague that God sent to Pharaoh was one of death. We were instructed by God to tell the Israelite people to put lamb's blood on the doorposts of our homes and God promised to go through the country of Egypt during the night and kill the firstborn of every living creature whose home was without it. It was a night for us to remember always. Later, we called it the Passover because God's angel passed over our homes and spared us death. In the early hours of the morning, there were cries of horror heard throughout Egypt of people who had lost their firstborn child. Even Pharaoh's home wasn't spared. He awoke to find his son dead. At this point in time, Pharaoh faced a personal crisis and broke down. During this early morning, our people grabbed their belongings and fled Egypt. In deep despair, and not being able to cope personally, Pharaoh let us go. We were all on our way to Canaan, away from Pharaoh, away from bondage and to a new life with our God's direction.

As a people, we did not have organization. We did not have enough provisions. We did not have our route planned adequately. The people complained mercilessly. It seemed at times that returning to slavery under Pharaoh was their choice. They did not have the concept of faith in God, and at times their bitterness was unbelievable. God always listened to us and responded. He did grand miracles on our behalf. He provided personally for our needs. He was merciful beyond belief. For our direction, he gave us a cloud to follow during the daytime, and at night fire. God never left us, no matter how much we sinned. When the people complained constantly, I thought I would go insane as their leader. I was painfully alone at times. Prayer with God was my only safety net for staying alive psychologically. God never let me down, but he answered me according to his ways and his time.

God is the same today. The God who talked to me, Moses, in the wilderness is the same one who can talk to you no matter where you are, or who you are, or what you might be running from. I was a man who was hiding from my past and yet God had great plans for me. He has great plans for you, too, no matter who you are or what you have done, but you must obey him and live strongly by
faith in his instructions. The God who led the impoverished and constantly complaining Hebrews away from Pharaoh can lead you out of your bondage, by way of faith's wilderness, and to God's own promised land for you and your family, whatever that might be. God bless you in your journey.