Message 6
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In the foregoing message we covered four aspects of God’s calling of the prepared one: the motivation of God’s calling, the time of God’s calling, the place of God’s calling, and the calling One. In this message we shall consider the purpose of God’s calling and the called one.
Both on the negative side and on the positive side, God’s purpose in calling Moses was very great. Negatively, God called him to deliver the children of Israel out of the tyranny of the Egyptians. In 3:8 the Lord said, “I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.” At the time God called Moses, Egypt was the leading country on earth, and Pharaoh had absolute power. Here was a man now eighty years of age, one who had spent the last forty years of his life shepherding a flock in the wilderness. How could such a one deliver the Israelites from Pharaoh’s tyrannical power? To Moses, it might have seemed impossible. Nevertheless, this was the purpose of God’s calling on the negative side.
The purpose of God’s calling was not only to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, the land of bondage, but to bring them into Canaan, a land “flowing with milk and honey” (Exo. 3:8, 10, 17). Humanly speaking, the positive side of God’s calling was even more of an impossibility than the negative side. Such a thing could only be a dream. But this is precisely what God was calling Moses to do, even though forty years before he had turned his back on the highest culture on earth in his day and had been shepherding a flock in the wilderness ever since.
The nation of Egypt typifies the kingdom of darkness, and Pharaoh typifies Satan, the Devil. How can God’s people be delivered out of the hand of such an evil power and be rescued from the kingdom of darkness? Today this is done through the preaching of the gospel. Do not think that preaching the gospel to bring people to salvation is an easy task. To bring a person out of Satan’s hand and out of the kingdom of darkness is a mighty work. For this reason, the divine revelation in the New Testament places a very high value on the preaching of the gospel. Paul says that the gospel is the power of God (Rom. 1:16).
The purpose of God’s calling is a matter of tremendous significance. In typology, bringing the children of Israel into the good land signifies bringing people into Christ, the all-inclusive Person typified by the land of Canaan. Christ today is a good land flowing with milk and honey.
In His wisdom God uses the expression “flowing with milk and honey” to describe the riches of the good land. Both milk and honey are products of a combination of the vegetable life and the animal life. Milk comes from cattle, which feed on grass. The animal life produces milk from the supply of the vegetable life. Therefore, milk is a product of the mingling of two kinds of life. The principle is the same with honey. Honey has much to do with the plant life. It is derived mostly from flowers and trees. Of course, a part of the animal life is also involved — that little animal, the bee. Hence, in the production of honey, two kinds of life cooperate. These two kinds of life are mingled together, and honey is produced.
Milk and honey signify the riches of Christ, riches that come from the two aspects of the life of Christ. Although Christ is one Person, He has the redeeming life, typified by the animal life, and the generating life, typified by the vegetable life. On the one hand, Christ is the Lamb of God to redeem us; on the other hand, He is a loaf of barley to supply us. Both kinds of life were part of the Passover meal, for in the Passover there were the lamb and the unleavened bread with bitter herbs. These lives were combined for the enjoyment of God’s redeemed people. The purpose of God’s calling, however, is not to give His people a little enjoyment of the animal life and the vegetable life in Egypt; it is to bring them into a spacious land flowing with milk and honey. Do you have the assurance that in the church life today you are enjoying Christ as the good land? I can testify that I daily enjoy Christ as a spacious land flowing with milk and honey.
Who was qualified to bring God’s people out of the land of Egypt into such a marvelous land? Before Moses was sovereignly prepared by God, there was no one who could have done this. Even before he reached the age of forty, Moses must have known that his people, the children of Israel, were in bondage and were suffering persecution. Having realized this, he might have determined to learn everything necessary to equip him to rescue his people. However, Moses probably did not see clearly that the goal was not just to deliver God’s people out of Egypt, but to bring them into the good land. After the children of Israel had been brought out of Egypt, they needed a goal, a destination. Although Moses was not altogether clear concerning the goal, he still expected to do something on behalf of his people. He “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be ill-treated with the people of God than to have the temporary enjoyment of sin” (Heb. 11:24-25). At the age of forty, he considered himself matured, qualified, and equipped to deliver them. Actually, he was not able to do anything. In himself he did not have the power to rescue the people. As soon as the situation became threatening, he fled.
God spent another forty years to bring this capable yet disappointed man to the end. It is not an easy matter to terminate such a person. It took forty years of discipline to make Moses realize that he was not qualified to deliver God’s people out of Egypt and to bring them into the good land.
During his first few years in the wilderness, Moses might have complained about his fellow Hebrew who refused to recognize him as the deliverer of Israel. Moses might have said, “How blind he was! He didn’t realize that I was the one to deliver them. Because of him, I was forced to flee. No one among the children of Israel can do what I could have done. But now everything is ruined.” I believe that as year after year went by, Moses’ attitude began to change; eventually he no longer blamed others for his situation.
It is easy to educate a person, but it is very difficult to terminate him. But after those years in the wilderness, Moses was fully terminated. When God appeared to him in the burning thorn-bush, Moses considered himself good for nothing but death. Nevertheless, at that very juncture, when Moses thought that he was finished, God came in to call him.
God dealt with Moses and prepared him over a span of forty years (Acts 7:30). We know that Moses was dealt with just by the fact that he had to live in the wilderness after having been raised in the royal palace. Suppose someone raised in the United States is suddenly forced to live in a very backward country. Day by day that person will have the feeling that he is being dealt with. Moses, no doubt, had this feeling in the wilderness as he worked as a shepherd to care for a flock that did not even belong to him, but belonged to his father-in-law. Through such a dealing, Moses was gradually prepared.
After those years in the wilderness, Moses lost all confidence in himself (3:11; cf. 2:11-13). When God called him, Moses said, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue” (4:10). Why then does Stephen in Acts 7:22 say that Moses was “powerful in his words and deeds”? When Moses was forty, he was mighty in words and deeds. This means that he was eloquent. But after another forty years he lost confidence in himself; he regarded himself as one who was slow of speech. The record in Exodus 4 and the one in Acts 7 are both true. The record in Acts 7 applies to Moses at the age of forty, whereas the record in Exodus 4 applies to him at the age of eighty, after he had been dealt with and after his natural ability had been stripped away.
Few Christians really know God’s way of dealing with people. I have met a good number of saints who were extremely confident that they had received a burden from God to do a certain work for Him. However, without exception, as soon as they began to do something, God intervened to deal with them. Whenever we are so assured that we are called and burdened, we should expect God’s dealing. We may expect others to stand with us, but they oppose us instead. Disappointed by this rejection, we may decide to drop the burden altogether. But we cannot drop any burden that truly comes from God. If you can drop a burden this indicates that it was not of God in the first place. Whenever we have been burdened by the Lord, we cannot lay aside that burden, no matter how much others may oppose us. Although we may be extremely disappointed, the burden remains with us. Sooner or later, it rises up within us again.
No doubt, when Moses was forty years of age a burden came to him from the Lord. I am convinced that Moses’ parents, especially his mother, had consecrated him to God. No doubt Moses willingly accepted God’s burden.
However, because he was so confident that he had the ability and the power to carry out this burden, God arranged for him to be rejected. Moses must have been deeply disappointed. Year after year, God worked on Moses, not to eliminate the burden, but to terminate Moses’ natural ability and to cause him to have no confidence in himself.
Our problem is this: If we have a burden from the Lord, we tend to use our natural strength to carry it out. But if our natural strength is dealt with, then we tend to cast aside the burden. We do not separate God’s burden from our natural strength. We like to marry these two things, but God wants to divorce them, to keep the burden and to set aside our natural strength. Therefore, God took forty years to deal with Moses’ natural strength. In principle, He will do the same thing with us.
When God called Moses, Moses said that he was slow of speech. It seems that Moses was saying, “Lord, now that You have dealt with my ability, I no longer accept Your burden. I want to resign. I am not the right person to be sent to Pharaoh to deliver the children of Israel out of his hand. I am slow of speech. How can I speak to Pharaoh?” In speaking this way to the Lord, apparently Moses was sincere. God, however, was angry with him (4:14). This indicates that on Moses’ side there was some problem. God wanted to “hire” Moses, but Moses refused to accept the job. As Moses was bargaining with the Lord, God knew what was in his heart. Inwardly Moses might have been saying, “Lord, forty years ago I tried my best to rescue the children of Israel, but You didn’t allow me to succeed. I was rejected, and I had to flee to this wilderness, where I have been suffering for forty years. I have forgotten everything I learned in the royal palace. I have become nothing. Now You say that You want me to go to Pharaoh. When I was qualified, You fired me. But now that I am disqualified and incapable, You want to hire me.” Secretly, Moses might have been blaming the Lord. This might have been the reason God was not happy with him.
Both in Moses and in God there was something that was not expressed. Within Himself the Lord might have been saying, “Moses, I don’t need you to do anything. Don’t you see the thorn-bush there? It is burning, but it is not consumed. I want you simply to manifest Me. Moses, don’t reject the burden. Receive it, but don’t use your ability and strength to carry it out. Because you consider yourself ready for death, I can now use you. Moses, don’t reject Me. I do not intend to use you according to your natural concept. I want to use you in My way, as a thorn-bush that is burning without being consumed.”
It is not easy to do something for God without using our own strength or ability. Throughout the years I have been learning this very lesson, mainly through sufferings and failures. Often people have the attitude that if they are asked to do something, they should be able to do it their own way without interference or advice from others. Even elders in the church may have this attitude. Our feeling may be, “If you want me to do this, then please stay away and let me do it.” However, when God calls us to do something, He wants us to do it, but not by ourselves. When He calls us, it seems that God says, “Yes, I want you to do this, but I want you to do it by Me, not by yourself.” Our problem often is that if we cannot do a certain thing by ourselves, then we refuse to do it at all. This attitude has been a great hindrance to the work of the Lord’s recovery.
Many saints know that we need the church life, but, because they are disappointed, they are reluctant to come to the meetings. They are like the disappointed Moses in the wilderness who was dealt with by God until he lost his confidence. However, he was still willing to take up the Lord’s burden. Moses was burdened by God before he was forty years old. Nevertheless, Moses had to learn to cooperate with God without using his natural ability and strength. God’s call could not come until Moses had lost all his confidence in himself. In principle God deals with us in the same way. When we no longer trust ourselves, He comes in to call us.
Moses also had to realize his inability (4:10-13). He came to fully realize that in himself he was not the right person to answer God’s call. Perhaps during the forty years in the wilderness he even experienced failure in shepherding the flock. God sovereignly might have created certain circumstances which Moses was not able to overcome. All this was designed to help Moses realize his inability.
At the time God called him, Moses considered himself good for nothing but death. Remember, when God appeared to Moses in chapter three, Moses was eighty years of age. In Psalm 90, written by Moses, he says, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (v. 10). This indicates that, at the age of eighty, Moses considered himself ready for death. When God called Moses, Moses might have said within his heart, “Lord, why didn’t You use me when I was forty? Then I was capable, active, and fresh. But now I am ready to die. I am eighty years old, and the time of my death is at hand. Nevertheless, here You are coming to me and asking me to do something. It seems to me that You are coming at the wrong time. Lord, I am no longer capable or useful. I am just an old man good for death.” This was Moses’ feeling about himself when God came to him to call him to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt.
In 1950 I gave a message along these lines to the young people in Manila. The next day, the young people began to pretend that they were aged and ready to die. Although many of them were still teen-agers, they acted as if they were eighty years old. This behavior, however, lasted only a few days. If we are old, we are old, and if we are young, we are young. There is no point in pretending or performing. We can only be what we are. If you are like Moses smiting the Egyptian, then that is where you are. And if you are like Moses at the age of eighty, then that is where you are. One day we all shall reach the point where we consider ourselves good only for death. Everyone called by the Lord must pass through a period of time in which he loses his confidence, realizes his inability, and considers himself good only for death. Eventually, we shall have the same realization about ourselves that Moses had at the age of eighty.
At the very time Moses considered himself ready for death, God came in to charge him to be a sent one (3:10, 15). God was the sending One, the Initiator, and Moses was to be the sent one to carry out the wishes of the sending One. To emphasize this point, the word “send” is used a number of times in chapters three and four. In His calling of Moses, God seemed to be saying, “Moses, I, the Lord, am sending you. You are not to be the sender or the initiator. You are to be the sent one to carry out My will.” In a forthcoming message we shall see that when Moses confronted Pharaoh, he did nothing on his own. On the contrary, he acted as the Lord’s sent one, doing whatever God charged him to do.
To be a sent one means that we do nothing by ourselves. Instead, we simply carry out the wishes of the one who has sent us. To be a sent one is blessed and brings us fully into rest. In order to be a sent one, we must pass through a great deal of training and discipline. A number of times I have sent people to do some specific task for me. Although they said they were clear about what I wanted them to do, they eventually did things according to themselves. This indicates that it takes training to be a sent one.
Before God spoke to Moses, He showed him the sign of a burning thorn-bush. He “appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a thorn-bush” (v. 2, Heb.), a bush that burned with fire without being consumed. Seeing this burning thorn-bush, Moses said, “I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the thorn-bush is not burnt” (v. 3, Heb.). The thorn-bush represented Moses himself. This indicates that everyone who is called of God must realize that he is just a thorn-bush with a fire burning within him and that this fire is God Himself. Although God desires to burn within us and upon us, He will not burn us; that is, He will not use us as fuel.
According to Genesis 3, thorns signify the curse that came because of sin. This indicates that, as God’s called one, Moses was a sinner under God’s curse. Moses was a thorn-bush, not a cedar of Lebanon.
The fire burning within the thorn-bush signifies the manifestation of God’s holiness. Genesis 3:24, the first mention of fire in the Bible, speaks of “a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” This fire appeared after man fell by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This flame excluded man from the tree of life; it kept him from even touching it. In Exodus 3 fire is mentioned again. Here the fire does not exclude man from anything; rather, it indicates that the glory of God’s holiness should burn within Moses and upon him, even though he is a thorn-bush, a sinner under God’s curse. How is it possible for God’s holiness to burn within us? This is possible only through God’s redemption, which fulfills the requirements of God’s holiness. Therefore, today God’s holiness no longer excludes us from the tree of life; it burns within us, although we once were sinners under God’s curse. The holy fire is now one with the cursed sinner and even burns upon him.
The fact that the thorn-bush burned without being consumed indicates that the glory of God’s holiness should burn within us, but that we should not be exhausted. If a servant of God is exhausted, it may mean that he is using his own energy to do something for God. God does not want to use our natural life as fuel. He will burn only with Himself as fuel. We are simply to be a thorn-bush with the divine fire burning within it.
I believe Moses never forgot the sight of that burning thorn-bush. The memory of that vision must have worked within him to constantly remind him not to use his natural strength or ability. Through the sign of the burning thorn-bush, God impressed Moses that he was a vessel, a channel, through which God was to be manifested. It is not easy to learn that we are simply a bush for the manifestation of God. Throughout the years I have been learning one lesson: to work for God without using the natural life as the fuel, but letting God burn within me.
In Mark 12:26 the Lord Jesus refers to the bush of Exodus 3:2. In his translation Darby adds the words “the section of” before “bush”; the American Standard Version adds “the place concerning.” The record of the burning thorn-bush is to be a continuing memorial and testimony to God’s called ones. It bears witness to the fact that we can be nothing other than thorn-bushes.
In these days we have seen that all the saints can be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. However, if we would function as such gifts to the Body of Christ, we must first be burning thorn-bushes, those, like Moses, who have no confidence in themselves and who do not burn for God according to their natural energy.
From the time God called Moses, Moses no longer had any confidence in himself. When others rebelled against him, he did not argue with them; he went to God and fell down before Him. In doing so, Moses showed that he was a burning thorn-bush. As Moses prostrated himself before God, God came forth as flaming fire, manifesting Himself from within Moses as the thorn-bush.
May this record of the thorn-bush make such a deep impression upon us that we never forget it. In ourselves, we are nothing; we are mere thorn-bushes. But God still treasures us and desires to manifest Himself as a flame of fire from within us. We should treasure His burning by never putting any trust in what we are according to the natural man. Our natural man with its energy, strength, and ability must be terminated and forgotten. Our ability and strength mean nothing. What can a thorn-bush do? Nothing. Although you may consider yourself to be capable, you will eventually realize that you are merely a useless thorn-bush. We all must have such a view of ourselves. Thank God that He visits us, stays with us, and burns upon us. Although the divine flame burns within us and upon us, we ourselves are not consumed.
After God called Moses and sent him to Pharaoh, it was not Moses but God Himself who did everything and who was glorified. Moses had no weapon; he had only a rod. With that rod he went to Pharaoh at the word of the Lord, and God did everything. Therefore, the glory was manifested not for Moses, but always for God. Within Moses and upon him the glory of God was manifested.
We all should be called ones like Moses. Sooner or later, we all shall behold the very sight Moses saw in chapter three of Exodus, the vision of a bush that burns without being consumed. This vision needs to be stamped upon our being. Then whenever we touch the work of God or the service of the church, we shall be reminded that we are nothing more than a thorn-bush. The day is coming when we all shall realize this.
