Waiting for God

Ex. 3:21-22 "And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, 'I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.'"

We wonder about the twists and turns in our lives. It may seem to us that we are off track, missing the best for our lives. We suffer from FOMO. Moses at forty, fled Egypt, where he might have been a great help to God's people.

For the next forty years he will live in Midian, raise a family, seemingly lost to the history of God's people. Seemingly lost to God. But God had a plan. He gave Moses a wife, and children. And he "was content to dwell with the man."

Forty years of Moses' life are covered in these two sparse verses. Forty years transpires between this moment and the call of Moses when he is eighty. Forty very long years!

Surely along those decades he thought that he was finished with his usefulness to God . . . but he had not yet begun. Surely he thought that his lot was to shepherd the flocks of Jethro and then pass quietly into obscurity . . . but God had not yet begun with Moses. Surely it would make sense to accept that after he murdered an Egyptian that his hands were unclean, too unclean to lead God's people, and that he would simply rest in Midian until his last day . . . but God had not yet really begun to use Moses.

Not in his forties, not in his fifties, nor in his sixties, not even in his seventies, but when he entered his eighties, God finally has a mission for Moses, THE mission for him.

Let us not lose heart or grow weary in times of relative quiet in our service to the Lord. He has all the time in the world,  he has a plan, and he has us right where he wants us . . .  for now. Let us follow him now, today, faithful in whatever period of life God has for us, trusting his plan for our lives, our call. Moses was content during those days of waiting. Let us be content in ours.

"But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you" (2 Peter 3:8-9).