"The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children."
— G.K. Chesterton
I recently finished the book Deuteronomy of the Bible. It urges me to write something for Moses, seeing his entire life devoting to serve the Lord. Moses truly is the greatest follower of Christ.
I recently finished the book Deuteronomy of the Bible. It urges me to write something for Moses, seeing his entire life devoting to serve the Lord. Moses truly is the greatest follower of Christ.
In an earthly sense, Moses is an extraordinarily typical man. When the Lord comes to him, he says, but, my Lord, I am not even good at talking in front of people! Please choose someone else, for I am just another random person. . And so he is. There is absolutely nothing special about him. He is neither well-read nor well-traveled. Why would the Lord chooses him and not Aaron his brother, or someone else who “knows better”? I believe the answer is that God loves the ordinary Moses has. Nothing can be more glorious to God than making a completely normal human to become a great chosen one. If there was anything special about Moses, if he was better at public-speaking, if he was any more knowledgeable, or even if he was just a bit more physically appealing, the story of Moses would never be so great. It was a miracle because it started from the absolute scratch. By saying this, I do not by any means state that ordinary is worthless. Instead, it may yield one of the greatest conceivable powers. In many cases in life, simple is sufficient. If Moses was any more “clever”, he would have built a golden calf. If he was any more “heroic”, he would commit murder and adultery. Aaron was a great priest, David and Solomon were great kings, but what the people of Israel needed during their toughest time was someone better than that - someone like Moses.
The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy show us how obedient Moses is. It is as if whenever God appears and says, “You do this”, Moses would humbly answer, “Right away, my Lord.” Moses’ life wasn’t at all earthly joyful. In my personal experience, flying from Vietnam to the US for 2 days is long and tiresome. Here in the Bible, traveling from slavery to the Promised Land for 40 years full of battles, thirst and hunger, and deadly diseases would be something well beyond. It is even worse when Moses has to lead thousands of non-committed people during these long years. Putting three children in order is out of hand, mothers know best. Multiply such hardship thousandfold and we have what Moses goes through. The apparent price for great joy is great responsibilities.
Everyone among us commits some sin, but the sin Moses commits is minimal: he pokes the rock with his stick because his faith in God isn’t enough. Though imperfect, this faith of his surely surpasses those of many other Biblical heroes. No one could have done a better job than what he did.
This faithful servant of God serves Him until the very end. He stops and falls down when the Promised Land is in sight. And every single hat in this world would be taken off before such death. The earthly tragedy now becomes the great honor.
Tales of a servant are to praise his master, and looking at a noble death is to remember the noblest sacrifice there is. Happy Easter to you all.
