What can we learn from the life of Moses. We know that he was used by God in a way that most, my self included, could only dare to imagine. From a young age he was called out and separated. Pharaoh ordered a decree because of the mass population growth among the Hebrews that all new born sons be thrown into the nile, only to drown. Through the calling on his life and the wisdom of his mother he lived. After being weaned he entered into the house of Pharaoh only to be raised by his daughter, he had royalty and shade from the sun. The day comes for most of us when we are faced with decisions, decisions that will change the course of our lives, leading us down paths HASHEM had designed. We don't know much about the in-between years, but we do know that Moses left the house of Pharaoh only to work among his brethren. So was moses called out and separated? Yes. However this was only the beginning.
Like Abraham, Moses was separated to God for a glorious mission, to lead a people. Abraham left his homeland taking his wife, nephew and servants. The beginning of a new era. The seed of a future, the promise of something enormous. Moses however was a link to the promise and covenant that begun 430 years earlier with the words Lech Lecha (Genesis 12). Moses worried for his life escaped Egypt and found a new life among the land of Midian home of Jethro. Years had passed and the cry of the Hebrews could no longer go unanswered, HASHEM was now going to act. Exodus 3: 1 - 10 - Moses was shepherding the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; he guided the sheep far into the wilderness, and he arrived at the Mountain of God, toward Horeb. An angel of HASHEM appeared to him in a blaze of fire from amid the the bush. He saw and behold! the bush was burning in the fire but the bush was not consumed. Moses thought, "I will turn aside now and look at this great sight - why will the bush not be consumed?" HASHEM saw that he turned aside to see; and God called out to him from amid the bush and said, "Moses, Moses," and he replied, "Here I am!" He said, "He said, "Do not come closer to here, remove your shoes from your feet, for the place upon which you stand is holy ground." And He said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to gaze upon God. HASHEM said, "I have indeed seen the infliction of My people that is in Egypt and I have heard the outcry because of its taskmasters, for I have known of its sufferings. I shall descend to rescue it from the land of Egypt and to bring it up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivvite, and the Jebusite. And now, behold! the outcry of the Children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. And now, go and I shall dispatch you to Pharaoh and you shall take My people the Children of Israel out of Egypt."
At this moment Moses shrinks back and questions God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should take the Children out of Egypt?" Not a day passes by that I don't seek to hear the Voice of God, the thunder of HASHEM. To be singled out and called upon, to be reluctant and yet still be sent forward. One man, although HASHEM sent Aaron to him, Moses was called to do what had been prophesied to Abraham nearly four hundred years earlier. Genesis 15: 12 -16- And it happened, as the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold - a dread! great darkness fell upon him. And He said to Abram, "Know with certainty that your offspring shall be aliens in a land not their own - and they will serve them, and they will oppress them - four hundred years. But also the nation they will serve, I shall judge, and afterwards they will leave with great wealth. As for you: You shall come to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And the fourth generation shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite shall not yet be full until then.
This year bondsman, next year we are free.
This year in a home not our own, next year in Jerusalem.
Shalom Children of the most High,
Rabbi Lawrence
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