LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Cowardly and Brave
Exodus 2:11-20.
This short passage shows us how deceitful the heart of man is. First, Moses shows great cowardice before Pharaoh, for the murder committed, and then great courage, before the shepherds of Midian.
Before Pharaoh, Moses was acting as the deliverer of Israel, and he was doing it with his own strength, because it was not the time nor the way of the Lord's deliverance. In contrast, before the shepherds, Moses was not compromising God's purpose. He was not engaging in God's work, but was simply defending the daughters of Reuel, in a righteous cause.
No one can please God and do his work using his fleshly resources. No one can initiate a work but God. How horrible is this initiation (the murder of a man) and how different from that of the burning bush! For that murder was committed in the confidence that his brethren would understand that "God would give them liberty by his hand" (Acts 7:25), "but they understood not so". Could this be a divine beginning, with the shedding of human blood?
Moses was anticipating forty years. He was in the fullness of his strength, and in the presumption of his abilities; he had yet much to learn before he could say: "Who am I, that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt" (Ex. 3:11).
Moses was fit to defend a human cause, but not to initiate a divine work. For the former, only initiative and a certain sense of justice are required; for the latter, it is essential that God take the initiative.
Thus, for the work of God, all human courage is useless; all boldness turns into fear, and the fiercest human heart becomes like water. Only the Lord can initiate a work and properly train those who do it.