When you combine Exodus 2, Hebrews 11, and Acts 7, you get some more facts about one of the pivotal figures in biblical history – Moses. What you find is that Moses was raised in privilege as a prince of Egypt (just like the movie says), but that he also had some knowledge about who his people were. He understood he was a Hebrew. And it’s reasonable to assume that he also had an inkling at least about what God’s plan was for him – that he was to be a great deliverer.
So in Exodus 2, you find Moses taking his destiny into his own hands. He was supposed to be the deliverer, so he decided to start delivering, and he killed an Egyptian slave-master. That act forced Moses into the wilderness, the desert of Midian to be more precise, and there he stayed for 40 years.
40 years.
That’s a long time. 40 years ago humanity had no concept of the personal computer, much less the internet. The summer of love had not yet happened; the United States was in the Vietman conflict; both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated; and Richard Nixon was elected president. I was not alive for any of these things.
Moses was a shepherd, in the desert, for 40 years. He went from being the prince of Egypt and a revolutionary with a dream to a nobody. But here’s what’s encouraging to me. During those 40 years, I’m sure Moses had alot of questions. He had alot of doubts. He had alot of humility thrust upon him. And while he may have felt like he was doing nothing with his life, God was busy. And I believe God was busy in at least 2 ways – one outside, and one inside.
In the outside, God was busy preparing Moses to know what life was like in the desert, which would come in pretty handy when he spent the NEXT 40 years of life wandering around there. The stuff he learned about finding water, sleeping arrangements, wildlife, plantlife – you name it – would be invaluable. Moses had no clue he was learning all this, but he was.
On the inside, God was also busy. He was busy helping Moses become the sort of person would could walk into the court of the most powerful man in the known world and say “Let my people go.” He was preparing him to be the kind of person who could deal with the impatience and bellyaching of a newly liberated people. He was preparing him to be someone who knew what it was like to depend on the work of God and walk deeply with Him. And Moses didn’t even know it. He was becoming someone in the desert, and he thought he was just herding sheep.
God is busy. He’s busy in the palace, and He’s busy in the desert. In our desert moments, in my desert moments, I wonder if I’m so busy being fixated on getting out of the desert that I forget that God is at work at all.
such a good word yesterday!!! I would love to chat more about exodus with the kelley family!
Good word….looking forward to Glorietta.
[…] he spent as a prince of Egypt, and then another 40 spent as a shepherd in the desert. After those 40 long years, Moses came upon an incredible sight – a bush on fire but was not burning up. And God spoke out of […]
[…] 5. Moses and 40 Long Years – A post reflecting on 4 decades of being a nobody, and how God uses those times to help us “become…” […]
Thanks for linking back to this – I definitely feel like a nobody right now, and I hope it doesn’t take 40 years to get out of the desert. But I’m trying to remember that God has me here for a purpose and to learn from it.
VERY USEFUL FOR MY ASSIGNMENT!!
THANKS!
Nice info. Thankyou for posting this.
A really good word to one who is right in the middle of the desert and learning to cry out to God rather than depend on self for answers to life’s hard questions and more than that, for LIFE ITSELF. The desert is a lonely place and if God wasn’t there it would be deadly. His presence makes the whole thing.
I am about to write a post about long stints in the desert. I really like your post about Moses. I forget to quickly the gift of time in the desert and what God does in those times. 40 Years dang!
I was searching for the scripture reference that states that he was in the desert for 40 years. is there one? or just through commentary?
Dear Sir
What if moses put himself in trouble by killing the egyptian and exiled himself in the desert, God does not want us to suffer does he, I think moses timings were not synchronised with that of God
[…] and how God uses them in your life to prepare you for something. You might want to read it here. He explains how forty years in the Sinai desert as a shepherd softened Moses’ heart and […]
This is an uplifter as im in the desert too. I work in the film & tv industry and when the resession hit in 08 i couldnt find any work as did 1000s of people in the industry. Money was running out fast and then one Friday i heard God telling me to move to a small town where my folks had been restoring an old house. Mom passed on and my dad abandoned the project. I moved into the house where there were spider nests, mice, tons of crawlies, bats and frogs around every corner, no lights, carpets, hot water or cupboards, to go with the building sand on the floor and painted windows. The town is a farming community and since i know zip about farming i struggled to connect with the male population. With money a serious problem i only had enough to buy bread, maize, milk, sugar and soyia. This was 2y ago. I have since (thank God!) moved to a flat with carpets, hot water and lights, and pay for it with a small ‘salary’ i get from filming and editing our reverends messages and sermons. I know i am within Gods will.
The book of jeremiah says that for only if we could know what plans our GOD has for us! Anyone in the desert without GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob you are dead.
JESUS IS LORD. We are blessed
Hi – the ‘Summer of Love’ was in 1967…..
I know, I was there.
Great thoughts about Moses’ time in the desert though, thanks, Hans
Felt good to read this. Was looking for scripture about 40 years. Apart from Acts 7; is it mentioned elsewhere too ?
[…] […]
Sincere Thank you, Michael K. 🙂
Vijayan: Moses was 30-40 when he killed the Egyptian soldier and ran away; he led the Israelites in the desert for 40 years; and he died at the age of 120.
120 years (age at death) – 40 years (growing up in Egypt) – 40 years (in the desert the second time) = roughly 40 years in the desert the first time.
Great post that I came upon while looking for views about what occupied Moses during 40 years in the desert. I’m sort of there in the desert now myself so I’m looking for perspective.
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From Egypt to the promised land, Moses as a prince will never make it with the people of slaves. Being a shepherd, a lowly job, he was ‘equal’ to the salves in Egypt. And being a shepherd made him an expert in terrains and wildness, he was then a great leader.
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Just wanted to throw in a great big AMEN. Good word. God is working and molding me now in my desert. Thank u for reminding me. I know this is an old post but it helped me today. God bless you and your ministry.
I have been writing an article and needed to make the point that all the great writers and all the great prophets had a moment in time in which they deepened their wisdom. I knew about Moses’s time at the Desert of Midian after killing the Egyptian slave-master, and your article helped to clarify matters.
My brother suggested I might like this web site. He was totally right.
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God was preparing Moses to become a strongest person
[…] take it anymore. One day he snapped because you weren’t answering his texts/prayers. That was so long ago. Like 40 years ago. Let it […]
Tanx for sharing
Awesome commentary!
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Life of Moses
40 Years as Egyptian Prince
40 Years as Shepherd in the forest
40 Years as Leader to take six lakh people and civilised them to a Nation
Be Patient and believing in Christ in your life
This post is terribly good. I liked the idea of one’s desert and the reassurance that God is busy, not sleeping. I’m living in ruins of my late parents and feel like Moses in the desert. Moses, however, had Ziporah, while I’m longing for mine 😉
Thanks for the inspiring post – even in our desert years of uselessness – God could be molding us for greater responsibilities to glorify His name through me and take me to be His friend and lead me to heaven too.
This piece blessed me so much. Thank you.
To think that all Moses did for that 40 years was to tend someone else’s sheep is simply crazy, but that’s all he did. So surprised there are no records of him trying out new ideas, trying to establish in another land or even do sheep for himself.
How do you explain that the man just tended his father in law’s sheep for 40 years?
But just like your write up says, we would have to look through GOD’s eyes when all that is visible to humans is only stagnation.
I have been really blessed. Thank you.
Thanks for the word. I know this was written in 2008 but it has great significance to me today. The Almighty leads us in palaces and in deserts, in homes and in the market places, He is all-knowing. 40 years in the desert may seem like a waste of time to our modern task oriented mindset but in EloHim`s economy, quoting Mary Fletcher (ex missionary to Colombia), nothing goes to waste. Thanks for this sharing. 🙂
Encouraging document
This message about our ‘desert’ moments is very important,if we can learn to obey,submit and humble ourselfs during these moments,instead of following/making our own desicions like Lot,we will really be blessed children of the Almighty
Omg! I’d been searching around the internet for this kind of explanation and found it after many days of search.tq .Lord!!
I’ve been to the oasis Moses found in the desert in Al Assad Iraq. He was tougher than we are now. Praise the Lord!
The number 40 had been very important in Moses’ life, Prince of Eypyt then a shepherd for 40 years (Egyptians looked down upon shepherds) what a mind adjustment for once a prince of Eygpt? Then God called him when he was 80 years old, walked with the children of Israel 40 years in the desert then he died at 120. I suppose, we must not complain on our “not so good days”.