Since my car broke down over the weekend, I had Monday off waiting to have it fixed, and was reflecting on the life Moses, a life that we’ll be wrapping up in this week’s bible study, which we saw so vividly imagined in the movie Sunday night.
Not sure if any of you noticed, but I was nearly in tears when Moses wrestled with his newly realized identity (not biblically accurate I know, but quite moving none the less):
I’ve had those same sentiments. I have a graduate degree, a sports luxury sedan, a relatively secure job, a wonderful girlfriend, a great church-y life even. This was all I’ve ever wanted. While I was never a prince, I’ve lived most of my life in convenience and luxury, rarely if ever in truly desperate want. For so many years, and with embarrassing frequency even today, even while I proclaimed myself a Christian, I took this earth as my home, my blanket of security and comfort.
Yet in a single moment, from a single stanza of a lullaby that has been present in his heart since his birth, all that Moses knew came undone. All that was once alluring and prized now felt cheap and pretentious. What was once normal bondage now felt like a crying injustice. A burning, uncontainable desire welled within him to discover and pursue who he truly was. He abandoned his old identity of wealth, power and comfort and embraced a life of simplistic perspective and clear conscience. The majesty of God met him and he was sent on a mission to redeem HIs people.
Does that sound strikingly familiar?
We were born into this world of prestige and prosperity. Remember, regardless of where you were born in the developed world, you are amongst the top 5% of the wealthiest people on earth. We are indeed princes/princesses. The whole world around us, the normal around us, teaches us to attain more, consume more. But Christ saved us, the Holy Spirit entered us, a desire exploded within us to embrace the grace-filled love of Jesus, and we began to discover what the world looked like to His eyes. As 1 Peter 2:9 says, God “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. Jesus restored to us our identities as children of God (John 1:12). Apostle Paul says our “citizienship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20), and Jesus sends us out on the earth so that we could be part of His continual kingdom work, to “set the oppressed free” (Acts 1:8, Luke 4:16-21).
Let’s reflect on that. How many of us, like Moses in the movie, have spent time truly wrestling with the fact that we don’t belong here (1 Peter 2:11)?
Has the new identity from our salvation really manifested in us? Is it even there? Especially those of us who’ve heard this stuff all our lives (Hebrews 5:11).
Are you living the new life that God gave you? Has the old gone? Has the new come? (2 Corinthians 5:17) The life of simply obeying Him, through the usually difficult, sometimes painful and frequently ridiculous instructions of His Kingdom, spoken so obviously through out the New Testament?
Are you seeing it all joyfully (James 1:2) through heaven’s eyes?
Ultimately, have you had the majesty of a burning bush, and the joy of the cross (Psalm 51:12), replace the allure of being an earthly prince/princess?
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