sion for his own kith and kin. There was nothing evil, there was nothing implicitly sinful or wrong in the thoughts that filled his mind; that natural feeling of resentment against a tyrannical people, mercilessly whipping one of his own defenseless brethren — but it was just at that stage that he allowed sincerity and genuine compassion to rob him of his true vocation. It says in verse 12, “And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.” The enormity of the need knocked him off balance, and in a false sense o f dedication he com mitted himself to the task instead of to God — “He looked this way and that way. . . .” The one way he did not look was up! “ . . . and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian. . . In his sensitivity to the presence o f man, Moses became strangely insensitive to the presence of God. How easy it is for us to do just that, and relate our actions to the approval or disapproval of men. Are you “man-conscious” or “God-con scious” ? Had Moses been overwhelmingly confident that his actions merited God’s complete approval, he would have been indifferent to other men’s reac tions — their opinions would have been irrelevant. Spiritual pioneers, consciously in the center of God’s will, can afford to be lonely in the face of public opinion, whether it be Nehemiah building the wall, Peter taking the Gospel to the house of a Gentile, or Wilberforce and Livingstone cam paigning for the abolition of slavery. Moses lost his sense of God, and maybe you have lost your sense of God for the same reason. You are not called upon to commit yourself to a need, or to a task, or to a field. You are called upon to commit yourself to God! It is He then who takes care of the consequences and commits you where He wants you. He is the Lord of the harvest! He is the Head of the body — and He is gloriously competent to assume His own responsi bilities! Man is not indispensable to God. God is indispensable to man! The challenge we hear so often today in the name of consecration is, “Do more! Give more! Be more!” Go! Go! Go! But God says, “ Be still and know that I am God” ! In other words, quit the panic! Just let God be God! Moses had not learned that lesson when he saw the Egyptian smiting one of his brethren. He rolled up his sleeves, and said in so many words, “ If ever there was a time when I was on call, it is now!” and he blundered in like a bull in a china shop, smote the Egyptian, and tried unsuccessfully to bury him. With the best intentions in the world, he became a murderer instead o f a missionary! “ And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest
thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known” (Exo dus 2:13, 14). Yes, the thing was known. When Moses tried to tackle the job, he could not even bury one Egyptian successfully. Maybe he left his toes sticking out o f the sand! When God tackled the job, He buried the whole lot of them in the Red Sea! That is how competent God is to deal with His own business. Moses fled, for “when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay him” — and for forty years he was in the land of Midian. A man whom God had specifically raised up for a particular task, but who on the basis of his own sincerity, and on the basis of his own enthusiasm, neutralized his usefulness because he committed himself to a need instead of to God. He tried to do God’s work man’s way, and he had to learn that it is not scholarship but rela tionship — not just his ability but his availability — that qualified a man for God. One can imagine the awful sense of futility that must have overwhelmed Moses again and again during those forty years o f uselessness, un recognized and unknown in the backside o f the desert, and maybe you too have found your Chris tian service unrewarding. You are converted, you can look back to the day when you put your trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, but you imagined that the Christian life was just conform ing to certain patterns of Christian conduct — patterns which had been projected upon you — and that your spirituality would be judged in terms of your conformity. That is not spirituality, that is “ copyism,” and Christian service that stems solely from conformity to the demands of an organiza tional machine will always be lacking in spiritual luster, and characterized by the absence of divine unction. You will waste away with Moses in the wilderness of Midian. Poor Moses — soldier, scholar, and statesman! Bom to be a leader, caring for a handful of sheep, his wife’s husband, with a job on her father’s farm! Hope must have seemed to wither at the roots, when “ the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out o f the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed” (Exodus 3 :2 ). When Moses saw that bush, he was amazed! It was a phenomenon — something that immediately attracted his attention. Here was a bush that burned and burned and burned, and went on burn ing. As far as he could see, it could bum on for eternity, and he could not help but compare him self with that bush! In his heart he must have said something like this: “ I have never seen a bush like that before. I’m not like that bush! Forty years ago I burned myself out in 24 hours, and I have
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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