IT WAS AN ARID DAY The dry, balmy breeze cooled the lonely
shepherd as he sat quietly upon the grassy knoll watching his flock
graze lazily in the sun.
It had been forty years now. So long ago and yet it seemed in one way
just like yesterday. At times the memory of Pharaoh's courts was like a
story so far in the past that he could scarcely remember the detail. At
other times it seemed so vivid he had to pinch himself to be sure he
wasn't still there.
How could he have ever thought that he would be able to deliver his
beloved people from the cruelty of Egyptian slavery! Sometimes at the
thought his heart would still break in sorrow because of his people's
suffering. At other times the circumstances of his shepherd life, the
remoteness of the wilderness, the cares of his family, the peace of the
pastoral scenes that surrounded him caused such thoughts to be so remote
that they were virtually nonexistent.
Today the memory replayed vividly in the sanctuary of his mind. Just
now he was thinking of the times when as a boy he would slip away from
the palace, without Pharaoh's daughter knowing it and visit with his
father and mother, his brother and sister. There he would sit and listen
for hours of the story of his birth and his miraculous escape from
certain death in the Nile River.
"Why was I in the Nile River in a basket, mother?" he would ask again
and again. Over and over his mother would give him the same answer.
"The Hebrew people had grown mighty in number since they had been in
the land of Egypt, "she would explain. "In fact they had become so great
that Pharaoh was afraid that if war broke out we might join his enemies
and escape from Egypt. So Pharaoh ordered that all the male babies be
thrown into the river. I could not bear to see that happen. So I hid you
as long as I could, then I made a little basket, put you in it and put
it in the reeds along the bank of the Nile. When Pharaoh's daughter came
down to bathe, she saw the basket and opened it and found you. She
couldn't bear the thought of you being left to die, so she took you home
to Pharaoh's palace to be her own son. "
"Never forget, my son, the deliverance of God. I am sure that He
saved you for a purpose. The time is drawing near for the fulfillment of
the promise that God gave to our father Abraham."
"What was that promise, mother?" Moses would always ask in boyhood curiosity.
"Our father Abraham had been speaking with God all day when toward
the end of the day he prepared an altar unto the Lord and laid the
sacrifice upon it. As the sun was setting Abraham fell into a deep
sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord
said to him, 'Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers
in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated
four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,
and afterward they will come out with great possessions.' Then when the
sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing
torch appeared and passed between the sacrifice. On that day the Lord
made a covenant with our father Abraham and promised to give his
descendants a land flowing with milk and honey."
He didn't know why, but when his mother told this story his heart
would always burn within him so that he scarcely could contain himself.
Even now as he recalled her words that same fire seemed to blaze again
within his soul. She would always add, "Moses, that 400 years of slavery
is just about up. It is the time of deliverance for God's people. Don't
you ever think that you alone were spared from all the other Hebrew
boys and that you are living in Pharaoh's palace as his own son by
accident!"
As he had grown up to manhood he somehow couldn't shake his mother's
words. Perhaps that is why I am here, he had thought. Perhaps that is
why I am being schooled in all the wisdom of Egypt, perhaps that is why I
am becoming an expert in all the martial arts of war and leadership.
Perhaps that is why I am next in line to Pharaoh's throne. I am the one
God has ordained to deliver Israel. As he meditated upon these thoughts
his soul seemed to become engulfed in flames.
One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people
were and watched them at their hard labor. He became enraged as he saw
an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Quickly he looked around and seeing that
no one was around he struck the Egyptian and killed him and hid his body
in the sand.
Sure, he had been a little nervous when he had returned to the
palace, but he had consoled himself in the miraculous events that
surrounded his life and in his certainty of God's call upon him as
deliverer of Israel. God would surely protect him now. As for the
Hebrews, perhaps they would begin to realize that he was their ally who
at the right time would overthrow Pharaoh and bring them deliverance.
The next day he had gone out and seen two Hebrews fighting one another. "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?" he asked.
The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing us as you killed the Egyptian?"
He could never forget the terror that struck his heart when he found
out that his deed had become known. Learning that Pharaoh was trying to
kill him, he had fled from Pharaoh and the land of Egypt and had gone to
Midian. There he had befriended Jethro the, priest of Midian, and had
married his daughter Zipporah.
Well that had been 40 years ago and now he wondered why he had ever
in his wildest imagination thought that he, the boy of a Hebrew slave,
could have ever stood alone against the most powerful Pharaoh and army
in all the world and overcome them. The thought of all these things
grieved him deeply. As he sat on the grassy knoll watching his sheep in
the evening sunset he wondered why after all these years the memory on
this evening came back so vividly in all its agony and glory.
As Moses drifted back to reality, he realized that he must be up and
going before it got too much darker. Calling his sheep unto him, Moses
turned once again toward the rocky path toward home. As Moses came near
Mount Horeb, a strange sight suddenly captured his attention. A bush
appeared to be on fire but was not burnt up.
"Now this is unusual," Moses thought. "I'll go over there and see why
this bush is burning but is not being consumed by the flames." As Moses
approached the burning bush there seemed to be an unearthly Presence
that pervaded the whole mountain side. He wanted to draw closer, and yet
wanted to run away all at the same time. But the closer he got, it
seemed as though an irresistible magnetic force drew him toward the
flames. It was then that a Voice called to him from the flames and said
"Moses, Moses!"
The Call of God
Somehow in the deepest recesses of his soul Moses knew that this was
the Voice of God. At first Moses was so overwhelmed that he could not
find words to speak. Finally he was only able to stammer out, "Here I
am."
God answered with a voice that was so majestic that it caused every
fiber of Moses being to vibrate with awe. "Don't come any closer. Take
off your shoes, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
Moses took off his shoes and knelt before the Holy Presence in the bush.
God spoke again. "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." An absolute Holy fear engulfed
his whole being and Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at
God.
"I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, " God continued. I
have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am
concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from
the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a
good land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and
honey. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me. I have seen the
way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to
Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
"What? Me?" Moses thought. "Me? When I was young and full of energy
and well versed in all the wisdom of Egypt maybe then I could have done
it , but now ... now I am an old man. I have forgotten just about
everything I have learned. I have no power, no army, nothing but a few
docile sheep here on the backside of the desert. Surely God must be
mistaken! No, I could never do it."
Finally Moses was able to to get out a few words, "Who am I, Lord,
that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
Now we see the self confident spirit of Moses completely broken as he realizes his own inadequacy for the job.
God answered, "I will be with you ... Tell them Moses, I Am has sent you to them."
This is the key that led to Moses success. He was only a man with a
shepherd's rod but through God's anointing, through obedience to God's
commands, he was able to bring down the mightiest empire in the world.
In essence God said, Moses it really doesn't matter who you are. It
is who I Am that really counts. I Am that I Am. It was not who Moses was
that mattered at all, it was who God was that was all that mattered!
For God promised Moses that as he went forward at God's command, all the
power of heaven would back him up.
Divine Encounters
It was basically this same confession that Moses made at the burning
bush that God had wrung from the lips of Job so many years before.
During a great period of immense suffering, trial, and hardship,
forsaken and misunderstood by all who had loved him, Job maintained the
confession of his righteousness. But when he saw God, he cried out, "My
ears have heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I
despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."
It was the same realization that Peter came to when before Christ's
crucifixion, he had boldly proclaimed, "Lord, even if all fall away on
account of you I never will. I am ready to go with you to prison and to
death!" But Jesus answered and said, "Peter, will you really lay down
your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows twice
you will disown me three times?" And sure enough, as Peter stood outside
the palace of the high priest, denying that he ever knew Jesus, that
his eye caught sight of the Master, the rooster crowed for the second
time and he went out and wept bitterly.
It was the same confession God evoked from Isaiah when in the midst
of his ministry, after he had pronounced many judgments and woes to
Israel, that He saw the Lord high and lifted up with his train filling
the temple. Seraphim stood above Him who was so Holy that even these
Holy and worshipful creatures could not look upon Him, but covered their
faces with their wings and cried out, "Holy, Holy Holy is the Lord of
Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory".
As they cried out with a sound so grand and glorious that the door
posts of the temple began to move and shake, the glory of the Lord began
to roll into that temple like a cloud until the whole house was filled
with smoke from His glory! When Isaiah beheld the Lord in such glory, he
cried out confessing his sin and the sin of his nation saying, "Woe is
me! I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean
lips!" That confession brought an angel with a coal from off the altar
to touch and cleanse him. And brought an invitation of future service
from the Lord.
These kind of experiences are unusual in America today. We live in a
nation in which the mind set in the church and nation emphasize the need
for self-esteem, a better self image, and an easy going quest for self
preservation. Alan Bloom observed in his book Closing of the American
Mind, "A few years ago I chatted with a taxi driver in Atlanta who told
me he had just gotten out of prison, where he served time for peddling
dope. Happily he had undergone therapy. I asked what kind. He responded,
"all kinds - depth-psychology, transactional analysis ... He said that
he had found his identity and learned to like himself. A generation
earlier he would have found God and learned to despise himself as a
sinner."
The Men and Women God Uses
There has always been personal revival before public revival in the
men and women God uses. This revival has always produced basically the
same effects. It convinces man of his total inadequacy and insufficiency
before God. It convicts man of his self-life, of his own efforts. It
reveals to man God's glory, majesty, and power. It calls man to service,
but at the same time convinces that man or woman that there is no way
to perform that service apart from intimate fellowship and empowering
from the Lord.
The men and women God uses have always had the testimony of a close
walk with God and and have longed for a holy life. They are men and
women with a sensitive conscience. John Wesley declared in 1734: "My one
aim in life is to secure personal holiness, for without being holy
myself, I cannot promote real holiness in others."
Without exception they fear God and sin, and above all else fear
losing that sense of God's Presence. The Person of Christ is their
center, their focus and He is pre-eminent in their thoughts and hearts.
Men and women who God uses in revival know that sin will grieve and
quench the Holy Spirit. Their zeal for God is equalled only by their
fear of offending Him.
These revivalists were men and women who did not bring messages about
God or salvation from Bible texts alone, but they were men and women
who brought messages from God. Their messages moved men and women to
repentance and a changed life. They did not preach about Christ; they
preached Christ. And they held forth the cross as not only the path to
salvation, but the only path to a deeper walk with God.
They were men and women who loved God's Word. George Whitefield,
revivalist of the First Great Awakening, wrote of his love for the word
of God, "I began to read the Holy Scriptures upon my knees, laying aside
all other books and praying over, if possible, every line and word.
This proved meat and drink indeed to my soul. I daily received fresh
light and power from above. I got more true knowledge from reading the
Book of God in one month than I could ever have acquired from all the
writings of men."
These were not extinct volcanos whose celestial fires had gone out.
They were men and women whose inner fires erupted and engulfed the world
around them in flames. They gave God the honor in everything He did
through them. George Whitefield wrote in his diary, " I Pray that I may
be very little in my own eyes, and not rob my dear master of any part of
His glory." Those used in the revival in Scotland in 1921 were said to
have "A humble idea of their own ability."
A New Vision of Jesus Christ
Douglas Brown wrote, "Revival begins with a vision, and the vision
begins with a new sense of Jesus Christ." It will be noted that in each
of these men's lives they had come back to Christ - the true Center of
everything. It was not their vision, not some aspect of the truth, not
to some particular doctrine, but their inner being had returned to an
all consuming vision and relationship with Jesus Christ. Many Christians
are preoccupied with mere things. Some are leader centered, some
message centered, some problem centered. It is God's desire that we
become centered upon the Person of Jesus Christ. It is God's desire not
that we come to know truth, but that we come to know the Person, the
living Person of Jesus Christ who is all truth. And to be consumed with
love and worship for Him.
Here is the test. What are you occupied with? What has become
central? Is it some leader? Some system of truth? Is it some church and
its ministry? Is it some experience we can obtain? It is possible to
have been seeking all kinds of things, but to have missed Him. Our
motive in praying for revival cannot be because we want to improve our
reputation, vindicate our theology, have the biggest church in town, or
just want an exciting experience.
Revival is returning to Christ as the true Center. It is setting
aside all our hectic schedules, our better management, our better
structures, our extravagant claims and glittering showmanship and
admitting our true condition. And seeking instead that seeming
unproductive and unnoticed sweet hour of prayer in which we seek our
First Love and seek to be brought into intimate relationship with Jesus
Christ. Are we willing if necessary to break every habit, cancel every
magazine or newspaper, sell our television, burn our novels, in short,
to rid ourselves of everything that keeps us from drawing near to God in
prayer and fellowship and make seeking God the greatest aim of our
lives?
God Answers Prayer
When Israel cried out because of their bondage and oppression God
answered in the "Burning Bush." When Isaiah saw the Exalted Lord of
glory and cried out in conviction of sin, God answered with a coal of
fire from off the altar, and a new calling and anointing. When Job
beheld the All Glorious One, he repented of his self righteousness,
forgave his friends, and God restored the fortunes of Job and gave him
twice as much as he had before. The latter end of Job's life was greater
than its beginning.When Peter caught a glimpse of his beaten Savior in
the courtyard of the high priest, he went out and wept bitterly. The
resurrected Christ appeared to him in forgiveness and cleansing and
commissioned him to shepherd and feed His sheep.
On the Day of Pentecost 120 people had been crying out in desperate
prayer for ten days in obedience to the commandment of the Resurrected
Christ. God answered with tongues of fire and a mighty baptism in the
Holy Spirit. As a result 3,000 were converted in a single day. When
God's people become revived, when Jesus becomes the true center of their
lives, and when worship, commitment, and the whole life is unto Him,
then the ungodly are converted, regenerated and transformed. R.A. Torrey
observed, "Drunkards become sober, impure men and women become pure.
Thieves become honest men and industrious citizens; and lazy people get
down gladly to hard work. A true revival always begins in the hearts of
Christians but it never ends there." It extends outward to bring a lost
and dying world unto God.
The Beauty of Jesus Christ
It wasn't who Moses was, who Isaiah, Job, Peter, George Whitefield,
or John Wesley was that really mattered at all. It was Who He was and is
that is all that really mattered.
Who was He? He was the One who Daniel saw whose garments were like
white snow, the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was
ablaze with flames and a river of fire was flowing out before Him! He is
the One whom the Apostle John saw on the Isle of Patmos as he was
exiled for the gospel, Whose eyes were like a flame of fire, Whose feet
were like burnished bronze as when it is caused to glow in a furnace,
Whose face was like the sun shining in its strength.
Who was He? He is the One who said, "I am the First and the Last. I
am He that lives and was dead, and behold I am alive forever more and I
have the keys of hell and of death!"
Who was He? When John saw the heavens opened, He was the One who was
seated upon a white horses whose eyes are a flame of fire. He is the One
whose name is called Faithful and True who in righteousness judges and
wages war. He is the One upon whose head are many diadems, for all the
kingdoms He has conquered. And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood
and His name is called the Word of God, and the armies which are in
heaven follow Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword so
that with it He may smite the nations and He will rule them with a rod
of iron with which to rule the nations and He treads the wine press of
the fierce wrath of Almighty God. And on His robe and on His thigh he
has a name written - King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
He is the One who is crying out in Communist lands and in places that
were once the great spawning grounds of atheism and the great breeding
grounds of anti-Christian thought saying, "The time has come to gather
all nations and tongues, and those who have not heard of My Name shall
come and see My glory. For I will pour out My Holy Spirit on all
mankind, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy and all mankind
shall come and bow before Me."
He is the One who is knocking at the door of the churches in America
and crying, "You are rich and have become wealthy and have need of
nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched miserable, poor,
blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire,
that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that
the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes
with eye salve that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door
and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into
him and fellowship with him and he with Me."
