The Backside of the Desert

It’s a familiar story. Moses was born in troubled times. Instead of killing him, as Pharaoh had commanded (And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive), his parents kept him hidden for 3 months. Then they cast him on the river instead of into the river. Pharaoh’s daughter found him, rescued him, and eventually took him as her own son. He was raised in Pharaoh’s house and educated with the best education of the day. He was a prince in Egypt.

When Moses was grown, (as Stephen says, he was full forty years old) he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens. Moses was responding to God’s call on his life and he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. Neither they nor Pharaoh appreciated his efforts! Truth is, Pharaoh sought to kill Moses.

Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian. And he will spend the next 40 years in the desert. I have always thought of this as the backside of the desert, an even more forsaken place than the desert. But, however conceived, it is still 40 years in the desert.

What did he do in the desert? He got married and had children. He got a job working for his father in law - as a shepherd. He made a life for himself in the desert, but he was doing something he was terribly overqualified for. Nevertheless, he was clearly committed to this desert life. And, I think it is safe to say, he wasn’t really living for the Lord.

What was God doing in Moses all this time? I don’t know. Was he attending ‘Backside of the Desert Seminary’? No. God seems to have been pretty silent for 40 years. Although when He did speak He said, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled... So Moses knew something. So what was God doing? Was He waiting for those who knew Moses to die off? After 40 years living in the country Moses would have looked different! He would have been clean shaven (maybe even his head) in his days in Egypt, now he would have had a big bushy beard. Perhaps God was emptying Moses so that when the call came he would have no reason to trust in himself. Or maybe he was just tucked away until the time came when God wished to redeem His people from Egypt. We don’t always see the big picture. But when God had done his work Moses was a greater leader than he would have otherwise been. And more importantly, he had great character: Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.

How did Moses feel, these 40 years in the desert? It doesn’t say, but I have a pretty good idea: He had a calling from God that was unfulfilled. He had preparation and training that was unused. In Egypt he had a destiny, now he was mostly dusty. He was off in a corner, unknown, unused; sometimes hiding, sometimes lonely. A train derailed. A ship run a ground. A compass with no magnetic field – but now I wax poetic! He was lost in a trackless desert. But you know what, there are paths in the desert. And when God comes there are streams in the desert too.

Can you escape the backside of the desert? Moses was finished. I’m sure he was the first one to use the expression, “Stick a fork in me, I’m done.” But God wasn’t finished with him.

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

No, God was not finished with Moses. It was the call of God that got him out of the desert. And I love it: Moses, Moses. The call of God is so personal! He knew who he was, where he was, and why he was there. You can’t create this or force it. Moses wasn’t plotting or planning his return to Egypt. He was through with Egypt. And Israel. God came after him.

Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ... I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Not only did Moses not arrange his return to Egypt and ministry, the call of God was not really about him: I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people out of Egypt.

I know what it is to live in the backside of the desert. Is there a way out? The voice of God. God loves to redeem and restore. In His time, when He can use me for His people, the voice will call. And, what do you do until you hear the voice of God? You let God continue to clean you up. And, like Moses, you let your hair grow!