More about Moses - part two

We followed the beginning of Moses' life as his mother is forced to hide him from Pharaoh's decree. Ironically, it is Pharaoh's daughter who finds him and eventually adopts him as her own son. What happened after the safety of his ark experience? He apparently grew up as a prince with all the accompanying privledges and benefits. He may also have had little guidance on spiritual matters, although he does not seem to have forgotten his Hebrew origin. One day, he sees an overseer beating a Hebrew slave. He is a grown man at this time, forty years old according to Acts 7:23. According to the Scripture he looked around to see if anyone was watching and then killed the overseer, hiding his body in the sand. The next day he again visits the Hebrews and sees two of them arguing. When he tries to intervene, they taunt him about what he had done the day before. Pharaoh soon hears about it as well and once again Moses' life is in danger. In a way, he came full circle, although this time, he brought the verdict upon himself.

I am currently giving a series of talks about the 'daily duties' as outlined in our church Manual. One of them is headed "Alertness to Duty". It reads, "It shall be the duty of every member of this church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to froget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind. By his works he shall be judged, - and justified or condemned." That takes on profound meaning when applied to Moses' actions. It has profond meaning for us as our own motives and actions determine our human experience. Our duty is to God, to love Him and obey Him. Our duty to Mrs. Eddy is to appreciate her tremendous self-sacrifice in dedicating her life to sharing her discovery with the world. Our duty to mankind is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Truly will we be judged and either justified or condemned by those choices.

This could have been the end of Moses' story but it was only the end of his life in Egypt. He flees, but ends up in a place where he is given time and opportunity for spiritual growth. No matter how devestating some experience seems to be, no matter if we feel like we are fleeing some fate, no matter if we thought we were doing our highest sense of right at the time, we are free to move forward, the change our thinking, to live a better life. To see ourselves as never outside of the circle of divine Love. In fact, there is no outside for that would mean there was some place where God was not present.

More about Moses' journey and his next forty years in the wilderness of Midian in the next posting.