The Everlasting Covenant

A Great Mistake

When Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he did it for the sake of Christ and the EVCO 166.2

Gospel. But his case, like that of Jacob, as well as of many others, shows that the most sincere believers often have much to learn. God calls men to His work, not because they are perfect, but in order that He may give them the necessary training for it. At the first Moses had to learn what thousands of professed Christians have not yet learned in this age. He had to learn that “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” ¹ EVCO 167.1

He had to learn that the cause of God is never advanced by human methods; that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” ² EVCO 167.2

“And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian; for he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; Why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.” ³ EVCO 167.3

It was true that the Lord designed that the people of Israel should be delivered by the hand of Moses. Moses himself knew this, and he supposed that his brethren would also understand the matter. But they did not. His attempt to deliver them was a sad failure, and the reason for the failure lay in him as much as in them. They did not understand that God would deliver them by his hand; he understood that fact, but he had not yet learned the method. He supposed that the deliverance was to be affected by force; that under his generalship the children of Israel were to rise and conquer their oppressors. But that was not the Lord’s way. The deliverance which God had planned for His people was such a deliverance as could not be gained by human efforts. EVCO 167.4