Moses Identifies with God’s Chosen People

Acts 7:20–29
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At church one morning, my friend Gwen was about to start her 4-year-olds’ Sunday school class when a little boy showed up without any identification. Gwen managed to get his first name but ... More

Identification

Stephen summed up the characteristics of Joseph in two words – grace and wisdom.

1. Grace in its simplest form means beauty. Its nearest English equivalent is charm. It would have been extremely easy for Joseph to become embittered. But he dealt faithfully with each duty as it emerged, serving with equal devotion as slave or as prime minister.

2. There is no word more difficult to define than wisdom. But the life of Joseph gives us the clue to its meaning. In essence, wisdom is the ability to see things as God sees them.

A major portion of Stephen’s sermon pertained to Moses and the Exodus. When Moses was born, the order by Pharaoh was that every male baby was to be killed at birth. Moses’ mother, Jochebed, hid him at home for three months (v. 20). Then she placed him in a little ark and placed him in the water. It was there that Pharaoh’s daughter found him and took him to the palace to raise (v. 21).

It was here that Moses “learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (v. 22). He gave up the throne to meet Israel’s need, just as our Lord did many years later. It was not curiosity that took Moses from the palace to Goshen, but it was because he wanted to be identified with his people. As he tried to bring about reconciliation among his people, his ministry was regarded as meddling. He was greatly misunderstood, as his own people thought he had stepped out of the royalty where he had been living just to make them feel more wretched and to judge them. Instead, he had come to identify himself with them and to save them (vv. 23-29). This same thing happened to our Lord years later.

Application

Ask – Are my primary interest and goals centered upon the things of this life like Moses had in the palace, or am I identifying with the people of God and the will of God?

Acts 7:20-29 (English Standard Version)

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