CHOICES or, Moses' Example of Decision

CHOICES

or, Moses' Example of Decision


“Choose.”  This is perhaps the most powerful imperative, in any language.  Is it an illusion?  A cruel joke?  A stacked deck?  For sure, choices effect options downstream.  But, the imperative remains to swim upstream.

Joshua ended his faithful career with this admonition, “choose ye, this day, whom ye will serve…”  (Josh.24:15) We, too, have life and death set before us as Moses had challenged the nation of God a generation earlier.  (Deut.30)  Joshua had learned well the importance of volition from his mentor.  Now, how will we respond?

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 11, the “Faith Hall Of Fame”, the writer reminds his readers of the choices made by Moses:  the Red Sea, the bloody door, the desert, the unseen, the suffering, the priesthood.  Each of these built upon earlier choices.  The same is true for all of us.  Examine the choices of Moses.

(11.29) Visualize the Red Sea standing up in a heaping watery wall on either side of the fleeing, fearful exiles leaving the land of bondage.  Their yellow spines stood in clear contrast to the bold, “stand still and see the deliverance of the LORD” issued fearlessly from the mouth of Moses.  What are our colors?  Red? or, yellow?!  Do we stand in faith or cower in fear?  See the fiery-cloudy pillar!  Anticipate the dry ground through the sea.  Fear the drowning of the foreigners.

(11.28) How could they forget the bloody doors in Egypt?  Moses chose, confidently, the bloody door over the destroyer, the death angel.  He sat with his family eating the unleavened bread of haste and celebrated, in faith, their deliverance from bondage.  An ocean of water was nothing to him who had chosen against the mysterious death that flowed through the land of his captors, taking the first-born of every house not marked with the blood.  Perhaps, like the snl’s of Lot, generations earlier, some had thought the call to leave was a jest, a joke, a rube's ruse.  How wrong they were. In faith, Moses chose the blood.  This is no joke.  The SNL approach to life will end in death.

(11.27) A bloody door was the obvious choice for the man Moses who had spent forty years in blood, sweat, and tears in the desert.  Moses chose the desert, with all its unknowns, for the position in the palace to which he had become accustomed.  Perhaps many days he thought on the life he had left and the life he was enduring in the sand and heat.  But, he remained faithful to his choice.  There he encountered the unconsumed bush displaying the all-consuming Fire!  There a passion was ignited in his heart, a passion for freedom, for faith, for fearlessness.  The choices were building a rock in the sands of Sinai.

(11.26) Back up four decades and think on the choice Moses made between disgrace for God and the diadems of Egypt.  He could see the treasures of Egypt, was likely wearing some of it!  And, Moses had seen the afflictions of the Hebrews, his people.  But, Moses chose the unseen over the seen. 

The choice of his nurse maid, decades earlier suggested by his sister to the princess, had born fruit.  Surely the childhood stories told him by his motherly nurse maid, were emblazoned on his heart, unseen, but believed.  And Moses chose to believe her voice!  Thank the Lord for godly mothers who tell the stories of faith to the little ones.  And when they are older, they come to mind.  Choose to listen.

(11.25) Fundamentally, Moses had made a choice between the eternal and the temporary, the difficult and the easy, the upstream and the slide, the suffering and sin.  Sure, sin is real, fun, exhilarating, intoxicating, thrilling.  But, the results are real:  disappointment, brokenness, addiction, hangovers, dissatisfaction, and, lastly, death.  Choose.  Rather be a martyr or a meth-head?  A saint or a sick addict?  A warrior, scarred and bleeding, or a wimp, shriveled and diseased?  Satan lies.  Hollywood lies.  Madison Avenue lies.  Choose truth.

 

(11.24) Imagine DeMilles’ “The Ten Commandments” visualization of a royal-robed Moses examining the coarse Levitical garment he has found.  Have you found who you are, who you really are?  Moses chose between Prince and priest that day.  You need to choose who and what you really are.  There is power in knowing who you are, where you are going, and from where you come. (Jn.13.1-5)

(11.23) A generation earlier, Amram and Jochebed made a choice between life and law, between faith and fear.  The parents of Moses chose God.  The choices we make ripple through the generations.  A&J effected Moses, effected Joshua; and now we have come full circle.  It is so in our lives.  R&M choose Christ, effecting J who marries faithful M, effecting S, J, and S, who marry believing D, H, and L; and along come J, S, D&B, H,  and …  (may the chain go on, unbroken, until He comes!)

God surely allows resets.  We must choose repentance and make the 180’s when needed.  But, let’s choose “option F” – fast and furious, focused and forceful, fearless and faithful!

“Choose ye this day…” 

Listen to the “voice of truth”!