Surprised by Grace (7): A Second Chance for the 80-year-old Moses
Holman Bible: Moses and the Burning Bush (from Wikimedia Commons)
People despised Trump.
People despise Biden now.
People have been despising Xi.
But almost no one despised Moses.
Catholics honour Moses.
Protestants respect Moses.
Even greater number of Muslims, moderate or militant, revere Moses.
How then Moses got to such a lofty stature?
“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his relatives, the Israelites . . . Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush . . . He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. (Acts 7:23, 30, 36)”:
A narrative meant to show the history of God’s hand nonetheless let readers into the life of this currently most respected person Moses.
Moses wasted at least 80 years of his life.
More if his approval ratings during his final 40 were taken into account.
So it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to use failure to summarise his entire life.
Is it a surprise to readers of history?
Would he himself be surprised that he is now so popular, amongst Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims?
At age 40 Moses committed a capital punishment crime—he killed someone. He could have stayed behind to argue it was a fight that got out of hand.
He didn’t, became a fugitive.
He was a compulsive murderer.
He was also an irresponsible coward.
His way of living his next 40 years, serves as a confession of his state of mind: he just gave up.
He was a quitter.
Or else, why willingly wasted his prime 40 years, living under the protectorate of his father in law? He wouldn’t want anyone to defend for him.
He was just willing to live out his life, even it might just be 80!
Moses got his wish.
He lived from 40-80 in obscurity, like Eastwood, Bronson, Schwasanaga, probably getting drunk daily in a remote village shack working day jobs.
Until that day.
Burning bush.
What happened thereafter was well chronicled, so well that it formed the bulk of what’s now Christians, Catholics, Muslims all read with reverence—the Old Testament.
“Why did Moses make such a turnaround?” is not the question being investigated.
“Why was Moses given the opportunity for a turnaround?” is.
Moses didn’t face the court for manslaughter, granted not a contemplated murder.
Neither did he perform any redeeming act from age 40-80.
Nor did he express remorse and guilt.
All he did was just withered his prime.
Why was this man given the chance so many of us failures never got?
And to clinch the argument, at the end of his life, after 40 years of toils in the desert, he flunked his test, lost his temper once, and was barred from entering the Promised Land!
Was the same God on duty when Moses was 80 years old, and also when he was 120?
There might be many elaborate theological solutions.
The simplest it seems is to recognise that grace is sovereign.
It has the right to surprise.
It is the nature.
It chose to give a no-achievement 80 year old a chance to make something of his otherwise wasted life.
Just look what Moses achieved.
People despised Trump.
People despise Biden now.
People have been despising Xi.
But almost no one despised Moses.
Catholics honour Moses.
Protestants respect Moses.
Even greater number of Muslims, moderate or militant, revere Moses.