Focus: A Dance With Destiny

Text: Ex.2:2

"And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she SAW HIM that he was a GOODLY CHILD, she hid him three months."

It really bothers me that too many Christians are living their lives simply on the physical and material plane, like going to school, working and earning a good salary or doing business and making a lot of money, getting married and having children, going to watch a movie or the games, going on a year vacation, going and belonging to a church, and doing a couple of other things. That is like living for the mundane. The sublime is not considered. We seem to be existing just for the clock. But right inside of us, we know that life has a deeper and higher meaning than that. We live life as we see it, not life as it is meant to be. 

A hymn writer says that "they build too low who build beneath the sky." The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that life under the sun is vanity of vanity. It is an empty life. Paul says that if our hope is only in this world we are of all men most miserable.

Life that is worth living requires the coming together of heaven and earth for the end God has in mind. Heaven and earth are meant to function together in our earthly existence.

Gen.1:1 tells us that God created "the heavens AND the earth." You can see that the heavens and the earth are linked together with the copulative word, AND, because they are never designed to function apart from each other. Both of them make up our vast universe - one verse. Understand that life is even more than living for a cause, regardless of how lofty or noble; it is living for the glory of God, and that is what the story of Moses' life is all about.

Moses was born at a dangerous and perilous time in Egypt. There was an existing law that warranted the killing of Jewish male children at birth. Infanticide is a heinous crime to God. Jewish males were being murdered all over the land of Egypt on daily basis. But when Moses was born, his parents looked at him and saw a unique child, a divinely destined child, and indeed a child from heaven. Right at birth, the mother saw that he was a goodly child. That was indeed an early vision plus insight and foresight. It was more than a physical form or beauty that she saw. The Hebrew word for 'goodly' here is 'tob.' Stephen, in Act.7:20, says he was "exceeding fair" - 'asteios to Theo' - beautiful or comely to God, or divinely fair. In Hebrews 11:23, the writer calls him a "proper child," which is the same in Greek as the word 'fair.' The word is 'asteios,' which can mean something like a 'city boy, urbane, refined, and polished.' Mother and father were catching mental or spiritual images of Moses' great future.

Here was a child of destiny. Born for a divine purpose. His beauty was beyond ordinary. He was exceptionally handsome. He was perfect for what God had in mind to do. He was fit for the job, and divinely equipped for history. They saw him both with physical and spiritual eyes as divinely beautiful. His parents saw a unique future in him - a destiny perfectly orchestrated by God. He was a child fully back by divine providence.

The Jews believed that Moses' form was like an angel of God, and even a heathen writer says "his beautiful form recommended him, and this engaged the affections of his parents to him, and who, from hence, might promise themselves that he would be a very eminent and useful person, could his life be preserved."

Because of their conviction and confidence they were able to do what they could to protect him. Like Noah prepared an ark to save his family, so also Moses' parents prepared an ark to save Israel's future deliverer. The Scripture says it was by faith that they hid him for three months, and we know that faith comes by hearing the word of God, according to Rom.10:17. Based on their faith and hope, and what they knew by way of spiritual insight concerning the boy, they took bold and daring steps in preserving his life, damning the consequences. Even Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote that "God had revealed to Amram in a dream that Moses would humble the Egyptians."

Pharaoh's daughter was attracted to his form and charm, and upon seeing and hearing the child cry, she felt compassion for him, and took him in to be her own child.

Moses did not disappoint. He lived up to expectation. He fulfilled his destiny. He became Israel's greatest deliverer, leader, and law-giver.

Stephen says, "And Moses was LEARNED in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was MIGHTY in words and in deeds" (Act.7:22). His words and works were mighty. He was also meek as he was mighty. We read, "(Now the man Moses was VERY MEEK, ABOVE ALL the men which were upon the face of the earth.)" (Num.12:3). A mighty and meek man. We read in 1Sam.12:6, that "it is the LORD that ADVANCED Moses and Aaron…" Also, God described Moses as being "faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" (Num.12:7-8). God stood up for Moses, and would not let anyone to disrespect him. At the end of his life, he said to Israel, "The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, LIKE UNTO ME; unto him ye shall hearken…," and God Himself said, "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, LIKE UNTO THEE, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him" (Dt.18:15,18). He was acknowledged by the people as a great leader, a mighty deliverer, a peculiar prophet, the servant and the man of God.

The sacrifices that his parents made for him were never in vain. He kept his eyes on the purpose of his existence. Jeremiah lamented that Judah "played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow, and now she's crashed royally, with no one to hold her hand" (Lam.1:9 Message). The NKJV says that "she did not consider her destiny." Judah failed woefully and ended up shamefully in captivity for not being ever conscious of her destiny. But as for Moses, he kept his eyes on the ball and persevered till he reached his goal. He danced with his destiny.

I say to you today: be ever conscious of your destiny! Don't trivialize your it! Don't demean your life! Don't live like your destiny does not matter! Your destiny is the essence of your existence. You exist for a purpose. You were born to fill a space and fulfill a role in history. Refuse to become less than your best!

Find your destiny and face it! Embrace and endeavor to fulfill it! Destiny is something you can't evade, bypass or boycott without dire consequences. All you need is to align yourself with it. Let your whole being resonate with it! Fall in love with who God has made you to be and what God has given you to do. Dance the music your destiny is playing. The drum of destiny is beating; dance to the tune! Fall in love with it! Follow the rhythm and apply the lyrics of your God-designed destiny!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter