“It was at this time (during his time in the wilderness), when Moses was eighty years old, that the Lord sent him to deliver Israel. Perhaps it was not accidental that Moses’ career was thus divided into two equal periods – 40 years of Egyptian training, and rejected; then 40 years‘ absence followed by his successful deliverance of God’s people.

Perhaps in this Moses was a type. So also, the period from the time Israel started as a nation (at the death of Jacob, the last of the patriarchs) until the antitype of Moses “came unto his own and his own received him not” (1845 years) is the same length as the period of his absence, at the end of which is his second advent, shortly to be followed by the successful deliverance of all of God’s people from the oppressions of Satan, sin and death.

(For more on this please see, “A.D. 1878 and the Jewish Double”)

What a change the forty years wrought in Moses! At its beginning he was ready and anxious to lead the Israelites; full of modest confidence in himself, as a leader, a commander, a law-giver, for that people – no doubt realizing by faith that God had prepared him and educated him that he might have the proper qualifications to be their leader. But now, when the Lord’s time has come, his courage is gone, his self-confidence is upset, and he protests to the Lord that he is totally unqualified. Now the Lord needs to encourage him, and Moses receives more deeply than he could have done forty years before the thought that Israel’s deliverance was not to be by man or through man, but by the Lord himself, – and that the human agent would be merely the Lord’s representative.

What a valuable lesson Moses was learning, and how necessary is such a lesson to all of the Lord’s people, especially to any and to all whom he would use in any special sense in connection with his work. We must learn that it is not our work, but God’s work, not our power or ability or wisdom, or greatness or learning, but the divine power working in and through us, which is mighty to the pulling down of strongholds, and to the lifting up of weak, and to the bringing in of the great salvation which he has promised. The more thoroughly we learn this lesson the better it will be for ourselves, and for all who, in the Lord’s providence, we are sent to assist in his way – to deliver from the bondage of sin and death.

Our Golden Text, “Certainly I will be with thee,” is an inspiration to the Lord’s people everywhere and at all times, when endeavoring properly to do any part of the Lord’s work, heeding his call through the Word. If God be for us, and if God be with us, who can prevail against us eventually? There may be with us, as there were with Moses and his service, various difficulties, trials, vexations and disappointments, – for we have the treasure of the new nature in earthen vessels, and the weaknesses and imperfections and short-sightedness of these are sure at times to cause us difficulties and discouragements. On such occasions our duty is to turn the eyes of our understanding to Him whom we serve, whose ambassadors and representatives we are, and to recall his promise, “Surely I will be with thee.” This means eventual victory, though, perhaps, through devious ways that we know not, and expect not, which nevertheless will ultimately prove to have been advantageous to us and to our Master’s glory.

“This shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee.” No doubt Moses thought now of his failure to interest his people when he went to them still covered with the honors of the schools and the army, and in the prime of life; and perhaps he now contrasted his present condition as a shepherd, forgotten by many who knew him in Egypt, without renown, without favor before the court, without influence or prestige; and no doubt he said within himself, If I could make no impression before, how could I hope now to accomplish as much?

But, “This shall be the token unto thee,” to prove “that I have sent thee.”

He was to know that when God sent it meant that the right time had come, and that all of God’s good purposes would be accomplished. He was to know that without the Lord he could do nothing; that with the Lord he could do all things.

And so, all of the people of God, who would be useful and used in his service, must learn this lesson: “Without me ye can do nothing.” Then God gave Moses the absolute assurance that he and his people should come forth out of Egypt, and should worship in the very mountain in which now he beheld the burning bush, and talked with the angel of the Lord.

By various signs God established the faith of his servant. The burning bush itself was one of these demonstrations of divine power. Another demonstration was the casting of his rod upon the ground, and it’s becoming a serpent, a symbol of evil, and the divine power exercised again by which the serpent was turned again into a staff, representing God’s power to turn evil things into good things through the operation of faith. Again, his hand was thrust into his bosom, and taken out was found to be leprous, and being thrust in again and taken out was found to be restored to health.

In sending out his people in the present time, his ambassadors, the body of Christ, to service (services that are much inferior in many respects, yet superior in some regards), the Lord does not give us these visible demonstrations of his power, but we may be sure that none are sent unless first they are given some testimonies on a higher spiritual plane. They must behold the Lord as the great light; they must realize that his justice is as a consuming fire as respects everything sinful, everything evil, but that through Christ he has mercy upon our imperfections, and grants us to see his light and to enjoy it without being consumed thereby.

Only after such lessons have been learned in the school of experience under our great Teacher and Pattern, Jesus, are we ready for the Lord’s service in various ways, as he may be pleased to indicate them and to send us and use us. Let us learn thoroughly the lesson that our undertakings, even for the Lord and in the interest of his people, can only prosper in the Lord’s time, and when we are sent of him (many being found running ahead, imagining themselves sent, when they were not); nevertheless every effort we may put forth, even in our ignorance, if done in meekness, humility, and with a respect for the recompense of reward, will surely be owned of the Lord, and blessed of him to our good and to our development for future service, even as in Moses’ case.” (R2909)