Moses and Mission

In addition to all that I have learned from living and working in Tanzania, I have enjoyed reading Scripture on a more regular basis.  I have been most recently struck by the life of Moses and what he can teach us about mission.

To start, Moses trusted God and followed His word.  Initially, he was terrified by God’s call to serve (Exodus 3-4).  But once Moses accepted God’s call he followed God’s commandments thoroughly.  I think this point is both basic and essential to Christian mission; all too often I fall out of trusting God for strength and wisdom, trying to succeed all on my own rather than leaning on God.

During our YASC training, it was emphasized that truly effective mission work cannot occur without right relationship with those around us (e.g. “it is more important to be in right relationship than it is to be right”).  Moses thoroughly practiced this.  He constantly focused on both facilitating and being in relationships: his relationship with God, Israel’s relationship with God, and relationships among the Israelites themselves.  Moses was the only Israelite able to speak with God directly while also serving as God’s vehicle for miracles.  He represented and advocated on Israel’s behalf in times of trouble.  He passed God’s commandments and laws onto the Israelites, further establishing and reminding the Israelites of their covenant with God.  At one point Moses even actively settled disputes between the Israelites according to God’s statutes (Exodus 18:13-16).

In fact, in a lot of ways disputes characterized Moses' mission.  The Israelites whined, broke God’s covenant, and disputed Moses’ authority constantly.  Moses may have been exasperated on occasion (Numbers 11:10-15) but he never gave up on the Israelites, both as their teacher and advocate.  Someone who leads thousands of complaining people around the wilderness for 40 years while simultaneously trying to convince God that making a covenant with the nation of Israel was not a mistake (despite bountiful evidence to the contrary) surely exemplifies perseverance.

Once those 40 years of wandering ended, Moses didn’t even get to set foot into the Promised Land: “'I am no longer able to get about, and the LORD has told me, ‘You shall not cross the river Jordan.’’” (Deuteronomy 31:2).  Moses did not complain or argue against God indignantly.  Instead, he endorsed his successor, Joshua, in front of all of Israel (Numbers 27:18-22).  Then, after reminding the Israelites of their covenant and viewing Canaan from afar, he simply “...died there in the land of Moab, at the LORD’s command” (Deuteronomy 34:5).  I think there is an element of selflessness through obedience to Moses’ life that is startling beautiful.  Though likely humbling to be told that you are no longer a part of God’s plan on earth, perhaps Moses could take refuge in knowing that God’s work would continue through Joshua.  To his final breath Moses followed God’s command, for it was never about him but always about Him.

I have personally drawn great encouragement from Moses’ life and mission: he always trusted and obeyed God, his work was intimately tied to relationship, he persevered through it all, and he served utterly selflessly.  Now one could argue that these things could easily apply to a Christian life alone, not to mission.  But if you accept that mission is simply doing God’s work in the world and that life should be spent living to the glory of God then I’d like to think that there is little distinction between mission and life.  Moses seemed to live without distinguishing the two much.