SEASONS, NOT IN THE ALMANAC

Recently, Michael Canale, co-author of this blog, and I were talking about the change of seasons, as we just transitioned into summer, when he brought up the much deeper concept of spiritual seasons, saying, “You know what I mean, seasons, but not like those in the Almanac.” Thus, this week’s title and the subject of the blog itself.

It is a life passage much on my mind at this time, as I am moving and, in the process, going through old papers, documents and, in particular, old letters from my late teens and early twenties. This is a bit of a journey through memories of a different season, one which predates emails and texts, one during which we wrote letters. I told Michael about how funny it was to see what my friends and I found to write about and the ideas we had. He said that, almost assuredly, I would not be able to write the same letters now and he is right. These letters are filled with thoughts very distant from how and about what I think today. It was a stage of my life, a day, now removed, as my life circumstances have very much changed. It is the stuff of seasons.

Not so different is testimony in a court of law. Many times, as a lawyer , while putting witnesses on the stand to describe what they saw and heard, age, preconceived notions and perspective shaped their sworn accounts. Some people might view this divergent testimony as inconsistencies and that can sometimes occur. More often than not, however, they have to do with the witness’ season of life, producing different versions of the same truth.

What we read, especially with regard to the Bible, is like my letters and trial testimony; it is greatly impacted by the season of the person who is reading. Michael said that if you gave ten people of varying ages and disparate seasons, the exact same Scriptural verses to read, you would often receive varied interpretations of that same passage’s meaning. This is also true of listening to sermons. While there may be some common ground, there will be many more significant differences of comprehension and outlook after hearing the same sermon. Seasons!

Scripture is replete with references to and accounts of the spiritual seasons of its men and women. In your own lives, can you see the progression of your years in seasonal segments that move from one time to another as occasioned by change of place, circumstances, views? So could these Bible characters whose lives are so instructive for us centuries after they lived, their legacies echoing down the years to speak to us today.

Perhaps, there is no more finely delineated example of this than Moses, whose life can be divided into three very distinct 40 year sections, each completely essential to this man becoming a hero of the faith. Daniel 2:21-22 in The Message translation sets forth the prime mover in determining Moses’ and our seasons and how they unfold: Speaking of God, Daniel wrote,

“He changes the seasons and guides history. He raises up kings and also brings them down, he provides both intelligence and discernment, He opens up the depths, tells secrets, sees in the dark – light spills out of Him!”

In the case of Moses, how did God provide both intelligence and discernment; how did He reveal light spilling out of Him in the direction of Moses? One need only review the first years of Moses’ life to see this clearly revealed. Every Sunday School student knows the story of how Moses’ mother, Jochebed, saved his life by placing him in a basket among the reeds of the Nile and how he was found and adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter, who then raised him in the luxurious Palace of the Pharaoh himself. What may be less storied is the effect that his 40 years residing there had on him and, ultimately, on history itself.

In his fascinating sermon on the seasons of Moses’ life, United Kingdom Pastor Mark Cuthbert, takes us out of the Old Testament where we would expect to find every salient fact about Moses and, instead, leads us to the New Testament, specifically Acts 7:22 and Stephen’s iconic speech which precipitated his being stoned:

“Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.” NIV

The Message’s version of the same verse is equally illuminating:

“…Pharaoh’s daughter mothered him as her own son. Moses was educated in the best schools in Egypt. He was equally impressive as a thinker and an athlete.”

This revelation leads us to a conclusion that we can always count on. God will never send us on a mission or place us in a life circumstance for which he has not prepared us. This ability to speak well and the knowledge of all things Egyptian would be essential in the third phase of Moses’ life as he, at God’s request, went to the Pharaoh to seek freedom for the Israelites, then living horrible lives of slavery under the rule of Egypt.

Why then, we might ask, were there not only two segments to Moses’ life? At the end of the first 40 years, wasn’t Moses well prepared to take on the role of Israel’s deliverer? God might say, “Not so fast!” The inherent problem with such a theory is clearly shown in an event that caused the transition of seasons In Moses’ life from the first 40 year period to the second:

“One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, ‘Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?’
The man said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?” (Exodus 2:11-14) NIV

The answer to this question was nobody, YET. Moses had a heart for his own people and this was utterly necessary, but he was impulsive, even murderous with clear malice aforethought in his methodology in taking on the enemy – Egypt. God was not ready to entrust such a Moses with the negotiations with Pharaoh and the leading of His People, Israel. Therefore, the second 40 year portion of Moses’ life unfolded:

“When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian. (Exodus 2:15) NIV

As Mark Cuthbert said, Moses went from being the Prince of Egypt to being a shepherd during a long desert season. A fall from geace,  a downturn? – not in God’s eyes – the only eyes that matter. Moses was actually right on schedule. Where better to prepare a person to lead two million Israelites through the wilderness than to spend 40 years there himself, practicing how to do it! When this second season ended, it was with a leader prepared to lead.

It is interesting to note that, upon being met by God in the “Burning Bush,” Moses protested his ability to deliver the Israelites.

“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11) NIV

Clearly, God said to Himself, “Who are you!” You are the one I have spent 80 years preparing to succeed at this mission!” How blind we can be in failing to realize that the varying seasons of our lives are being used  to prepare for God’s ultimate goals for us!

It is further remarkable that,

“Moses said to the LORD, “Pardon your servant, LORD,  but I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” (Exodus 4:10) NIV

This was clearly an excuse and not accurate. Acts 7:22, as earlier cited, made it clear that Moses “was powerful in speech.” God did not have him living in the Pharaoh’s Palace for 40 years and exceptionally well educated in Egyptian ways and learning for no reason. God never sends us unprepared.

Three seasons and Moses, albeit reluctantly, answered his call and God empowered him to part the Red Sea – empowered him through seasons which readied him for greatness. It earned Moses a central place in the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, a luminary in all of Scripture. He is counted among those about whom it is written,

“ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on Earth…they were longing for a better country – a Heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God,  for He has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:13, 16) NIV

Michael, in speaking of Scripture, says, “The Author is making a painting for you to read.” The above passage is truly such a painting. Isn’t this “prepared city,” visual, so like a painting we can read?

Are you in the midst of a challenging season and wondering what its purpose is? The one who went from being the Prince of Egypt to a 40 year desert experience found that God was leading him in this transition, not arbitrarily, but with deliberate purpose and good reason. It is said that “trouble never leaves you where it found you,” and such was the case with Moses. It formed him into a leader without human rival in the Bible.

Greatness in the Faith is in your future also, and, in the present, the now, peace that, while we don’t always know where God is leading, we trust the One Who leads, as Oswald Chambers wrote. This leader is truly the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2) KJV Seasons come and seasons go, all the while, God’s hand is steady at the helm.