MOSES WAS A MURDERER
Acts 7:22;27
I remember my first day in prison. The massive doors shut with a force that would crush anyone’s body if he or she was caught in the door jam. I was lead to my office at the back of the correctional center and left alone. I sat in a tiny office, in the bowels of a prison, surrounded by murders, rapists, and child molesters. Although God had called me and placed me in that facility, I was extremely unsure if I had the tools to minister in such an extreme environment.
When I read Stephen’s speech in Acts 7:2-53, I stopped at verse twenty-two. It states “Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds.” Although theologians disagree on several aspects of this verse, I see three things that relate to the type of anxiety I felt sitting in that tiny office.
First Moses was prepared by God to lead the Israelites. Moses spent forty years living the life of an Egyptian prince. He was given an Egyptian education, trained in Egyptian leadership and battle strategy, and had the benefit of learning critical thinking from some of the wisest men on earth at that time.
The second point I see reflected in Moses is that he was a man with a skeleton in his closet. Moses was a murderer (Exodus 2:14). This is important to remember because many of us think we cannot be used by God in any form of ministry due to the skeletons hidden in our personal closets. Moses spent forty years tending his father-in -law’s sheep while at the same time being groomed by God.
The third point I see is that God used Moses despite the skeleton in his closet. God provided him the education and tools he would need to fill the position God had planned for him. God also created a place and gave Moses the time he (Moses) needed to develop the other traits needed to lead His people (shepherding a flock of sheep is a great way to develop patience, perseverance, etc.).
As I sat in my prison office, I felt insecure, inadequate, and unworthy of the position God had placed me in. Yet I found as I interacted with those men, I had a love for them I could not put into words, and because of my past, I had the tools I needed to be effective.
All of us have skeletons in our closets. Some of us believe we cannot serve our LORD because of them. Yet the examples given to us in God’s Word show us that He uses those mistakes, those skeletons to help us, minister, to others who struggle. Let’s take those skeletons, lay them down at Christ’s feet, and let him use us for His glory.