Have you ever stopped to consider your place in the life of the ministry you are serving in?

If you’re anything like me… probably not.

God is so clearly at work in the world — and on our campuses.

But are we presently aware of the fact that God was present [in our ministry context] long before we arrived… and will be there long after we’ve left?

Our perspective is too often limited solely to the season of ministry that we are present for… and I think we need to be challenged to pull back and consider the larger picture.

The story of Moses and Joshua are helping to challenge me in this regard.

Moses could be considered the “big man on campus” of the Pentateuch, if not the Old Testament as a whole.

Moses is the central leadership figure in the books of Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy — no other Old Testament leader had a ministry that spanned more than one book in duration.

Moses was connected to some of the greatest acts of God within the Bible — the burning bush, the 10 plagues, the Israelite’ escape from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, water from a rock, etc., etc., etc.

Moses also experienced a close, personal relationship with God.

Moses talked with God – numerous times.

Moses heard the audible voice of God on a variety of occasions.

Moses received direction from God.

Even with his intimate relationship with God, Moses still experienced a lot of pain and hardship as a leader.

Moses was consistently met with resistance by the Israelites.

He was questioned on almost every call he made.

It had to have felt as though those he was leading were attempting to thwart every leadership effort he put forth.

And the one time he really lashed out at them — and in doing so, going against what God had commanded of him — he was penalized with the consequence of not being able to finish the task he had been given.

Moses’ ministry task — delivering the Israelites from enslavement in Egypt to freedom in the land God had promised — would not be completed by him.

This meant that all of his years of service — as it would seem — would amount to DECADES of “wasted time” spent leading a bunch stiff-necked people through a time of desert wandering.

Moses, as the story goes, would be allowed to see the Promised Land — from a distance — but never enter it.

I cannot begin to conceive of such pain!

I know when my Old Testament classes have studied the Pentateuch, and journeyed with Moses and the woeful Israelites from Egypt to the edge of the Promised Land (only to see Moses be denied entry), they have really struggled.

I would think that we all do.

But God used Moses in the ways God desired… and while God may have desired to use Moses to conquer the Promised Land and establish a new way of life with/for the Israelites, Moses’ disobedience (as small as it might have appeared), disqualified him from that chance.

It’s hard to believe that one person’s ministry could consist of 40 years of struggle and strife with a people who constantly resisted his leadership.

WOW.

Yet, when considered within the grand scheme of God’s grand plan for the Israelites, Moses’ efforts are still herald as some of the greatest…

But I’m still not sure I’d be up for that kind of call from God.

We’ll take a look at the ministry of Joshua tomorrow, but for now, here are a few of the questions I find myself with:

• Where does our ministry leadership fall within the grand timeline of our ministry context?
• How does this realization change our perspective on the ministry we are currently engaged in and the relative “success” or “struggle” we are currently experiencing?
• How would we attempt to faithfully live out our calling if our ministry was riddled with the painful kinds of challenges that Moses’ was?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Grace and peace.