Never Forsaken: How is God Using Your Season?

Image credit: Gemini and me

When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.  Exodus 2:15

 I wonder about Moses’ early life, the first forty years. Both of Moses’ mothers knew he was special and that God had shown favor to him, preserving him from the hand and edict of Pharoah. He was raised as a prince of Egypt. While it’s not explicitly laid out in the Bible that Moses was taught to see himself as Israel’s deliverer, somehow when he had come of age, about 40 years old, he had come to that understanding as Acts 7:23-25 tells us that Moses killed the Egyptian thinking that this would show his people that God was using him to rescue them. While it was true that God had miraculously preserved Moses’ life as a baby and destined him to be the deliverer of his people, he wasn’t quite ready to do that yet.

 Moses had to be prepared in his early years in Pharoah’s court. He came to know intimately the inner workings of ruling a major country. He likely learned to read and write and was academically trained in many areas. History says he likely also had a great deal of military training and experience (commentary by David Guzik*) But all this training and preparation did not make him ready for the task in the eyes of his people, or in the eyes of God.

 Moses thought his chance at being the deliverer was over when he fled Egypt, but really it was just a new phase in his training. Moses had to learn a life of labor and service, possibly even being introduced to God in a real way in Midian. I learned a little about Moses’ life last fall and found out that many scholars believe that his father-in-law, here called Reuel and later Jethro, may have been a descendant of Abraham through his second wife, Keturah, and therefore a priest of the One true God. In any case, during his second forty years, living a life of real, hard labor in the land of Midian, Moses learned many lessons he would never have gotten in Pharoah’s court. He learned what it was to work with his hands, to provide for his family, to be affected by the hard truths of life. In addition, he was humbled. He no longer saw himself as the deliverer of his people, but as a lowly shepherd – a role much despised in the culture of the Egyptians he was raised in.

 Moses probably thought that his chance at being someone special, doing something important with his life was over. He had messed up, and he had been caught. He wasn’t even living in Egypt with his people anymore, how could he possibly have any affect on their situation? But the truth is, he was exactly where God wanted him so that he could be taught and shaped into the man he needed to be to complete the role that God had designed for him. How many times in our lives do we feel like me missed our chance? Like our season of influence and “doing something for God” is over. Maybe even like we messed up beyond a chance at recovery? Moses was a murderer, and everyone knew it. He had messed up big time, but God wasn’t done with him yet, and He’s not done with us either.

 If I were to personalize this, which is the intent of the “Application” portion of our study, I would look at the seasons of my own life and wonder how they might correlate to Moses’. While I’m not very likely to see 120 years of life on this earth, I do find it interesting how right around 40 my season dramatically changed. I guess that’s true for most people which is why the mid-life crisis came to be a thing. In my 40s, my time as a mom with kids at home came to an end and I entered a season of chronic illness and challenge. No, I’m not herding sheep in the wilderness, but like Moses, I went from a life of relative comfort and ease to one of difficulty and hardship. I’ve often wondered over these past several years if this was it, if God was done with me, if I had nothing left to offer this world because of where I’m at. But, looking at Moses’ life today, I’m wondering if God isn’t doing something similar in mine. God had some hard lessons He had to teach Moses, and Midian was where God chose to teach him.

Here’s the Thing: I have no doubt that I have much to learn, and I have seen countless ways that God has taught me through the challenges of these recent years. The hope I take from this is that God taught Moses those things for a reason, He still had a purpose and role in mind for him. I don’t expect to be used in a major role like Moses was, but if God is working so hard to teach me, surely He has a purpose for all that. I believe that God isn’t finished with me yet!

*Guzik, David. "Study Guide for Exodus 2." Blue Letter Bible. 6/2022. Web. 17 Mar, 2026. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/guzik_david/study-guide/exodus/exodus-2.cfm>.