God brings us full-circle

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TODAY’S SPECIAL: Acts 7:9-34

TO CHEW ON: “For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.” Acts 7:25.

Stephen’s retelling of Moses’ story adds some interesting details that the original telling (Exodus 2:11-14) doesn’t include.

• Stephen makes it sound as if Moses never visited the Hebrews until he was 40 years old. Maybe he didn’t even know his origins—although since his own mother nursed him, probably through toddlerhood (“Children were not weaned until they were three to five years of age," study notes on Exodus, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 78), her training was no doubt a memory. I love how Stephen phrases it: “.. it came into his heart to visit his brethren…” Acts 7:23.

• Stephen gives us an insight into Moses’ thoughts at that time: “For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand” - Acts 7:25.

I wish we knew more. Did Moses’ mother whisper her dreams for his future into his ear when he was just a child? Had he been sitting for years on the notion that he’d been spared for the purpose of freeing the Hebrew slaves, perhaps not quite sure what to do next?

Of course his attempt to realize that destiny went horribly wrong. It took another 40 years before one surprising day God came to him.

I can only imagine the emotion Moses felt when Yahweh Himself acknowledged the legtimacy of his Egypt emotions: “‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people … I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them’” - Acts 7:34. Now God’s plan was to use Moses for the job Moses had earlier dreamed of, but in God's time and way.

We can take away from this, I think, that the things that are in our hearts, the memories, pulls, old dreams, are not there by accident. We know who put it into Moses’ heart to visit his brothers and hope to free them. Surely it was God.

We also know that God took a long time to incubate that dream. By Moses’ reaction to God’s assignment, we can conclude that he had all but given up on it (Exodus 3:11). But God hadn’t. And it didn’t matter to Him that Moses was now 80 years old (Exodus 7:7). He would still use the faux Egyptian prince-turned-shepherd to accomplish the dream He had planted in Moses’ heart 40+ years prior.

So let’s not give up on the dreams God has planted in our hearts, even if they are decades old. God brought Moses’ full-circle, back to his dream, and has wonderful ways of bringing us there too.

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to be alert to Your signals and quick to follow Your directions, delighted when You in Your wisdom lead me back to see the fulfillment of youthful dreams. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.