TRAINING FOR WILDERNESS SERVICE
Exodus 3:1 Moses was taking care of the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. As he led the sheep to the far side of the wilderness, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
In his 2008 book, ‘Outliers’, journalist Malcolm Gladwell, endorses the fact that we all possess innate talent – the specific level of intelligence, aptitude and capability we are born with, but Gladwell effectively argues that our innate talent will never become expertise without thorough preparation, without investing copious amounts of our time and energy into developing competencies… without extensive training. Gladwell contends that research has even settled on the ‘magic number’ of hours it takes to achieve expertise – 10,000; and he draws on the examples of several renowned success stories, including the case of Mozart. Although it’s recognized that Mozart composed his first masterwork when he was only 21, what may not be well-known, is that Mozart had been composing concertos for ten years by that time, and had invested well over 10,000 hours before debuting his Piano Concerto No. 9 (in E♭ major).
Success through training and preparation is obviously no secret; in fact, it’s such a familiar and proven concept that it’s become a formulaic story-telling device. It’s probably no stretch to say that the entire franchise of 'Rocky' movies are essentially built on this very formula – Crank up ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and then watch as our beloved, boxing underdog commits himself to the intense training that will ultimately propel him past his superior opponent (Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago, and so on… sorry I stopped watching after 'Rocky 4'). Without the opportunity for intense, prolonged and concentrated training, no one, not Mozart... not even Rocky can expect to become exceptional in a given field, and when we take a closer look at God’s main character in the wilderness narrative, we find that Moses’ life was also steeped in training and preparation.
Exodus 2:3 tells us that at infancy, Moses was adopted and taken in by Pharaoh’s daughter. In an ancient world mostly devoid of formal education, particularly to the masses, Moses would have been one of very few individuals to receive a truly world-class education, with the remarkable opportunity not only to learn the 3R’s, but to be trained in societal imperatives, civics and governance… to learn leadership (Acts7:22). By the time Moses flees from Egypt into the desert (Ex. 2:15), God had used 40 years of premier Egyptian education to help train and prepare him for the role He would eventually call him into… but Moses’ training wasn’t yet complete.
The first 40 years of Moses’ life was spent in the prestigious, academic ivory towers of Egypt, but Exodus 3:1 tells us that the rest of his training would be spent in an entirely different classroom… the wilderness. After Egypt, Moses spends the next 40 years formally enrolled in God’s shepherding apprenticeship, and when Moses finally encounters the Lord at the burning bush, we find out he has actually journeyed to the far, remote edge of the desert – Moses' 10,000 hours turned out to be 80 years of training that finally brought him right to the very ‘back’ of the wilderness.
As Moses is hesitantly weighing God’s call, we can almost picture him thinking it all through: “Well… I'm pretty sure I can't do what God's asking, but if I accept this task, on the bright side, at least I can finally be done with leading a bunch of dumb, stubborn sheep around this wretched wilderness.” Little did Moses realize that much of his life had already been spent getting ready for this very task. And, in what turned out to be delicious irony, God had been persistently working in the background of his days, patiently training and ultimately preparing Moses to swap his father-in-law's stubborn flock for THE Father's stubborn flock and head right back into the wilderness.
Likely, we'll never know exactly how God has been working out all of our daily experiences for His purposes, but we ought to remember that He is always working - He is working through that frustrating day at school, that chaotic day at home, that tiring day at work... He’s using the repetitive monotony of our every-day lives as valuable training opportunities to develop our faithfulness, and we ought to commit ourselves to persevere in that training; to devote ourselves to the sanctifying process of being molded and shaped, refined and transformed into ever-increasing Christ-likeness; committed to God's sanctifying preparation in our life for kingdom service, for gospel proclamation… for helping one another through the wilderness.