Moses, Humble Servant
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Tuesday, April 14 — Moses, Humble Servant
“By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” — Hebrews 11:24-26 (NKJV)
Moses had everything.
By every metric the ancient world used to measure greatness — education, power, status, palace access — he had it. Acts 7:22 tells us he was “mighty in words and deeds.” He wasn’t naive about what he was giving up. He knew exactly what Egypt offered.
And he walked away.
But if the story ended there, Moses would just be an impressive moral hero. What makes it truly remarkable is what came next: forty years in the wilderness of Midian. Obscure. Quiet. Tending sheep. The man who could have ruled a dynasty was learning to tend animals in the desert.
God didn’t waste a day of it.
That wilderness was the classroom that self-sufficiency never could have been. The impulsive strike that killed the Egyptian (Exodus 2:12) revealed a man still operating in his own strength — trying to fulfill God’s purpose on his own terms and timeline. The desert slowly unwound that. By the time Moses stood before the burning bush, he was reluctant — “Who am I, that I should go?” (Exodus 3:11). Forty years earlier, he had the answer ready. Now he genuinely didn’t know.
That man could lead Israel. The earlier one would have gotten them killed.
Numbers 12:3 makes a stunning statement: “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.” The author of the Pentateuch — Moses himself — writing that under the Spirit’s guidance. It wasn’t self-deprecation. It was an accurate, Spirit-guided assessment of what the wilderness had produced.
Here’s the thing about humility that we miss: it isn’t low self-esteem. It isn’t thinking you have nothing to offer. Moses had enormous gifts — and he used every one of them. Humility is accurate God-esteem. It’s knowing clearly where your gifts come from, who they belong to, and why they work. Moses knew. He had forty years of desert to make sure of it.
Think about this today:
Is there a season in your life that felt like a wilderness — obscure, slow, or humbling? Not what you expected. Not where you thought you’d be.
Moses’ forty years weren’t a detour. They were the preparation. The credentials God gave him didn’t come from Pharaoh’s court — they came from Midian’s silence.
Trust the process you’re in. God doesn’t waste the wilderness.
— Ezra