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The Ministry of Healing
“Lord, help me to do my best. Teach me how to do better work.
Give me energy and cheerfulness. Help me to bring into my service
the loving ministry of the Saviour.”
A Lesson From the Life of Moses
Consider the experience of Moses. The education he received in
Egypt as the king’s grandson and the prospective heir to the throne
was very thorough. Nothing was neglected that was calculated to
make him a wise man, as the Egyptians understood wisdom. He
received the highest civil and military training. He felt that he was
fully prepared for the work of delivering Israel from bondage. But
God judged otherwise. His providence appointed Moses forty years
of training in the wilderness as a keeper of sheep.
The education that Moses had received in Egypt was a help to
him in many respects; but the most valuable preparation for his
lifework was that which he received while employed as a shepherd.
Moses was naturally of an impetuous spirit. In Egypt a successful
military leader and a favorite with the king and the nation, he had
been accustomed to receiving praise and flattery. He had attracted
the people to himself. He hoped to accomplish by his own powers
the work of delivering Israel. Far different were the lessons he had to
learn as God’s representative. As he led his flocks through the wilds
of the mountains and into the green pastures of the valleys, he learned
faith and meekness, patience, humility, and self-forgetfulness. He
learned to care for the weak, to nurse the sick, to seek after the
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straying, to bear with the unruly, to tend the lambs, and to nurture
the old and the feeble.
In this work Moses was drawn nearer to the Chief Shepherd. He
became closely united to the Holy One of Israel. No longer did he
plan to do a great work. He sought to do faithfully as unto God the
work committed to his charge. He recognized the presence of God
in his surroundings. All nature spoke to him of the Unseen One. He
knew God as a personal God, and, in meditating upon His character
he grasped more and more fully the sense of His presence. He found
refuge in the everlasting arms.
After this experience, Moses heard the call from heaven to ex-
change his shepherd’s crook for the rod of authority; to leave his