Third Term Abortion
So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers’? Numbers 11:11-12 NASB
Conceived– Moses was born to be the mother of Israel. Yes, that’s right. The mother, not the father. Moses is the one who must bring the nation to birth, who must nourish them with physical and spiritual sustenance, who must teach them to walk, to speak, to pray. Moses is the one who must lead them from one house to another. Moses is the mother God has chosen.
But that doesn’t mean he wants the job. Moses complains to YHVH that if he has found favor in His sight, then why has he been given such a tedious and frustrating task? “In the end, he [Moses] asks for death, rather than suffer the loss of personal power, which is motherhood.”[1]
“Was it I who conceived all this people?” He throws the petulant question at God. It’s supposed to be rhetorical. “Obviously, NO” is the reply he expects. But the answer is already in the question. The verb he chooses is hārâ—“to bear, be with child, conceive.” This verb reminds us of God’s birthing program, carried out since Abraham, a program that will continue until the birth of the Messiah. Moses is part of that program and even though he is male, his role is not to produce a son in the line but rather to produce a nation after God’s heart. Moses is a type of God as mother. If Moses considers this a sign of powerlessness, he is grossly mistaken. There are but two persons in Scripture who hold the portentous title, “Mother of all living.” The first is obvious. Moses is the second because from his progeny the Messiah will come.
But Zornberg is correct. Moses rejects this role, just as he attempted to reject the role of redeemer of Israel from Egypt. He would rather die than have to play the part of birth-mother of the nation. What does this tell us about the character of this man, a man held with such high regard as the principle prophet of Israel, the giver of the Law? Perhaps Moses takes a step down from our fabricated pedestal.
Is there a lesson here? Maybe. First, we need to revise our spiritually-constructed view of Moses. He’s much more human than those paintings and sculptures depict. But more importantly, we need to see just how much of Moses’ arrogance rests comfortably in us. How well have you embraced the role God wants you to play? How at ease are you with the implications? Or are you still looking to be what you think you should be—leader of the pack, famous spokesman, political influencer, successful authority?
Topical Index: Moses, conceive, hārâ, role, Numbers 11:11-12
[1]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, Bewilderments: Reflections of the Book of Numbers, p. xxxiv.
Wait a minute, as I was reading, towards the last paragraph is there a lesson to be learned here. It seems like I saw hey large beam across someone’s shoulders, a burden, then the scripture came to mind, we must pick up our cross and carry it. First to take ownership, then to move with it everyday, counting the cost.. Is this our purpose in the Kingdom to help others pushed through what is necessary? Sometimes assistance and wise counsel helps but then sometimes only prayer and fasting counting on God is the only way. We cannot lose sight of the goal, that the goal it’s bigger than the task.
“pushed through”… that sounds like a good birthing analogy. We help others give birth to themselves. Imagine how many times we are reborn throughout a lifetime. It’s like some primordial soup of life shapes us one way then Yehovah sends someone along to reshape back to His divine purpose for our life. And the purpose we have today may need to be reshaped again for the task tomorrow. No wonder we are likened to a ball of clay. We get shattered, broken, tossed back on the wheel and shaped into some new vessel with a new purpose for the new task at hand. Yehovah could probably just leave us alone after fulfilling one assignment, but the workers are few, so He has to take those of us who are willing and if we aren’t stubborn then He can reshape us without breaking us. Or maybe Yehovah needs a knife, so he tosses us to the ground picks up a shard and does emergency surgery on someone else, then puts us back together… that’s what it feels like most of the time.
Had Moses been in the US Army…
… Moshe (last name UKN) CO (code name Momma) was reported by XO to have gone AWOL and was declared MIA by the DoD (not GoD), but now certified to have been on TDY for AIT pending PCS (PPM NOT authorized) by the JCS. Final adjudication by CIC to be sanctioned KIA. Posthumously awarded PH, DSC, DFC, pending CMOH….
… LOL.
For those unfamiliar with military acronyms:
[ press READ MORE @ bottom for better spacing option]
UKN = Unknown.
CO = Commanding Officer.
XO = Executive Officer, the second-in-command.
AWOL= Absent Without Leave MIA = Missing In Action.
DoD = Department of Defense.
GoD = (unauthorized), YHWH.
TDY= Temporary Duty Station.
AIT = Advanced Individual Training ( “A” School).
PCS = Permanent Change of Station.
PPM = Personally Procured Move. A move a service member plans and conducts on their own, instead of having the military do it.
JCS = Joint Chiefs of Staff.
CIC = Commander in Chief, President.
KIA= Killed In Action.
PH = Purple Heart.
DSC = Distinguished Service Cross.
DFC = Distinguished Flying Cross .
CMOH = Congressional Medal of Honor.
LOL = Laughing Out Loud ( not a military acronym and NOT allowed in military).
Thank you, Michael, for adding a little lighthearted humor to the subject.
“leader of the pack, famous spokesman, political influencer, successful authority”. Israel – as a nation, anyway – rejected their Messiah because He did not fit this. I think Moses, however, deserves this description because, in the course of being a “servant of all” (“loss of personal power” – which is the very essence of motherhood!) he ended up doing all the above.
I think in the course of being the same type servant (“raise up another prophet like unto me”), Messiah, too, deserves much more than this description. Of course, as antitype to Moses’ type, He was the real deal. He embraced what Moses initially rejected: He single-handedly moved all of us who follow Him from the death of Egypt to life forever more: and, notably, he did NOT fail in His wilderness – He did not strike the Rock of living water – instead, He became that “(rocky) fountain filled with blood(/water) drawn from Emmanuel’s veins”. (Would this be what you would call a ‘striking difference’?) We could consider the resurrection of Moses from the dead (there is some thought that he was raised at the same time Elijah was translated) as the type of the resurrection of Christ (Who is the great anti-type, of course).
Sheep herding could also be considered as mothering, as many of the actions are so similar. I think herding sheep, however, is relatively easier when the sheep at least know they are sheep and act like sheep and “know their Master’s voice”. I think it is harder when they think they are their own shepherds and act more like cats. This does not change the Shepherd’s job, of course, when it comes to us; it just means He has to lay down in front of all our sin trains and take the hit for us (as any good servant would do). But because He did, He deserves all “power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing” (Rev. 5:12). Halleluah!
Wow, it’s scary to think about Mosche that way, but is it not a repeater of Abraham, Issac and Joseph…. All of them had choices but didn’t follow thru.The Bible is in my opinion pretty much a book of choice, right? Oh, wait, I am right there with Abraham, Issac Joseph and Mosche…..I like to follow G-d but I also make big messes. Not just in my personnel live but also look at the national level. Since your title reads:”Third Term Abortion”, there are a lot of ugly things happening right now, oh, right under my nose. What are we doing about that, or what I am doing with it? Do I really like to get involved with that? Wonder what G-d wants us to do? It’s so easy to throw with rocks, and to point our fingers. I am there, but all of a sudden I have to accept that I am just the them with all the people in the” Book”. I think we all should just weep and cry for our carelessness, and poor ashes on our/my head. We are suppose to be so saved and smart, with all this fabulous knowledge.It’s a scary place. May G-d have mercy on all of us!
When you lived, where you lived, and with whom
you lived are huge variables in any life of faith.
Moses had his unique challenges.
I have mine. You have yours.
The constants are God and His will being done.
To follow Him requires great personal strength and
courage which merits increasing portions of humility
which He affords us as we submit.
While there’s no “free lunch”, there IS true freedom
from human bondage and its deceptions that we are
all vulnerable to. We work out our salvation “with fear
and trembling”. And peace and joy do find homes with
those who truly seek Him.
It’s with those whom He lives through and works through . . .
and always has.
After reading this post, all I can think is why people still keeps on asking: Why Moshe didn’t enter the promised land?
Well, when he didn’t make it, who is to say we will??????
Well… I was thinking in history terms, that is, Moshe did not enter the promised land physically… and there is a debate on why HaShem didn’t allow it.
I guess that you are writing in spiritually terms, and in those terms, I’m pretty sure that Moshe will enter the promised land…
Hara makes me think of Harrah’s Casino… how many conceptions take place there? Any who back to the subject. Was there something about the children of Israel that made Moshe hate the job? Was he feeling more like a noble born Egyptian looking down on a bunch of ill-mannered slaves? How many of us think we’d be happy to be appointed supreme leader over a people group? Millions must now do what I tell them to. I was listening to a sermon by Dutch Sheets where he said I’m not a people person, he said I love people, I’m laying down my life for people but I’d rather be off on my own spending time with God. Wasn’t that how Moshe was? The shepherd off in the wilderness spending time talking to Yehovah?
I think of my own mom and how she shaped me. How might I have been reshaped as I grew older had all her earlier thoughts been written down in a book for me to discover and read years later? I never found a diary from her, but isn’t that what the Torah holds, a diary of the thoughts of Moshe? Here’s mom spilling out his fear for all his offspring to read years later and compare their plights against his grumblings with Yehovah. Surely if Moshe had a hard time, who am I to surrender to Yehovah so easily? Did his trepidation shape the people of Israel? It’s like the wandering off was woven into their DNA. The tribes aren’t “lost” they’re just on a very extended walk about.
How many times a day is Yehovah conceiving something in his children? Just to think how many times Yehovah has birthed something new in my own life. A new challenge and each time unveiling a new character flaw that Yehovah needs to get out of me.