The Courage To Walk With God

“And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.” (Ex 20:21 AV)

What made Moses so special?  What makes the men of God different from others?  Are they more holy?  Are they less apt to make mistakes?  Did they always implicitly trust God and never failed to take steps of faith?  Why did God use Moses?  Why did God use Jeremiah, Isaiah, David, or Noah?  Why was Paul so successful?  Peter, with his impulsiveness and his denial of Jesus, was still a chosen vessel for the LORD.  Why?  What did God see in Abraham as he fathered a child with Hagar?  What did God see in Solomon when he increased to him strange wives?  And what about a woman of ill repute like Rahab?  Or what of Ruth whose people were banned from the temple?  There isn’t a person whom God uses who also is without imperfections.  Some of them are rather serious.  In the sight of people, they would probably be judged as disqualified.  But not with God.  Why is it that God used Moses after he murdered another man or struck a rock rather than spoke to it?  After Moses wanted to pick God’s man rather than trusting God’s pick, God still used him.  Why?  The answer is above.

Let's consider David for a moment.  He is the only one to whom it is said that he is a man after God’s own heart.  The defining moment of David’s life for which he is most known is the slaying of Goliath.  In the slaying of Goliath, David reveals the kind of man he is.  Some would say that David is courageous.  The book of Hebrews tells us it was faith that drove David.  Others would say that his integrity and love for the glory of God is what found the five stones in the brook and made the stone land true.  All of these are manifestations of the most important quality of anyone whom God uses.  David had the inner strength to look at something that could destroy him and approach regardless of the circumstances.  I think that no matter the outcome, David would have done what David did no matter what.  It wasn’t pride that drove him.  It wasn’t arrogance that gave him the strength.  It was looking at an intimidating set of circumstances and determining he was not going to cower no matter how outmatched he was.  He was not going to allow his own shortcomings and chances of success to diminish a resolve to face what needed to be faced.  What is true of David is true of all those who walk with God.  It is not perfection that opens the door of walking with God.  It is not total surrender that determines if a man walks with God and is used of God.  This would require perfection of which we will not have until we are glorified.  What David and Moses had was the resolve to walk with God even though they had imperfections.  Even though they failed, they got up and continued on.

Moses went where no one else would go.  He went into the thick darkness with God.  He knew with all his heart that God was not out to destroy him.  He knew of the mercy and grace of God.  After so many times of doubt, fear, and failure, God was still with him.  He did not go into the thick darkness with God because he had no imperfections.  He went into the thick darkness with God in spite of them.  He did not go into the thick darkness with God because he had been perfectly transformed in the image of Christ.  He went into the thick darkness as he was.  Faults and all.  The faith that David and Moses had was faith in God’s mercy and forgiveness.  This is why David could make such egregious errors and still go on.  It is not that he took sin lightly.  He mourned over it.  He confessed it.  He accepted the consequences for it and welcomed God’s correction.  But what he and Moses did was not allow those mistakes to handicap them from knowing and serving God.  So, what makes these men different?  What makes them so special?  They learned that to walk with God requires we approach God, faults and sin and all, counting on the mercy and grace of God to overcome all they had done or failed to do.  They did not allow the adversary to convince them that the holiness of God was too overwhelming for such despicable creatures as ourselves and we will never keep company with God!  NO!  God loves sinners.  He gave His life that we might live and dwell with Him.  We just need the resolve to do so.  Get up, brush yourselves off, confess your sin, and live in the mercy and grace of God!  Have the courage to do so and you will walk with God.