Lessons from Failure
Exodus 2:11–15
He struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Exodus 2:12
There is no reason, nor is it possible, to defend Moses’s murder of the Egyptian taskmaster. In his speech before the Sanhedrin, Stephen tells us that “He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand” (Acts 7:25). But the results were different from his expectations. First, the people rejected his leadership. Then, when Pharaoh heard of his deed and tried to have Moses killed, Moses knew he could not survive in Egypt and fled the country.
Why did things turn out as they did? The obvious answer is that Moses needed to learn some important lessons before he was ready to lead the people out. But it is also true that we need to learn these lessons too. In the providence of God, Moses’s plans were permitted to go astray so that we might be encouraged and learn from our failures when the same things happen to us. Thus we learn, one, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We learn what we are capable of if we go our own way instead of God’s. And we learn that we can do something utterly right one moment and something utterly wrong the next. Moses’s choice to identify with his people rather than to enjoy the power and pleasures of Egypt and then to kill an Egyptian to try to be his people’s deliverer is one example.
And then we learn that one failure does not necessarily disqualify us from future service. God knows us. He knows that we are only dust. But he also knows what he is able to do through us in Jesus Christ.
Finally, God remembers our faith, not our failures. It is remarkable that in Hebrews 11, that great chapter about the faith of the Old Testament saints, Moses is praised for his faith three times, and not once is his sin in murdering the Egyptian mentioned. In this great summary of Moses’s life and faith achievements, not once does God bring up Moses’s failure.
No more will God remember your failures. God said of Israel, “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (Heb. 8:12). Isaiah said, “You have cast all my sins behind your back” (Isa. 38:17). Your failures as well as your sins have been forgiven because of the work of Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? Then you will not let some past failure ruin you for what God has for you to do now.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.