The Back Side of the Desert - Glenn Conjurske

The Back Side of the Desert

by Glenn Conjurske

“Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert.” (Ex. 3:1). Here we see Moses, at the age of eighty, still going to school, but about to graduate, and to enter upon his life’s work. The back side of the desert is the well understood symbol of the school of God—-well understood, at any rate, by those who have been there. That God has a school, in which he trains his prophets, is an undoubted fact, though the pride and restlessness of the flesh may heartily wish that he had not—-for it is no easy school. Men—-especially men who have too little confidence in God, and too much confidence in the flesh—-seek always to pass by this school of God. Most of them, indeed, know nothing of its existence. There is, they think, an easier way to get into the service of Christ. Three or four years at a Bible school or seminary will amply prepare them to do the work of the Lord. They finish their collegiate course, and think themselves fit for the work of the Lord, while in fact they may be no more fit than they were before they went to school—-and they may be a good deal less fit.

But God has his own school, in which he trains his own prophets, and the school of God is entirely independent of the schools of men. Not that God cannot use the various schools of men as a part of his own training of his servants. Assuredly he can, and no doubt often does—-though it is an indisputable fact that he has dispensed with those schools altogether in the training of many of his greatest servants. No doubt the school of Gamaliel formed a segment of the training of the apostle Paul, but Peter, James, and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, never saw such a school. Your Bible institute or seminary training may be the kindergarten or the first grade of the school of God—-but it surely is not the whole course.

Moses was in the school of God for forty years in the desert, tending the sheep of his father-in-law. Yet it is surely correct also to say that he was in the school of God for eighty years, for as Paul was “separated from his mother’s womb” to the work of the Lord, so undoubtedly was Moses. Yet the early training of Paul did not so much fit him to do the work of God, as it did to enter the school of God. And so it was with Moses also. See him then at the age of forty:

“And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not.” (Acts 7:22-25). Moses, in other words, was just the kind of man that the churches and Christian organizations of the present day would delight to have at their head. He was in the strength of his manhood, at the age of forty. He was “every way qualified,” standing above all of his countrymen in educational, natural, and spiritual endowments. He had his doctor’s degree from the University of Egypt, being learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was a man of great natural ability, being mighty in word and deed. Spiritually, he was a man who had deliberately turned his back upon all of the wealth, pleasure, and glory of the court of Egypt, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Moreover, he stood possessed of the full consciousness of the call of God upon him, as the chosen instrument of God to deliver his people Israel.

And yet for all that, it is clear enough that Moses was unfit for the work to which God had called him. There was something essential to the work which was yet lacking in him. Though man might not perceive the deficiency, though Moses himself may have been entirely oblivious to it, yet the lack was surely evident to the eye of God—-and God therefore conducts him to the land of Midian to enroll him in the school of God, where for forty years he must feed upon the bitter herbs of disappointment and rejection, obscurity and loneliness, and unfulfilled dreams and longings.

Now it is plain that this was no easy school. The school of God is never an easy one, and men generally do not enroll themselves in it voluntarily. But those who walk by faith and wait upon the Lord, faithful to principle and refusing compromise, are conducted by God to the back side of the desert. God has no shortage of means by which to accomplish this. The hatred of his brethren enrolled Joseph in the school of God, and the wounded pride and consequent vindictiveness of his master’s wife advanced him to a higher grade. The songs of the women of Israel and the jealousy of King Saul placed David there. Some by one means, and some by another, God leads his true-hearted servants to the back side of the desert. For this the providence of God is amply sufficient. “Deep in unfathomable mines of never-failing skill,” he holds in store a thousand means with which to work his will. Most often he raises an issue of conscience. When that issue is raised, those who will compromise, and sacrifice principle for the sake of influence, may escape indeed the back side of the desert—-and lose also the place of eminent usefulness which lies beyond it. Those who become the head of the corner are those who are first rejected by the builders. So it was with the Lord Jesus, as with Joseph, with Moses, with Martin Luther, and with John Wesley.

But was Moses actually in the school of God for those forty years? Did he hold on by faith to the call of God which had moved him in Egypt, and walk in the light of that call, nurturing the vision and the burden for the people of Israel which God had implanted in his heart? Without doubt he did. My reasons for believing this are three:

1.No one who has been there can have any doubt of it. This reason alone will be conclusive to those who have been there.

2.When God met Moses at the burning bush, he did not come to send a backslider to deliver his people, but a man of God. True, Moses was unfit for the work in his own eyes, but there is no doubt that he was fit for it in the eyes of God. Else God had not sent him.

3.Moses’ occupation when God met him at the bush is proof enough of where his heart was. “Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert.” Why was Moses not keeping his own flock? Why not building his own house? Jacob had spent but twenty years tending the flocks of his father-in-law, but in those twenty years he took care enough to provide for himself, so that when he returned to the land of his fathers, after tending the flock of his father-in-law for twenty years, he returned with drove after drove of great and small cattle. Not so Moses. Though he was twice twenty years at the same employment as Jacob had been before him, yet he returned to Egypt with nothing but the ass upon which he rode. I say nothing against Jacob for building his own fortune, but what I do say is that Moses had a higher calling, and obviously lived those forty years with that high calling filling his eye and directing his path. See him at eighty years of age, with no flock of his own to tend, no prospect of advancement beyond what he had the day he set foot in Midian, engaged in the same difficult and menial employment for forty years, and seeking nothing more. His heart was elsewhere. His vision was not for his own welfare, his own security, or his own comfort, but for the suffering people of God. Such a man was Moses, and such a man would God send to deliver his people.

Not that Moses was perfect. He must dispute with God about his own fitness for the work, even to the point of provoking the Lord to anger (Ex. 4:14). He was living also in neglect of the ordinance of God (evidently to please his wife), and must be corrected for it by the severe discipline of God. (Ex. 4:24-26). He was a frail vessel of clay, as every man is, including every man of God. Yet for all that, God knew his man, and knew that Moses was fit for the work.

But what real difference was there between Moses at the age of forty, and Moses at the age of eighty? Clearly he had something at the age of eighty, which he had not at the age of forty. What was it? “And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took THE ROD OF GOD in his hand.” (Ex. 4:20). What could Moses have done without that? With the rod of God he smote the waters of Egypt, and turned them to blood. With the rod of God he brought forth frogs to fill the land of Egypt. With the rod of God he brought forth the water from the rock in the wilderness. With the rod of God, held up with feeble hands, he secured for Israel the victory over Amalek. Without the rod of God, the whole mission of Moses would have proved a complete failure. At the age of eighty he held that rod in his hand. At the age of forty he did not so much as know that it existed. What then were all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians? What then his mighty words and deeds? What even the call of God itself, without the rod of God?—-for all who are called of God are not prepared of God. David was anointed by God many years before God had prepared him for the throne. To Joseph God gave his dreams many years before he was fitted for the fulfillment of them. And there is no doubt that Moses was called of God forty years before he held the rod of God in his hands.

But what is that rod of God? The power of God, no doubt, as is plain enough in Moses’ case. But Moses’ rod was also power with God, when he held it up on the top of the hill, making intercession for Israel. The rod of God is whatever is essential for the place of service to which a man is called. It may be the power of God. It may be the wisdom of God. It may be the truth of God, the testimony of God, a living faith, an open door. Every place of service does not require the same qualification. The man whom God calls to establish a work must have much greater ability than the man who is called to maintain it. The man whom God calls to purify his work must have a great deal more of wisdom and depth than the man who is called only to extend it. But God knows both the work and the workman, and knows exactly what sort of school every man requires, and how much of it. The workmen may differ widely one from another, and so may their particular spheres of labor, but God knows exactly how to prepare every particular workman for his own particular work.

Man knows nothing of this, and yet the very thing which the schools of men profess to do is to prepare men for the ministry. What could the schools of Egypt do to give to Moses the rod of God—-or, for that matter, the schools of Israel? Indeed what could Moses have done to procure it? When he set out at the first to deliver Israel, he did not so much as know that the rod of God existed, and he certainly felt no need for it. Thus Moses at the age of forty is the exact picture of a myriad of men—-many of them good men, and called of God besides—-who set to work without the rod of God, and so fail altogether to accomplish the work of God. We do not fault anyone for this. Their zeal, their purpose, their devotedness, their self-denial, their determination—-these may all be worthy of the most unreserved commendation, but they are not enough. Moses had all of that forty years before he had the rod of God in his hand, but it was not enough. Something deeper was wanted, though none but God could know what it was, or how to bring it about. And God knows exactly what is required in every man whom he calls to his service—-knows exactly what is yet wanting, and exactly what schooling they stand in need of to make up the deficiency. Now if such men are true—-true to God and principle and conscience—-if they walk by faith, enduring as seeing him who is invisible, cherishing the call of God above all things, and scorning to compromise—-though for a little compromise they might occupy the chief posts of honor and influence in the church—-then God will lead them on in his own way. And that way will no doubt take them through the back side of the desert.

And though few men are likely to choose such a course, it is their greatest wisdom—-and the surest mark of faith—-to submit to it, when they are compelled to it by conscience or by providence. What glorious issues follow upon the school of God in the back side of the desert! What men of God are made there! Behold the man Moses, upon his graduation from the school of God. To the eye of man he might appear as the least likely candidate for the work before him. Most of the Christian organizations of today would refuse his services. He holds no parchment in his hand, but the rod of God. See him in his grand simplicity, enroute to deliver half a million slaves, traversing the desert, mounted upon an ass, with the rod of God in his hand. He has no official position, as Abraham Lincoln had. He has no army of a hundred thousand volunteers to fight the battles for him. He has none of the wealth of the greatest nation on earth to back him up—-but the rod of God in his hand. That rod was the one grand essential for the work of God, and that rod was acquired in the back side of the desert.

Glenn Conjurske