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0:20 When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him. 0:26 Leave room in your life for the crushings, because that's part of the curriculum that very few people will tell you about. 0:33 So this is a quote from Chuck Swindah as he was summarizing a quote from Alan Redpath. 0:38 And as soon as I heard this quote, it just absolutely haunted me. 0:42 Because, you know, as uncomfortable as it is to say, I know for a fact that it's true. 0:47 I know many of you men in this audience have experienced crushing or are currently in the middle of experiencing the crushing right now. 0:53 And we have to realize that we are not alone in this crushing and that God is not crushing us or allowing us to be crushed for no reason. 1:00 There is a purpose behind the crushing. 1:02 So every day on the Daily Blade this week, we will look at a different figure from Scripture that was crushed for the purposes of God. 1:09 Yesterday we looked at Nehemiah, and today we're going to focus on Moses. 1:12 And as it pertains to Moses, we can obviously focus on very large swathes of scripture if we're looking at this guy, but we are going to key in on a very narrow part of Moses' story. 1:21 So let's actually go to Exodus 2, and we're going to look at verses eleven through 15. 1:26 One day when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 1:33 He looked this way and that way, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 1:38 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together, and he said to the man in the wrong, Why did you strike your companion? 1:46 He answered, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? 1:50 Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? 1:53 Then Moses was afraid and thought, Surely the thing is known. 1:57 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. 2:06 So, guys, if you are familiar with the really the breadth of Moses' story, you see this as pretty much typical Moses, right? 2:13 So he's impetuous, he's driven by his anger, and he acts out of that impetuous anger. 2:17 And in this particular circumstance, that led to an Egyptian man losing his life. 2:21 And from there we see in Exodus 3 that Moses went to work for his father-in-law Jethro. 2:26 Jethro was a priest of Midian, and Moses was caring for Jethro's flock out in the wilderness. 2:30 Now, for some of you, the idea of working for your father-in-law for any length of time for any reason whatsoever might seem pretty daunting, right? 2:37 Not exactly preferable. 2:39 And this was a pretty extreme situation. 2:42 He didn't just go to work for his father-in-law, he went to work for his father-in-law for 40 years. 2:48 40 years. 2:50 I mean, we want to talk about crushing. 2:52 And again, what even drove him to Midian was fear of punishment for his own actions. 2:58 And so we can honestly say Moses was acting as an outlaw for close to half a century. 3:02 And this had to have been a crushing set of circumstances for Moses. 3:06 He must have felt the guilt of what he had done. 3:09 He must have felt like his time on this earth was wasted and that he had nothing to offer. 3:13 But God did not waste this time. 3:16 He was actually preparing Moses to do his work. 3:19 And as we see in Exodus 3, God spoke to Moses through a burning bush. 3:23 Go to verse 7. 3:24 Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. 3:30 I know their sufferings, and I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3:46 And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me. 3:49 And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. 3:53 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. 4:01 So God called Moses to go back to Egypt, bring the Israelites out of bondage, and along the way he performed many signs and wonders. 4:08 He led the Israelites out of Egypt, and he was like no other prophet in Israel up to that point, and perhaps never since, right? 4:15 If you if you think about it in those terms. 4:17 But you know what God could have done? 4:20 He could have left Moses and Midian. 4:22 He could have kept him in charge of Moses' father-in-law's flock and just, you know, hung out in that house. 4:28 He could have allowed the crushing of his circumstances to be the summary of his story. 4:33 But you see, God was crushing Moses for a purpose. 4:37 And that should speak to all of us, really. 4:39 We might be experiencing a crushing of some kind right now, but we have to realize that God is at work in the crushing. 4:45 God sees our suffering, he understands our plight, but he is looking for an opportunity to use it for his glory. 4:52 I'm sure there were many times where Moses felt confused, and as would be typical for him, angry at his circumstances, he spent 40 years stewing in that anger and confusion until God sent him a very, very clear sign that it was time to do his will. 5:05 So my question for you to consider right now, especially if you're in the middle of your crushing, is this what is God preparing you for? 5:14 Do you honestly think that you're just being crushed for no reason? 5:17 Do you honestly think that the crushing is the point? 5:21 Or is it possible that God is preparing you for something? 5:25 I mean, remember, Moses spent forty years in the wilderness. 5:28 And the number 40 should maybe ring a bell for you because Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness being crushed by the great deceiver. 5:35 And it was after that crushing that Jesus' earthly ministry kicked into high gear. 5:40 Was the crushing the point? 5:42 No. 5:43 It was the point of preparation.