We read something like the following testimony about a person and we put the person on a pedestal without much thought about ourselves.  Moses was one great man; deny it and you are playing with blinders or VR helmet.  Almost every pedestal has steps designed for our feet.  We can climb up too.  Pedestals do not just happen.  People are ambitious but the people who pole vault into public office with no intention to serve are on a Moses pedestal.  Ambition makes people clamour to be teachers with minimal effort to know the curriculum, like pastors with poor literacy, or a police officer bent on flexing law and order muscle for self-aggrandizement.  The Moses pedestal is more than a shaky and temporary seat; it allows us to see ourselves and those around us as lovely and destined for greatness.  Not even Judas could be put beyond the pale of divine affection and marked with a destiny.

It was at this time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home.

Acts 7:20, NASB

Lovely Moses

Now I do not want to imagine that Moses was an extremely handsome individual, and he may very well have been, but God seeing Moses as someone special, someone that can be likened to Jerusalem, a beautiful city, likened to Israel, a well-furnished garden or vineyard must certainly speak to each of us. Joseph the son of Jacob and Rachel his wife and a few other individuals in the Bible are described as hunks and ravishingly pretty, but this is not the case for Moses.  The term used to describe him as lovely is not about looks;  it is not even about intelligence or resourcefulness, because we are talking about a baby, helpless and dependent on mother and father.

The complexity of the Moses experience

Moses at the head of God’s dealings with the superpower of the day is not a pretty picture.  Getting the people delivered from Egypt into the promised Land was a lovely sight for Moses , and that was literally all he got of Canaan.  Moses and all the prophets knew that Moses’ pedestal was a temporary thing, but who can deny that the man’s testimony permeates the divine revelations from cover to cover in our Bible.  Even though we know that God is done with him as an agent in the business of saving the world Moses still impresses us for his stellar courage, for his use of power and his extreme tenderness, all rolled up into one lovely bundle.  I dare to say, he was just another broken vessel, but he was a broken vessel who may not have realized how important brokenness was to God.  Moses’ temporary and complex pedestal speaks to the contradictions in the life of the One broken to give life to the world.

29)  And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming. 30) And behold, two men were talking with Him; and they were Moses and Elijah, 31) who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Luke 9:29-31, NASB