“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” Psalm 90:12-14
Time is a creation of God, an opportunity for man to know and serve God. It is a calling with limits, and yet, with the calling comes the provision of God to fill up that time, to use it well, in the way and for the purpose it was intended. The problem with time for every individual is that it can be easily squandered, or wasted, and thus the opportunity, and high calling of God, missed. Nothing could be so tragic as missing God in one’s time on this earth and being led by Him into the experience of eternal life as it is in Christ. Nothing could be so regretted in eternity as the neglected, or rejected, opportunity or calling of God to every individual to know one’s Creator and Redeemer, to now the power Christ’s life dwelling in the heart, and the fulfilling of one’s purpose. What then must man do to grasp the importance of time, understand how to use it, and then meet God in the pursuit of His purposes in the time that He gives to every individual born on this earth?
Moses was a very intelligent man. Scripture tells us that when he was being raised in Egypt as a child, and then as a young man, he “…was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds.” (Acts 7:22) Though Moses was a Hebrew, and had a genuine faith in God, “…choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,” (Heb. 11:25) he would need to be brought by God to the end his resources, and his worldly “knowledge,” and be brought to Christ as his wisdom. We read in the epistle of Hebrews, that, “…he esteemed the reproach of Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” (11:26) Why then in the economy of God did circumstances which the Lord orchestrated, was Moses forced to go into the wilderness, forsaking all that was in Egypt, and there to live for forty years, learning to herd sheep, before God would reveal Himself to him, rekindling his calling, and basically revealing to Moses that the time had come to embrace his purpose, God’s plan and will for his life? It would be because only as Moses was brought to realize the impossibility of the calling, and yet the imperative conviction put upon him, that he would be truly cast upon God for every need to fulfill his mission. Only by the Spirit of God working in behalf of, and in Moses, could this time, this period in his life would be filled up with God, His purpose, and His provision for His glory. What does Moses’ experience teach us about time?
The first thing is that Moses learned that all is by prayer. So, he prayed: “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Ps. 90:12) Proper use of God-given time begins by prayer, calling upon God alone to answer, and trusting Him fully to reveal it. This is why the man Moses will cry out in his heart: “Return, O Lord! How long?” Moses needed the intervention of God in a very clear and definite manner, and he needed it NOW. It was in appealing to the compassion of God, the God whose “compassions fail not,” (Lam. 3:22) because He is faithful to hear the cry of His servants, that Moses would plead to God to satisfy, to answer fully, and “early” his pressing need. Moses earnestly called upon God to, “…let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children.” (Ps. 90:16) If he would use well his time, he needed the revelation of the work and will of God, confirmed by the Lord’s blessed beauty upon him.
Dear Father, Grant us Your wisdom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.