From The Egyptian Palace To The Desert Of Midian, How God Refined Moses During His Forty Years In The Desert Of Obscurity

There’s a scene in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner that signifies how God’s plans usually don’t involve glamor and fame- but if they do, God will use whatever He wills to bring about his perfect plans. Heston played Moses and the film portrays the early life of this extraordinary leader to leading the Israelites on an exodus out of Egypt. 

In this clip we see Moses, who had moments before, been prince of Egypt. He grew up in the palace of the pharaoh and was destined for great things in the Egyptian king’s household. But, when he found out who he really was, a Hebrew and born a slave, it all changed for Moses. He started gravitating towards his cultural identity and he later killed an Egyptian for harassing a Hebrew slave. As a result, the pharaoh didn’t kill Moses. The Bible tells us that after Moses killed an Egyptian for harassing a Hebrew slave, he immediately fled Egypt for what he had done.

In the film, Moses was dropped off at the edge of the desert by Ramses (played by Brynner). It’s a poignant scene because he lost all his Egyptian glory and fame, and was banished to the life of a shepherd in the desert for about forty years. All of his royal clothing had been removed.

In that moment, what comes to mind is that God doesn’t gravitate towards the glitz and glamor as humans typically do. God knows the purpose and destiny He has given each person, and he works to fulfill that if we allow Him.

Here was Moses, a man who knew absolute wealth and luxury, being stripped of it all. It’s in the next forty years of living in obscurity in the mountainous desert area of Midian that God did His best work on Moses, revealing Himself to Moses, humbling him, and ultimately rebuilding Moses for the next phase of life. Moses would never know luxury and splendor in the context of the Egyptian court. Moses would become one of the greatest leaders in history. And when the time was right, God found Moses in the desert place and equipped him and used him to lead a whole nation of people out of bondage through the Red Sea, into the Promise Land of Israel.

We can often get carried away and excited about the shiny and glamorous life of luxury and famous people- the high life. And while God is everywhere and involved in all facets of life, His most abounding work is not in the glitz and glamor of things. He often does His best work on us when we don’t have all the glitz around us, as He did for Moses.

But whoever God chooses to use, no matter their situation, He knows what He is doing and its always for His ultimate glory and for the wellbeing of mankind.