Epitaph For A Prince Of Egypt

Epitaph For A Prince Of Egypt Because of Hollywood’s recent blockbuster entitled “Prince Of Egypt,” if moviegoers were asked for Moses’ epitaph they would probably say, “Moses the Prince of Egypt is dead.” If Bible readers were asked for his epitaph they might say, “Moses the leader of God’s chosen people is dead” or “Moses the miracle worker is dead” or “Moses the lawgiver is dead.” But what would God say? His epitaph, recorded in the beginning of the Book of Joshua, overlooks all Moses’ deeds and gets to the motive behind them with this most profound epitaph: “Moses My servant is dead.” Hebrews 3:5 confirms servanthood as Moses’ most outstanding characteristic when it once again characterizes him as “faithful as a servant.” From all this, we must conclude that God is more interested in faithful service than famous deeds. J. N. Darby defined true greatness as the willingness “to serve unnoticed, and work unseen ... having nothing, being nothing, seeing nothing but the living Christ in glory, and being careful for nothing but His interests down here.” And Jordan Grooms said, “If God calls you to be a servant, don’t stoop to be a king.” And this is exactly what the writer of Hebrews said Moses did: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God ... He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt” (Heb. 11:24-26). Moses was destined for greatness in Pharaoh’s eyes. He really “had it made” in the world’s eyes. But he gave it all up to achieve true greatness in the Lord’s eyes. To have the Lord say, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Mt. 25:21) is the greatest tribute of all. To the Lord, the size of the job is not as important as our faithfulness to the One who gives it to us. Since God called Moses to be a servant, why would He want us to remember him as a prince? By Larry Ondrejack