Verse of the Week...

Martin Luther King Jr.: Modern-Day Moses

Over 3,000 years ago, Moses, the Hebrew prophet called by I AM, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, led the people of Israel out of Egypt’s grip, through the Red Sea and into the wilderness, and finally, after much testing and tribulation, right up to the perimeter of the Promise Land. But he did not enter. He could not. It was not God’s will for him to do so. Instead, in a speech reiterating the Law of God (the biblical book of Deuteronomy), Moses bid the people he’d given his life to lead farewell, parting them at the gate to paradise to ascend Mount Nebo, literally, to meet his Maker (Deuteronomy 34:1).

He was a great man, a man on whom God’s favor rested heavily. He was the epitome of a leader, not without fault of his own, yet ever the commanding presence and voice Israel desperately needed to help it endure, and ultimately break, the shackles of its slavery to the mighty Egyptians. He was a man full of wisdom, full of the very grace of God Himself.

Some 3,000 years later came another man, another leader, another on whom Divine favor rested. He, too, was called by this same God, but to lead a different people. And he too humbly yet powerfully led them, right up to the fringes of freedom, to their own promise land. Like Moses, he didn’t fully enter, for God did not ordain it so. This man, Martin Luther King Jr., gave his own stirring farewell speech, one which in hindsight proved eerily prophetic. As Dr. King knew full well his road would soon end, he embraced its harrowing halt, facing it head-on with the God-inspired courage of another King—Israel’s David.

Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me;
 all day long an attacker oppresses me;
 2 my enemies trample on me all day long,
 for many attack me proudly.
 3 When I am afraid,
 I put my trust in you. 
4 In God, whose word I praise, 
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
 What can flesh do to me? 5 All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
 6 They stir up strife, they lurk;
they watch my steps, 
as they have waited for my life.
 7 For their crime will they escape?
 In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! 8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. 
Are they not in your book?
 9 Then my enemies will turn back 
in the day when I call.
 This I know, that God is for me.
 10 In God, whose word I praise,
 in the Lord, whose word I praise,
 11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
 What can man do to me?

(Psalm 56: 1-11, italics mine)

Take note of this man--his fervor, his focus, his passionate pursuit to fulfill the unique purpose for which God uniquely created him. If the day off from work didn’t serve to conjure these thoughts, to elicit reminiscence and heartfelt homage, allow the YouTube clip below to do just that. Let it enrapture you for a moment, encouraging you as it did me, to get a grip on God, on His grace, and on the feebleness of man to even come close to touching our soul. He cannot, for God wills it not—to the praise of His Name. Watch closely King’s brazenness towards bodily harm, that you might adopt, like him, such a godly perspective on life. Really, if God is for you, who can be against you?

Grace,

Voice of another