How To Fail Successfully
Exodus 2 and Acts 7
A Sermon By Dave Redick
Hwy 20 Church of Christ, Sweet Home, OR
"Can you imagine the change of scenery as Moses flees from a land of sparkle and glitter, of gold images and magnificent palaces, into a terrain of hot, dry sand and scraggly little bushes? He literally flees for his life with the thickets tearing at his clothes, the sun beating down on him, and the sand filling his shoes - all the while with the torturing question in his mind, 'What went wrong?'"
Introduction
I would like to speak to you in this message about failure. It seems today that most everyone else is talking about success and all the nice things it brings. We read formulas for success. We dress for success. We set goals for success. Magazines give us articles about success. Where does failure fit in? Does it have a place in the life of a person whose goal is to please God? Does it ever suit God's purposes that one of his people fail?
Probably if you would consult the "success" literature today you would have to conclude "No, failure doesn't suit God's purposes." But what about the Bible?. What does it say?
In order to look at failure from a Biblical perspective I want to take you to the description of the failure of Moses. That's right, I said the failure of Moses! Moses failed in his first attempt to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage. In the wake of that failure, he nearly lost the opportunity for a second chance.
Please turn with me in your Bible to Exodus chapter 2 and put a marker there. Then turn to Acts 7 and put a marker there. (If you don't mark these, you'll be spending all your time looking up the two passages we're going to study.)
As we enter into this portion of Bible history, Moses is being raised by his own mother following the period when the Egyptians were killing all the Israelite baby boys. Due to the courage of Jocabed, Moses' mother, she was able to keep her boy alive while other mothers saw their little boys taken from their arms and cast into the Nile River by order of Pharaoh. It must have been great to have seen her little son spared. At a prearranged time, however, she was to turn the boy over to the daughter of Pharaoh who had adopted him as her own son. For young Moses and his mother, that day must have been a tearful parting.
The book of Exodus doesn't tell us much about the subsequent time Moses spent in the palace. Some of the details are filled in by Stephen's sermon in the seventh chapter of Acts, though. We're going to start reading there. Let's look first at
I. Moses' Early Life in the Egyptian Court.
(Read Acts 7:20-21)
Josephus tells us that the Pharaoh of that time had no son of his own and that Moses, being now the adopted grandson, was actually nurtured for the throne. Some modern historians believe this as well. That bit of information, if it is true, would certainly shape the kind of upbringing Moses had once he left his mother in the mud pits of slavery.
Imagine the change in Moses' life as he made the transition from his home life as a preschool aged child in the little hut of Jocabed and Amram to the royal surroundings of the Egyptian palace!
That word "nurture" in Acts 7:21 means "to rear, to educate, to train." This daughter of Pharaoh put young Moses through the training of a royal Egyptian home. That was much different than the training of a Hebrew home.
(Read v. 22)
When a man of Moses time was extra bright, he was said to have "the wisdom of the Egyptians." One raised in Egyptian royalty had the benefit of attending the "Temple of the Sun." Archaeologists have done a great work in digging up the remains of this remarkable center of education. It has been called by some "the Oxford of the ancient world."
The course of study that Moses may have followed would have been extensive for his day. He had all the right preparation for success in life.
He would have learned Egyptian hieroglyphics, said to be one of the most difficult languages of the ancient world. It is a written language, but not one of letters. It consists of hundreds of little pictures. A sample might contain a little pelican looking creature, then a crows foot, three dashes, then a head. When it was all put down together, it meant something to the reader. One modern scholar has said that it took people a lifetime to master hieroglyphics.
Moses would have also learned the language of the Egyptians. He would have studied the representative sciences: medicine, astronomy, chemistry. He probably learned the theology, philosophy, law, art, sculpture, music and literature of the day. He was lettered in the schools of the Egyptians, as Stephen puts it, "a man of power in words and in deeds."
Extra Biblical historians tell us that by the time he was 30 Moses had already lead the Egyptian army to a smashing victory over the Ethiopians. He was a military strategist. He was respected, scarred from battle, bronzed by the Egyptian sun, wise in the worldly sense, highly qualified.
What more capable man could God have called to the task of delivering His people? Yet, at this stage in his career, Moses lacked something essential that only a bitter failure could bring about. He lacked humility.
The Bible later records that Moses was the most humble man on earth - but not at this stage of his life.
I believe it was F.B. Meyer who said,
He spent his first 40 years thinking he was somebody.
He spent his second 40 years learning he was nobody.
He spent his third 40 years learning what God can do with a nobody.
The texts we're considering depict Moses about to enter his second 40 years. Watch and learn the role that failure can play in the life of a man or woman of God.
Let's look next at:
II. Moses' Bid to Deliver Israel on his Own.
I suppose I should say I think that sometime during Moses' life in the Egyptian court, God must have revealed to him that he would in some way be used to deliver Israel from bondage. I get that idea from an inference in verse 25.
(Read Acts 7:25)
For those of you who pay close attention to details like this, notice that this wasn't the burning bush. It wasn't God's call. That wouldn't come for another 40 years. Anyway, look what Moses did.
(Read v. 23)
You won't read in Acts or Exodus or anywhere else in scripture that God told Moses to do what he is about to do. I therefore conclude that when he did what is described in the next verse, he was moving ahead of God on his own strength.
(Read Acts 7:24 & Exodus 2:11-12)
Scripture never says or implies that Moses set out to kill the Egyptian. It appears that it happened on his way to visit his brethren. Acts 7:25 tells us something else he was intending to do.
(Read Acts 7:25)
A particular difficulty that some of us have is that we are impetuous. We're hasty. We jump into things on a whim and often get ourselves into trouble. Sometimes we run ahead of God and then find out things aren't working like we thought they would. Whether it is signing our name on the dotted line for a large purchase or committing ourselves to something or someone in God's kingdom and then realizing we've jumped too quickly, we don't look before we leap. Often such action is failure in the making.
Listen to counsel from the Bible:
"It is a snare for a man to say rashly, 'It is holy!' And after the vows to make inquiry." (Prov. 20:25)
Careful consideration of our actions is the order of the Bible, especially when the will of God isn't clearly known.
A number of verses appear in God's word on this subject. One such is Psalm 127:1-2.
" Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep." (Psalm. 127:1-2)
I'm talking about moving out on our own without carefully weighing the Lord's direction and counsel. I'm referring to impetuously rushing into things, only later finding out that God isn't in them.
Really, if God isn't in them, shouldn't they fail? Isn't our purpose in living to glorify Him? When God isn't in something that succeeds, who gets the glory?
Matthew quoted Jesus as saying:
"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven." (Matt. 5:16)
Success without God feeds man's self-reliance and pride. It fosters the false idea that God isn't needed.
It is my opinion that much of the so called "success" literature and "motivational" material out today not only promotes self reliance apart from God, it can actually be dangerous for the Christian. Much of it promotes greed and materialism over contentment and spirituality. "God wants you rich!" says the seminar speaker to a packed house. While I won't deny that wealth may be in God's plans for some people, it quite often causes people to forget God. The direction for the Christian is God reliance, not self reliance.
It like to tell our student preachers that there are two wrong approaches to their ministries. The first is "I can!" (If you begin to think you can walk on water, God is probably going to let you sink.) The second is "I can't!" (If you never move because you're afraid of failure you'll never serve Him well.) So what is the right approach? The right approach is "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" (We need the right mix of confidence in self as God empowers us.)
Motivation isn't wrong. Positive thinking seminars aren't wrong. (The Christian ought to be the most positive thinker in the world!). But walk carefully around such things. There are many snares. When Scripture is used in these meetings it is often quoted out of context and made to appear to say the opposite of what it actually says. By the standards of many success motivated people today, Jesus Himself would be a failure! Beware!
Clarence Darrow was a famous and accomplished criminal lawyer of another day. Among his friends was a young minister. That is rather strange because Darrow was also a noted atheist. The attorney and his minister friend were talking one day, reminiscing about their lives. He spoke to his friend about his career and the famous trials he had won. He spoke of his tremendous success and the comfortable fortune he had made as a result.
Darrow then asked his friend, "Would you like to know my favorite Bible verse?" "Certainly," said the minister, surprised that such a man would have a favorite Bible verse. Darrow continued, "You'll find it in Luke 5:5. It says, 'We've toiled all the night and have taken nothing.'" He continued, "In spite of my success, that verse seems to sum up the way I feel about life."
Success for the purpose of furthering God's cause is right. Success for the purpose of glorifying self is a dead end street.
OK. What were the results of this moving ahead of God in Moses' case? The whole thing blew up in his face!
(Read Acts 7:26-29a & Exodus 2:13-14)
His plan failed!
I ask you, was this failure outside the will of God?
It is quite common for us to think that if something succeeds, God is with us and is helping us. Does that mean, then, that if something fails, God is not with us or that we are outside His will?
Watch out! Failure is something that God can use to shape a person. This happens quite often in events described in Scripture. It is what was happening here with Moses. According to our New Testament, "ALL things work together for good. . ."
Let's look next at
III. The Results of Moses' Failure.
(Read Acts 7:29)
Exodus 2:15 tells us why Moses fled.
(Read Exodus 2:15)
Consider what has happened to Moses in the span of these few verses. He has gone from being a man of wealth, power, and prominence to a fugitive with a price on his head! How the mighty are fallen!
Moses had to flee because when he killed the Egyptian, he sided with Pharaoh's enemies. His chances for the throne were forever destroyed.
You have to give Moses an A+ for the stand he took. He certainly burned his bridges when he acted!
We get a bit more of the picture of what has happened from Hebrews 11.
(Read Heb. 11:24-27)
Whatever else may have happened, it is clear by these verses that Moses made a choice. Was that choice wrong? No. It's just that God had some more work to do on him and with Israel before He was ready to bring the people out of bondage.
Can you imagine the change of scenery as Moses flees from a land of sparkle and glitter, of gold images and magnificent palaces, into a terrain of hot, dry sand and scraggly little bushes? He literally flees for his life with the thickets tearing at his clothes, the sun beating down on him, and the sand filling his shoes - all the while with the torturing question in his mind, "What went wrong?" Then, perhaps later, as he thought more about it, the depth of his failure must have come down hard: "I can never again return to Egypt!" (At least he couldn't return there as the son of Pharaoh.)
Do you know what Moses named his first child, born by a woman he would marry while in the desert? He named him "Gershom." The name means "I am a wanderer if a strange land!" Moses had been a man with the most secure home in all Egypt. Now he became a man with no permanent place to lay his head. His failure took him from the top, all the way to the bottom.
Exodus 2:15 says that Moses fled into the land of Midian and sat down by a well. I can almost see him sitting there, flipping pebbles into the water and rehearsing it all over and over in his mind. "What went wrong? Where was God? Why did this happen?"
Sometimes when we make a stand for God, the blessings of that move don't come immediately. I have come to believe in my own life that often God tests us first to see if we really mean business. Perhaps that was the case of Moses, here.
I think it is most likely, though, that God had some rough edges to take off Moses' pride and self confidence. Remember that Stephen described him as "a man of power in words and deeds." I don't imagine he felt that way on the first night he spent in Midian!
Failure can come anyplace. In a marriage. In a business. In a ministry. In a friendship. It's a heart rending time. It can also be a time of great learning to the person who is paying attention. Perhaps a good approach to failure might be something like, "OK, Lord, you have my attention. Now what do you want me to learn?"
Some people don't look at failure that way, though. They brood, they get depressed. They quit believing in God. Failure can make a person bitter or better. It all depends upon the outlook.
You see, though Moses probably thought he was finished, God wasn't finished with him! You and I know that God would one day take Moses from the depths of failure to the pinnacle of success. By the time that happened, though, Moses would be a changed man. He would be a man capable of appreciating the power of God and reliance upon Him. He would be a man unsure of his own ability but absolutely confident of God.
More than 40 years later, this man Moses would stand with his back against the Red Sea, the Egyptian army thundering in to close the gap. Slaughter was eminent. Moses would raise his staff and say, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!" But not on this day when he sat beside the well. Today he saw only failure.
One of my favorite NT verses is I Peter 5:6 -
"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,"
There couldn't be a more appropriate verse to capsulize the message we get from Moses' failure!
Conclusion
Have you experienced a failure in your life? If so, what is your attitude? Can you say, "Now that you have my attention Lord, what do you want me to learn?"
Can you look forward to learning God's lesson so you can be really useful to Him? Will you be bitter or better?
Perhaps you are in the midst of what appears to be a failure right now? If so, how are you handling it? As you sit there, tossing pebbles into the well of your life, what are you thinking?
Perhaps failure looms in the future for you? How will you determine to handle it? Will it be a time of learning and reflection? Will it humble you to seek the will of God even more?
A young man failed in a business venture in 1831. He was defeated in a run for the legislature in 1832. He was elected to the legislature in '34. His sweetheart died in '35, he had a nervous breakdown in '36. He was defeated for speaker of the house in '38, defeated for elector in '40, defeated for congress in '43. He was elected to congress in '46, defeated for congress in '48, defeated for Senate in '50, defeated for Vice President in '56 and lost again for Senate in '58. When 1860 came, though, he was chosen to be the sixteenth President of the United States. The role of failure in the life of Abraham Lincoln? These are his words:
"That the Almighty directly intervenes in human affairs is one of the plainest statements in the Bible. I have had so many evidences of His direction, so many instances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own will that I have do doubt that what this power comes from above."
God knows what is best for you and me much better than we know it ourselves. He thinks in terms of eternity, not here and now. You will fail successfully when you trust Him and value the lessons you learn from failure as much as you would have valued success.
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
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