Judges or Deliverers?

"This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush" (Acts 7:35).

As we know, Moses failed in his first attempt to deliver the people of Israel. The cause of his failure is shown to us clearly – he rose up as a ruler and judge of his brothers, when God wanted to send him (as he did later) in the quality of a ruler and deliverer.

There is a big difference between being a judge and deliverer. In Moses that difference was very significant. When he tried to defend the Israelite from the hands of the Egyptian, he killed the Egyptian. Then, when he wanted to put peace between two Israelites that argued, Moses thought that his brothers understood that God would deliver them by his hands. His attitude was that of a prince that overpowers others, of him who thinks he is someone in his own eyes, not of a deliverer who wishes to alleviate their loads.

It's possible to have the wrong attitude when dealing with our brothers; yet, without a doubt, it's also possible to have the attitude of the judge. Nevertheless, God has not called us to judge. We make violence to their consciousness, we assume control of their lives, we decide for them, and we place heavy loads on their shoulders. But we must know that God never assigned us that mission.

God's desire is to remove their loads, deliver his people from the threatening finger, comfort the heartbroken, and break the yokes of sin. Moses had to wait forty years to understand this. He was not chosen to gain power over God's people but to serve them in love. He would have to be cleansed from the greatness in which he grew up, of his vain education, and of his many triumphs. He had to learn, in the desert, the work of a shepherd, how to care for the lost sheep, how to bandage the broken ones, and lead them to better pastures.

At present, there are many judges and few deliverers. The threatening finger of many is unstoppable, over the heads of the beloved ones of God, to demand gifts, to threaten them with the pains of hell if they are not faithful to them, if they do not respond with their particular expectations, and if they do not please their desires of greatness. There are many judges that want to make a name for themselves, create religious empires at the cost of the simple children of God; and then they will have to oppress them, frighten them and use them for their egoistic aims.

The Lord Jesus says: “The Son of Man did not come to be serve, but to serve, and to give his life in ransom for many” (Mat. 20:20). To be served, admired, honored and followed, is not the goal of the servants of God, but to serve all, so that all may receive from Christ the portion needed; to be channels through which the love of Christ, the grace of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be expressed and meet all their needs, especially of deliverance. That they may be free from fear and slavery. Free for God.

(Translation: Betsy Calvo, USA).