Heroic Loser

He had been everyone’s favourite.

Not just the top of his class – he’d been the national champion.

Respected for both athleticism and intellectualism.

He had had what everyone wanted:

Popularity

Money

Influence

And a bright future

But he’d lost it all.

The job he now worked didn’t even show up on the corporate totem pole.

Long hours, difficult conditions, low pay and disrespect were what he earned at this job

How had he landed himself here?

His family hadn’t had life as easy as he had had it.

They were enslaved. They also worked long hours, in very stressful conditions. Their pay was even worse than his. And the disrespect they received was brutal.

He had tried to help them.

If anyone would have been able to help them it was him. With this thought, the luxuries and privileges that he had enjoyed had lost their importance to him.

He had planned. For years.

It was an ambitious plan.

In preparation, he had striven for every excellence and every advantage he could obtain. He had calculated the risks, and taken the necessary precautions.

As he launched the first step of his plan, one of his relatives – someone he was desperately trying to help – blew the whistle on him.

Almost instantly, his plans crashed to the ground.

He hadn’t been ready for his demise.

Nor had the world around him been ready.  From Royal favourite to hated exile – the story spread as only that quality of gossip could.

The bleating of sheep snaps Moses out of his memory and into reality. Their calls ring sharply with tones of ungrateful entitlement, but he has to respond. With a prayer that the God of his fathers will help him with his attitude one more time, Moses busies himself with his evening shepherd chores.

Moses hurries so that this evening he can take in the event that has become the highlight of his life. The distant flicker of a fire is a sign of something Moses doesn’t want to miss.

Finally the sheep rest happily. Moses runs toward the orange glow of the fire. Seating himself as quietly as possible to avoid interrupting the small crowd of listeners, Moses focuses his attention on the storyteller.

No one tells stories like this storyteller. Most storytellers build the heroes of their stories up in every possible way. Not this storyteller.

As the story progresses, Moses recognizes the pattern. The hero makes a mistake. A stupid one. He does things his way instead of God’s way. But God saves him when he calls on him. He shows him what to do. He blesses him and makes him a blessing. However, He didn’t save him from all the consequences of his mistakes. Instead, God uses these consequences to teach him.

“Does he always tell this type of story, or is it only when I’m here?” Moses questions to himself.

The storyteller knows Moses well. He used to be a distant relative. Now he’s a close relative. The storyteller is Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law.

Would you like to hear one of the stories that Jethro may have shared that night?

Abraham had a promise from God.

What was that promise?

A son.

Well, God had better hurry up and fulfill that promise soon, because Abraham was already 75 years old, and his wife Sarah was retirement age.

Abraham is so excited about the promise. Everyone notices the spring in his step and the joy on his face.

Abraham waits for the promise.

Nothing happens.

Maybe he’s doing something wrong. He and Sarah make sure that they’re eating lots of kale and broccoli, just in case nutrition is a factor.

Still nothing happens. The spring in Abraham’s step disappears.

Abraham waits 10 or 11 years.

How old is Abraham now?  85 or 86

Abraham and Sarah decided that God needs some help. They cheat a little to help God fulfill his promise.

Abraham gets a son!

Praise the Lord!?  Maybe?

Abraham is happy.

Everyone learns that Abraham’s God can keep His promise if He gets the help He needs.

13 years go by.

How old is Abraham now?

99

God tells Abraham that He will now fulfill His promise – to both Abraham and Sarah

Impossible!  When Abraham was almost too old, God could only give Abraham a son when Abraham helped Him cheat. Now Abraham and Sarah are way too old.

God reminds Abraham that He’s the Creator.

Eventually Abraham chooses to trust God fully.

God gives Abraham and Sarah the son of the promise.

What was his name?

Isaac

Everyone learns that Abraham’s God can do the impossible. He doesn’t need our help.

As Moses listens to Jethro’s story, he thinks back to the time when he tried to help God to rescue His family from slavery.

What a fail!

But God still would rescue his family, wouldn’t He?  Even without his help.

But did God still have a way for Moses to cooperate?

As Moses thanked God for the courage that He renewed in his heart through Jethro’s stories, he thought back to his relatives in Egypt. How badly they needed courage!

If only they could hear Jethro tell the familiar stories!..

And then it hit Moses. He could do something!

As soon as Moses could, he bought the best roll of papyrus that he could find, and the most durable ink. Moses used every spare moment he could find to write out Jethro’s stories.

Moses started at the beginning, showing that God didn’t need any help when He created the world.

Moses showed that God does expect us to cooperate with Him in some ways. If God asks us to build a giant ark, we’d better do so.

As Moses wrote, he saw evidence that God was helping him choose what to write. In fact, Moses was even able to write parts of the stories in beautiful poetry that would help listeners to remember them.

Moses finished his writing with the story of Joseph, whom God has delivered from two impossible situations: slavery and prison. He closed with the hope-inspiring request that Joseph had made: that Moses’ relatives would bring his bones to the promised land when they were freed from Egypt.

When Moses received confirmation that the stories he had written were in the hands his relatives in Egypt, he felt satisfied.

True, some would still say that he was a loser.

But He knew that God would deliver his relatives.

And he had done what he could.

The story now has a bunch of boring details that i know nothing about. Should we fast-forward?

Okay

The distant flicker of a fire is a sign of something Moses doesn’t want to miss.

Oops – must have been rewind.

But wait! Moses’ hair looks different!  He’s 80 years old!

Let’s keep reading and figure this out!

The distant flicker of a fire is a sign of something Moses doesn’t want to miss.

Wait!  What an unusual setting for a bonfire!

It was no ordinary fire.

And Jethro wasn’t the teacher.