A cloud of witnesses

Imagine an automobile without gasoline, a composer without inspiration, or a scribe without the Holy Spirit. We all are familiar with Moses and his forty years in the desert and yet he was not alone, the LORD was with him, and he had a family. He was surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. The LORD was preparing him. His father-in-law was the priest of Midian. In Exodus 18:11, Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, declared Yahweh to be greater than all the gods. Moses was a Hebrew raised in Egyptian courts, who had probably never been exposed or inculcated with the knowledge or worship of Yahweh. The Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for four hundred years. Egyptian court life groomed him to be a scholar, a gentleman, a statesman, a soldier, but yet he was lacking in one thing, and he would have never gained it by remaining in Egyptian courts. He would have never learned how to live in communion with God.

Nevertheless, God had a plan for Moses, that the day would come when Moses would come to know Him intimately. God entered his world as a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn." So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Exodus 3:3 - 4 NKJV. Forty years in the desert, tending to sheep. His settlement in Midian would subsequently prepare him for hardship, for desert life, for shepherding, through solitude and contemplation, to converse with God. Moses' backyard was God's preparatory school for him. Moses' tent was the house of God. The worship of Yahweh ran in the family, Moses was surrounded by a cloud of His witnesses.

Akin to Moses, each of us has a cloud of witnesses. Now what am I talking about? Perhaps the lyrics from a song with the same title written by Mark Schultz, would shed some light on this:-

We watched them running down the aisles

Children's time Sunday morning

The preacher asked them who they loved

They all smiled and started pointing

To their mom, their dad, the teacher from their kindergarten class

Each and everyone

Has just become......

A cloud of witnesses that would see them through the years

Cheer them with a smile and pray them through the tears

A cloud of witnesses that would see them to the end

And shower them with love that never ends

A cloud of witnesses

That stuck together through the years

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV.

I fall sometimes, sometimes real hard. Two things that get me back on my feet and back on track, Jesus and a cloud of witnesses.

Shalom,
Sv ",+