신명기(Deu) 9장
24. 내가 너희를 알던 날부터 너희가 항상 여호와를 거역하여 왔느니라
24. You have been rebellious against the LORD ever since I have known you.
25. 그 때에 여호와께서 너희를 멸하겠다 하셨으므로 내가 여전히 사십 주 사십 야를 여호와 앞에 엎드리고
25. I lay prostrate before the LORD those forty days and forty nights because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
29. 그들은 주의 큰 능력과 펴신 팔로 인도하여 내신 주의 백성 곧 주의 기업이로소이다 하였노라
29. But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.”
Moses had been with the Israelites from Exodus until that moment like their father and he must have been playing the role of a great leader as well. He even threw away his position of an adopted son of Egyptian princess in order to save his mother's nation and he had been suffering from many challenges of being killed and deserted and even not eating nor drinking for 40 days and nights. And again he is now praying for their sins of obedience, including Aron, his brother's sin.
I could feel his love and mercy toward them through his prayer. Why should he have done like this? I mean, he must have been disappointed at their untrusted attitudes toward him and disobedience of His Word so many times for more than 40 years, about which he could do memorize well enough to comment all in detail.
He looks like a real (찐) leader with integrity and sincerity toward his people and His Lord, God, without expecting any rewards or honor from it, which is totally different from other leaders in history and modern societies, even though I can't tell so called all the leaders are the same.
These days, I have been struggling to worship in a small church nearby, volunteering as a key board player, but it seems like there are some happenings in here, which is hard for me to stand, so everytime I face them, I am thinking of stopping going there. Why should I go and suffer these kinds of worries and concerns?
Yet, I can't decide, and the reason I can't leave quickly is that I care for the church as the body of Jesus, and the brothers and sisters, who are weak in faith, and i think that they need my prayer so much. Actually, I am not a leader in there, but I feel like i am their spiritual father or mother, and they look like lost children or fatherless children who need the love of parents and parental education, though it sounds nonsense because they are all physically adults.
Anyway, I feel like I have got a lesson from Moses' prayer in love and I will try to do follow him as it is not my righteousness that I have got love from Him, but it is His mercy, patience, and love.
Father, i pray that churches only glorify Your name, and that Your children only honor You, proclaming what You have done to them and expecting what You will do through our lives and churches Let me humbly serve You, Lord, and love them, only for Your sake, and let me stand anything that is seemingly not right or rude. I eagerly seek Your wisdom and power that the Holy Spirit pours into me and my husband as well. I pray in my Savior Jesus name, amen.
