Customer Reviews

Moses Great Lives Series: Volume 4

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was definitely for me! Moses, I believe, is one of Swindoll's finest works. There are so many lessons to be taken from the life of Moses, and Swindoll makes a pretty good attempt at fitting as many in one book as possible. One of the key messages I got from the book is the outline of what a great leader is. This book would certainly serve those in the ministry well.

Contrary to what the first reveiwer says, I believe "Moses" is excellent and consistent with Swindoll's other titles - warts and all. Indeed, since the Bible does not gloss over a person's sin, then why should books about Biblical characters overlook their flaws? We can learn important lessons from people's failures, specifically: how not to repeat them!

Among the important points Swindoll mentions in his book are:

1. God can use "losers" and "accidents" for His glory.
2. Let God operate His will in your life in His time and way.
3. There are no shortcuts to maturity.
4. God prefers to use broken people instead of the proud and self-sufficient.
5. Be willing to surrender every detail of your life under the authority of Jesus Christ.
6. We do not know how to live until we learn to die.
7. When we try to make things happen, things are forced. When God is in something, things flow smoothly.
8. You cannot scoff at God forever. His judgments may take time, but they are decisive when they happen!

Instead of belittling Swindoll's book, I much prefer to honestly anayze my Christian walk and be ever mindful that should I become too proud or self-sufficient, I stand to experience failures like Moses did.

Why should we always read the Bible or a Christian book with the intention of feeling better about ourselves? Sometimes we have to be convicted by the Holy Spirit before He does a great work in our lives. Indeed, two of the Holy Spirit's roles is to convict us of sin and to keep us from falling into sin. Before we can be used by God, He must first refine our character.

I highly recommend Swindoll's book - be honest in your walk with the Lord and always remember, He can work great things through us not because of ourselves, but in spite of ourselves - a perfect picture of His unmerited grace towards us!

Read the book and be challenged and encouraged!

This book was great. I really love how Charles Swindoll writes. I think that he does a amazing job at uncovering the real moses, whose not the strong bold Charlton Heston but really just a normal man, afraid to go before the Pharoh but must because he was commanded too. A man who made mistakes and had bad habits (like his anger) that he had to deal with. Chuck does a great job, I've also read the next one in the series Vol. 5 on Elijah which I think is even better (only because Elijah is one of my personal Heroes).

The only downfall for this book (Moses), is really the thing that makes it so amazing. Chuck has a nack for Illustrations and Quotes. He has the ability, I swear, to call up a personal story or a story he's heard to better explain the princibles he's trying to teach and although it's very inciteful, thought provoking and fun, I really think that he does this to much and the book is almost half his illustrations, almost a quater in Bible references, and really only a quater of him actually speaking. That may be a little exagerated but that's how it feels when I read his books.

BUT, this does not make this book or any other of his books a bad read, on the contrary, it makes it a really good read. I, personally, would like to hear more of Chuck then someone else.

This book is a great read and is great for anyone. I've read Elijah and it's just as good if not better and I'm about to read his on David (vo.1).

God's Peace,
Your Brother in Christ
-Brian

Swindoll's down to earth writing style coupled with this great Bible character really impacted my life. He brings out the good and bad in Moses' life (something we all struggle with), and gives an honest portrayal of God's plan being worked out in God's timing for God's greater purpose. If you struggle with accepting God's role of leadership, question God's chosen leaders in your life, or just enjoy a good character study, you will benefit from reading this book.

I have both this book and his study guide on Moses. I found these books to be instructional to me because God uses hard times of the school of experience to teach us things.
"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" (Heb. 12:7, NIV)
Further Paul says:
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest in righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Heb. 12:11, NIV)
Moses was miraculously delivered from a genocide against the male Hebrew babies living in Egypt when they were slaves. Moses exprienced the best of Egyptian life as he was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter.
But when Moses had felt sympathy for a fellow Hebrew who was being beaten by the cruel Egyptain slavedriver, he killed the man: and in so doing this the act backfired on him. He must have thought he was causing a revolution against the Egyptians, but instead found himself running for his life out of the country.
He was reduced to working as a shepherd in Midian. He married the priest's daughter and worked as a shepherd for him for 40 years!@
"Can you believe it? A man with advanced knowledge in hieroglyphics, science, literature, and military tactics was now eking out his existence on the backside of the desert, living with his father-in-law, raising a couple of boys and watching over little flocks of sheep."
There were groupings of 40 year periods of time in Moses'life-40 years in the Pharahoah's household, 40 years "living on the lam" in Midian and his 40 years leading the Hebrews throuth the desert to the land of Canann in the Exodus.
God wished to humble Moses, a former murderer and fugitive so as to make him into a suitable vessel or conduit of God's miraculous power which he would used in his confrontations with the Pharaoh and during the Exodus.
God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and sent him to his people and to the Pharaoh with the ultimatum LET MY PEOPLE GO! God worked mighty miracles through Moses and his brother Aaron to make the Pharaoh obey God. What I did notice was how at first the Pharaoh was conviced to obey God's command. Yet God himself with harden the Pharaoh's heart (make it hostile towards God and Moses again_ so that God had more moral justification to inflict more damage on Egypt. God had "stacked the deck" with Pharaoh, so to speak. Finally, it took the Destroying Angel killing all the firstborn of Egypt to make Pharaoh let his people go.
The last thing I found of interest in Chuck's study of the life of Moses was that when the Hebrews rebelled against God that God simply wanted to wipe them out and make Moses the new father of Israel. Then at Midian when Moses stuck the rock to make water gush from it instead of speaking to it, Moses disobeyed God and lost his right to enter Canaan. I think if I were in Moses' shoes I think I would have just let God wipe the whole ungrateful nation out!
Moses was the greatest prophet of the Bible, short of Jesus Christ, of couse.
What I like about some Chuck Swindol books is that you realize that the heroes of the Bible are some rough men who are at odds with society at times. Some have been to prison for their beliefs, too. Some have been executed for what they stood for. Some of the churches and teachings I have heard from some, make me think that the church in the suburbs is like some postive-thinking suburban girl's finishing school! That is sooo-unbiblical!

Swindoll takes references to Moses from both the Old and New Testaments and weaves them together with observations and reflections into a relational, nonacademic read that gives the reader a grip on not just what Moses did, but on who Moses was as a person--and how he became that person by God's grooming. Through his conversational, anecdotal style, Swindoll invites the reader to personally take note of and apply divine principles as fleshed out by Moses--for ex, total surrender to God's will and timing, enablement for service, challenges of opposition from without and within, standing alone with God, passing on the baton, etc.

I started reading this series when i was around 18-19 yrs old. I had read David, Ester, and Joseph. I loved them all so much i decided to buy the whole series as they were released but i never read them. I have waited some 7 yrs before i finally decided to read the book; this book is definitely for me. I am going through many of the things described in this book and i haven't finished it yet. It is a great worth taking the time to read. Many lessons to be learned from this book.

I received this book as a Christmas gift last year. Moses is the fifth book I have completed in Swindoll's nine book Great Lives from God's Word Series. I do not have any major criticisms of the book like the ones I found in Job: A Man of Heroic Endurance, but I do not plan to read any of the other books in the series in the near future. I will take a break from these easy-to-read biographical works and spend some time on more challenging books that have been on my reading list far too long.

Moses is like me, and Chuck Swindoll details in this book, how God accepts us 'Just as I Am'. How like Moses, He moulds us to the way He wants us, what a profound lesson. The text is clear and simple, bringing sometimes hard to understand Bible passages into everyday language and interlacing it with experiences that can only make you smile. This book is a must for those still trying to determine where they fit in God's big world and if they are quite good enough. Excellent, page turning reading.

Mother Theresa of Calcutta used that phrase to describe her work. Moses was a reflection of that statement.

You cannot outwit God. Herod tried to kill all the toddlers but Moses was saved by a warning in a dream. The Court of Egypt banished him into the desert but he returned to set the Israelites free. Pharoah's magicians tried to avert the 10 plagues but God's will won.

Moses was a pencil in the writing of Exodus. Christianity and Islam both acknowledge him for the great mission he played.

I agree with another reviewer, Michael Taylor, on whom God uses and why. God will use anyone and anything in his Divine plan.