Exodus 7:7

God had not only to raise him up. He also had to train him, in one way or another, for eighty long years — first in the house of Pharaoh's daughter, then at the back of the desert. To our shallow thoughts this would seem an immense amount of time to devote to the education of a minister of God. But God's thoughts are not our thoughts. He knew the need of those forty years, twice over, in the preparation of His chosen vessel. When God educates, He educates in a way worthy of Himself and of His most holy service. He will not have a beginner do His work. The servant of Christ has many a lesson to learn in secret. There he undergoes many an exercise and passes through many a conflict. Only then is he qualified to act in public.

Perhaps by this time he thought he was past the age of being usable by God at all, for he was 80 years (Acts 7:30). But God knew that at 40 he was not ready, and that 80 is just the right time. God does not use a man because of his strength, but more likely because of his weakness.

Moses needed forty years at the back of the desert. They fitted him to lead God's people out of Egypt and through the wilderness. No doubt God used his education in Egypt to form the vessel for His service. But He needed those forty years to empty the vessel of what had filled it during its making.

Moses directly represented God before the king, and Aaron was to act as his "prophet," or spokesman. God is invisible, so Moses was to be His visible representative. Aaron was to speak and act under the direction of Moses, though in fact he was the elder. Once more we see how the first has to give place to the second.

At this point (v.6) we read that Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, and the record mentions no further complaints on their part. It also gives their age — Moses 80 years and Aaron 83. We may wonder at their physical energy at that age. Yet even when Moses was 120, "his eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated" (Deut. 34:7). It is Moses who wrote Psalm 90. That psalm tells us: "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away" (v. 10). But God made Moses himself a striking exception!

If we turn to Exodus 7, we are told that "Moses was eighty years old … when they spoke to Pharaoh" (v. 7). These eighty years of Moses agree with Stephen's account. Stephen says Moses was forty years old when it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. He then spent forty more years in Midian. This also fits perfectly with Exodus 2:11, 15 and 7:7. Stephen makes Moses' age one hundred and twenty years in total. Deuteronomy 31:2 and 34:7 also say he died at one hundred and twenty. Where is there any discrepancy?