I’ve been reading Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, by John Bunyan.  Bunyan talks about the greatness of Christ’s forbearance, meekness and love to his people as he without end bears the burden of our continued provocation and sin against us.  Bunyan says, “Were we but capable of seeing how this Lord Jesus has been tried even by his people, ever since there was one of them in the world, we should be amazed at his patience and gentle behaviour to them.”[1]

Bunyan goes on to show that Christ’s gentleness and patience is beyond the scope of anything that a mere human could hope to exercise towards a people that God had given him.  He shows us that even Moses that greatest of prophets was incapable.  Bunyan says, 

God did once give Moses, as Christ’s servant, a handful of his people, to carry them in his bosom, but no further than from Egypt to Canaan.  And this Moses, as is said of him by the Holy Ghost, was the meekest man that was then to be found in the earth.  Yes, and he loved the people at a very great rate; yet neither would his meekness nor love hold out in this work.  He failed and grew passionate, even to the provoking of his God to anger under this work. ‘And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant?’ But what was the affliction? Why, the Lord had said to him, ‘Carry this people in thy bosom as a nursing father beareth the suckling child, unto the land which I swore unto their fathers.’ And how then? Not I, says Moses, ‘I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.  If thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand…and let me not see my wretchedness’.[2]

We can learn two things, at least, from this comparison of Christ and Moses. First, the love of Christ for us is indeed great, beyond anything we can imagine.  The Lord, is indeed pitiful, slow to anger, and of great mercy. Not only is it great beyond our imagining, but is something so great that no mere man could give it to us.  It is only the Divine God/Man who can love us and forbear towards us in this way.  We should thank God daily for the gift of so great a Savior.  Second, for those of us who God has called to be under-shepherds of Christ in leading his flock, we must recognize our inability to love and care for God’s people as we are called.  It is only in the power of Christ the great Shepherd that we are able to love God’s elect, and then only imperfectly.  We must flee to the Father in humility seeking his help and power to love his people.  None of us can match Moses and even he was not equal to this task.