Frederick Brotherton Meyer born in 1847 in London, England had an illustrious career that spanned several decades. He received his education at Brighton College and Regent’s Park Baptist College; at the age of twenty- three, he accepted his first pastorate position. Upon his death in 1929, Mr. Meyer contributed 20 books including scripture biographies, sermons, and devotionals. Summary of Contents As an introduction to Moses’ journey of faith, Meyers gives the reader a description of the characteristics necessary for a man to be truly faithful to God.
These are a sense of helplessness, absolute assurance of being on God’s plan, entire consecration that He may work out his will through heart and life, the daily food of promise, and a daring to act on a faith that reckons absolutely on the faithfulness of God (Meyers 2). Meyers thought Moses an ordinary man, one that just happened to possess an extraordinary faith. The story that Meyers relates, begins with an account of Egyptian customs; the oppression of the Israelites being one of his main concerns. He gives insight into Moses’ birth; Amram knew from a dream that
Moses would deliver Israel from Egypt. Moses adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, learned the courtier society of Egypt, he grew in knowledge, while gaining the insight to be a spectacular leader. He possessed honor and diplomacy, always keeping in his heart the words his mother whispered into his ear as a child. He renounced his place in the royal court and insisted that he return to the people from which he came. This placed him in a precarious position, he turned his back on the Egyptians for the sake of honor; yet the Hebrews did not appreciate his actions, so he fled.
God called Moses with the sole purpose of liberating the Hebrews; Moses’ life prepared him for this mission of faith, yet he doubted God’s choice in him. Through Moses, God struck the Egyptians with plague after plague; the Pharaoh eventually bid the Hebrews to leave. The Hebrews left Egypt a weak people in need of spiritual and civil law; yet when Moses delivered them to the Promised Land they stood strong. Moses, due to his disobedience to God, never stepped foot into the Promised Land. He looked upon its beautiful sights as he lay on Mount Pisgah; God came himself to claim his faithful servant.
Critical Evaluation This book left me with a joyful feeling; troubled with doubts about God’s true will for my life, this book enabled a fresh new point of view. It renewed my confidence in making decisions; choosing to follow Christ is sometimes very confusing. What if making the wrong decisions denies the blessings the Lord intends, this book cleared my thoughts, and answered questions. “Unbelief never gets beyond the difficulties… it is always picturing them, dwelling on them; however, Faith, though it never minimizes the difficulties, looks them steadily in the face, turns from them; and ooks up into the face of God, and counts on Him” (170).
The book encourages a strong faith in God, the example being Moses and his family; if only we could have the faith of Moses, what would our lives be. Mr. Meyers definitely knew how to write an inspirational book based upon the true story of a great man’s life, his ability to use the story of Moses in such a way that it creates a need in the reader to strive for such a faith. The author used the biography of Moses to emphasize his character flaws; relating the message in a way that the reader thought of Moses as no more or less than himself. We make a profound mistake in attributing to Moses extraordinary qualities of courage, and strength of body or soul.
To do so is to miss the whole point of the reiterated teaching of Scripture; they were not different from ordinary men, except in their faith” (1). We saw in the book, the story of Moses unfold, born into a family of amazing faith; he died a man of amazing faith. A mystery surrounds the publication of Mr. Meyer’s books; the Library of Congress list more than sixty-five books yet the biographical sketch credits Mr. Meyer with only twenty books prior to his death. It appears hat the author penned many books, which remained unpublished until after his death, this book being one of them.
Mr. Meyer died in 1929 yet the publication date of Moses: the Journey of Faith dated 1954. This review however, includes a book printed in 2001 and contains revisions by AMG Publishers. The revisions include changes in content to make the text more clearly understood to modern readers, updated spelling, a change of some archaic terms, and some unusual forms of punctuation have been simplified (foreword). The only clue given to solve the mystery about when the author rote the book hides itself in the foreword. “Readers should note that the points of current history mentioned by Meyer are from the latter half of nineteenth-century England” (foreword).
Given the fact that the book includes revisions, the organization of ideas and content still rely upon the author for creative delivery. Mr. Meyer possessed the gift of truly eloquent speech; being able to tell a well-known story with unusual insight. His words roll off the tongue with ease, painting a spectacular portrait in the minds eye. An example of such exquisite imagery, “The sun rose as usual in a dull haze over the expanse f sand, or above the gaunt forms of the mountains, seamed and scarred” (27).
A repeating organizational feature of the book is the example of a faithful act by Moses; then an explanation of how this faith, if applied to our modern lives will bring about change. Even though the author wrote this book in the latter half of the nineteenth-century, amazingly the advice remains prudent. The author brings to life the characters in the story by relating the details of the everyday life of the Israelites; including their joys, their sorrows, their faith, and their transgressions.
The book would undoubtedly have a positive effect upon the readers; it relates a story of infinite faith. As Christians, our spirits all need rekindling from time to time; this book accomplishes that goal. It serves as a medium through which God can touch our lives and it provides a source of ideas by which we can become a God led person. One such idea, “And out of the whole story there comes to us this lesson: we must never suppose that the difficulties which confront us indicate that we are not on God’s path, and doing his work” (47).
These are the teachings that abound in this ook, resting on the frame of Moses’ poignant story. On the other hand, the book has a few negative instances; the author on occasion left the framework of the story and rambled on, causing the reader to forget the timeline of the story. The vocabulary used in the book may appear somewhat intimidating to a novice reader; it would be wise for a reader without adequate word knowledge to keep a dictionary near.
The book, Moses: the Journey of Faith, illustrates the necessity of a strong faith in God, and the great wonders that may transpire through that faithfulness. Many people fail to realize the importance of walking in aith; it would benefit them to read this book, follow it with meditation, and reread it, gleaning its words for any overlooked ideas. If only we fed upon the promise of God daily as Moses did, think of such greatness that God could place in each of us (cover).
Overall, this book would serve well those people who wanted to renew their faith with God or were simply interested in the life of Moses. This book lends itself to introspection at many points; a suggested pattern of reading would include moments of silence interspersed between the chapters for reflection on the thoughts and ideas, before continued reading.