Unknown…Yet Well Known: A Commentary on Moses’ Calling

“As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;” 2 Corinthians 6:9, KJV 1900

Within this chapter, the apostle Paul discusses the experiences of “ministers of God” who were living out their “callings” with an implicit contrast to others who were largely unaware of such similar difficulties and were simply striving for success and achievement without the inherent “purpose” seeking found in fulfilling a “calling.”

And one such paradoxical experience is “being unknown yet well known.” The desire to become “well known” is a common desire for it aligns very deeply with the Apostle John’s admonition in one of his letters to avoid seeking the “pride of life” (1 John 2:16 ). And restraining from this all too human desire to seek glory for ourselves while simultaneously embracing a “calling” is a tempting one but necessary. For “calling” at its core seeks to first bring glory to God and secondarily “service” to others as its ultimate “purpose.” (And perhaps the most helpful biblical personage to help us understand this notion of being “unknown” yet well known” is the “calling” of Moses.)

Like ministers or those labouring in their “calling” with a paradoxical lack of success or notoriety, the periods preceding it, often deepens “calling”‘and strengthens one within it. From every appearance (besides their very notable and public successes) Moses appears to be “unknown,” “poor,” “dying,” “chastened,” and a host of other things prior to his now more “well known” and well deserved reputations.

Yet even when he was “unknown”-The people constantly spoke of stoning Moses in spite of his many miracles and eventually unable to enter into the promised land owing to transgression–he was “rich” “alive” and “unkilled” during a lifetime of fulfilling his calling. This is called paradox which means a statement like “unknown but well known” may appear to be contradictory but in fact it reveals a deeper truth.

The parallel to Paul’s ministry was that Moses is more well known after his miracles and great leadership but that was at 80 years old when yet before that time he was relatively “unknown” as a leader in Egypt and as a “shepherd” in Midian. In spite of this, this period of being unknown proved to be used by God for Moses’ ministry even though when he was in Egypt and Midian he was despised in part by both Egyptians and Hebrews.

While the complete telling of Moses’ life can be found throughout the Bible, the book of Exodus provides perhaps the most biographical material pertaining to his “calling.” We are mostly familiar with his fleeing from Egypt at age 40, his “calling” at the burning bush at 80 and another subsequent 40 years of leading a trying and turbulent people which led to his passing at 120. Yet, it is within this first stage—his time in Egypt—that we come to appreciate the experience of being “unknown yet well known.”

While extremely significant—and this is putting it in the mildest terms—it is simply not true that all of his personal acquaintance with miracles, mature graces in character and deep humility were the only tools the Lord used as he followed his “calling” wherein he became “well known” throughout the ages as the king of Jeshurun, a prophet to Israel, the great lawgiver and scribe of the first 5 books of the Bible (the Pentateuch). The Lord also employed his personal experiences prior to this great “calling” when he was “unknown” in Egypt and Midian. For it was there where he led Egyptian armies in war as a young leader and in Midian where he became familiar with the rigors of living in the desert becoming familiar with the natural mysteries of the mountains, sea and desert. (We know this through the writings of Josephus.)

Yet in spite of this “unknown” pedigree of experiences—prior to receiving his “calling”—he is largely “well known” for the great miracles wrought by his hand in leading the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. What we find in the biography of Moses is what we often find in ourselves and our own experiences. God wastes nothing in both the “unknown” and “well known” individual experience when “calling” us-causing “all things to work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28