When Clara Barton saw the carnage of Antietam, she was moved to help dying men. This former schoolteacher and patent clerk became obsessed with the idea that "a man can have no greater need than to be saved from death." She pleaded for supplies and followed men into war at Fredericksburg, Charleston, and Fort Wagner. This noble woman moved toward the masses with hope and healing.
Moses also witnessed the carnage of men as he tried to half-lead and half-drive a stubborn people toward the Promised Land. Moses did not live to see his dream fulfilled. Nearing the end of his long life, he lifted his voice in a passionate plea: Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation. He prayed for a leader who would actualize his vision (Numbers 27:15-17). God answered that prayer and sent Joshua.
Our world has not learned its lessons from war, death, and faithlessness. Many still are wounded and dying without Christ. Jesus taught us to pray for men and women to be sent into the harvest. We need those who will march toward the dying with hope and healing. It is most appropriate that we follow Moses in praying that God send us men of vision and faith. It is still true that "a man has no greater need than to be saved from death."
“Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd.”
Numbers 27:16-17 KJV
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