The story of Moses is commonplace among any Judeo-Christian society. Even if you’ve never opened a Bible, or caught a few minutes of Charlton Heston demanding Pharaoh to let his people go, the Exodus story is familiar.

While we can argue the archeological and historical evidence if such a story ever happened, there’s two very valuable lessons we can learn from it.

Quick summary—the Israelites are enslaved by Egypt, they cry for freedom, God hears their cry, appears to Moses in a burning bush, asks him to act as his messenger, Moses refuses then accepts, unleashes ten plagues on Egypt, frees the Israelites, parts the water, wanders the desert, receives the Commandments and dies before going into the promised land.

The first lesson is God didn’t enhance or equip Moses to accomplish this work. Moses was a poor speaker, had minimal leadership training and possessed basic shepherding tools.

Thus, he could not use what he did not have. His brother Aaron spoke for him and he used his shepherd staff as the conduit for God’s power.

Lesson 1: Use what you have and trust it’ll be enough.

The second lesson is what happens after the Israelites got their freedom. For so long, they cried for a release from their slavery and when it finally happened, you’d think it would be happily ever after.

Instead, at the first sign of trouble, they wanted to go back to Egypt. Being free and having to figure it out for themselves was too much for them to handle.

Lesson 2: How often do we run back to the our own familiar ways at the first sign of trouble?

The commitment to freedom, or a new way of life, means you’ll need to use the tools at your disposal and be willing to wander the desert for a long period of time before you finally get there.

Sometimes, we make this journey multiple times in our lives. But the trouble is always there and the signposts aren’t always clear.

However, the lessons have lasted for thousands of years because nothing about it has changed.