Midweek meditation for April 6 on Exodus 3:1-4:17

Ex 3:1-4:17

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight — why the bush does not burn up."

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"

And Moses said, "Here I am."

5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey — the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

16 "Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites — a land flowing with milk and honey.'

18 "The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.' 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

21 "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

Exodus 4

4:1 Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?"

2 Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"

"A staff," he replied.

3 The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground."

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 "This," said the Lord, "is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has appeared to you."

6 Then the Lord said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.

7 "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

8 Then the Lord said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."

10 Moses said to the Lord, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."

11 The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

13 But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

14 Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."

NIV

In his book, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, Os Guinness reviews the theology of call and just what is involved when one is called of God.
Guinness describes the call of God as "the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do and everything we have is ... lived out as a response to his summons and service." There are two dimensions to the call of God, the first being our essential role as a disciple of Jesus, and the second being the call to function in the church and the world using the gifts God has given us. When we are faithful to these two callings, God is glorified.

Moses had an interesting life, saved by being placed in a basket on the Nile, plucked out by the Pharaoh’s daughter raised a prince in Pharaoh’s court, exiled by his own guilty conscious and now settled in a comfortable life as a shepherd far from Egypt and the worries and pressures of his people and the life of a prince.

He had many unique experiences and opportunities in his life.  He was educated, and brought up in the royal court.  He knew Pharaoh.  He was a hard worker, and knew about sheep now.  I imagine that he was pretty comfortable, settled in his life when we encounter him again in the desert having a conversation with God.

From the way the conversation is going I’m betting Moses wished he had walked right on by that burning bush.  Moses sees the bush and decides to go investigate.  When He gets closer God calls to Him and says I have job for you.  You are going to be the one to lead my people out of the hand of Pharaoh.

And I’m sure it is at this moment that Moses thinks, why couldn’t I just walk on by.  So Moses thinking very fast comes up with the excuse. “Who am I?  I’m no one I can’t go to Pharaoh he’ll say who is this yokel that is coming to demand the release of my slaves?”  Well he is only Pharaoh’s nephew is all.

But God says, “It doesn’t matter who you are it only matters that I will be with you.”

So Moses thinks fast again, “Well that’s all good and well but what if the Israelites and say you sent me and they ask, ‘What’s His name?”  Surely that will get me out of doing this task is what Moses is thinking.

But the Lord tells Moses His name.  And so Moses has to think again real fast because what it boils down too is Moses doesn’t really want to do this.  It is a disruption to his current life, it moves him out of his comfort zone.

So Moses says, “Well what if they don’t believe me?  I mean let’s face it I tell them you appeared to me in a burning bush that didn’t burn up and spoke to me and said your name is I Am, and that I’m to demand that Pharaoh set you free…There more likely to whisper to themselves who is this crazy old shepherd.”  And I’m sure Moses is thinking surely this will get me off the hook.  The Lord will see the logic of my thinking and the error of His ways.

And God says, “What’s in your hand?”

Moses is probably thinking okay where is this going cause if he knew he would have been tossing his staff as far away as he could to try and hide it and answered nothing.

But Moses is caught off guard and answers “A staff.”

So the Lord gives Moses not one but really 3 signs to convince the people.  He turns Moses’ staff into a snake and back into a staff, he gives Moses leprosy on his hand and takes it away and then he turns the water into blood.

So Moses has to think real fast again. And what does he use as an excuse next?  “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."   Yes we have just witnessed Moses’ slow speech and tongue repeatedly as he comes up with one excuse after another why he shouldn’t be the one.  And what happens?  God lets him off the hook…

Nope not at all God reminds, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." In short all Moses has to do is repeat what God says.  

But Moses won’t relent he has one more gambit to play the honesty gambit, the whiner gambit, “Lord I don’t want to please send someone else to do it.”

And what happens?  The Lord’s anger burns against Moses and He says, “what about your brother Aaron I know he can speak well and you will tell him what to say…”

God had called Moses and all of what Moses thought where good reasons for Moses not to do what the Lord was calling him and had equipped him to do were nothing but excuses and you know what Mr. Frost says about excuses…they are just like butt’s everyone has one and they all stink.

Remember Jonah?  He didn’t want to do what the Lord wanted him to do either.

Sometimes we are asked to do things by the Lord or by the Lord’s proxies, a friend, a spouse, a pastor, most often times it is something that we aren’t entirely comfortable with, but the Lord has prompted His proxies and told them that you have what it takes, or He has told you specifically that you have what it takes to do this for Him and His glory.

But like Moses we balk.  We think fast we come up with all kinds of excuses, I’m too busy, I don’t speak so well, I don’t know about technology, I don’t relate to this generation, I’m too old, too slow, too poor.  But the truth is if you can’t say the Lord doesn’t want me to do this then chances are it’s the devil whispering in your ear because the last thing he wants is for you to feel that you have what it takes, that the Lord can and will use you.  Because a well formed tool in the hands of a master can work marvels and when the Lord calls us to do something that is exactly what we are when we yield to His will.  Well formed tools in the hands of the Master.