- Responding to the Call of God
- Just Who Are You?
- Two Final Excuses
- No More Excuses
The Bible tells us that one day a man named Moses walked up on a bush that was on fire but didn’t burn up. Moses was a Hebrew who was raised as an Egyptian prince but had to flee the country because he murdered a man. God was in the bush, and he called Moses, despite Moses’s past, to lead God’s people out of slavery in Egypt.
Moses did what a lot of us do when God calls us to do something. He started offering excuses. The first thing Moses said to God was, “Who am I to do something enormous like that?” God’s answer to Moses was, “I will be with you.”
Then Moses offered another excuse by asking another question. He said, “Well that’s great that you’ll be with me, but who are you?”
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” (Exodus 3:13)
Moses was not asking God to show his ID. In the Old Testament, a person’s name had a much deeper meaning than it does today. A person’s name often said something about their character. Moses was asking God, “Can I trust you?”
God’s answer to Moses is one of the most profound passages in all of the Bible.
God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘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, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” (Exodus 3:14-15)
Who is it that is sending Moses to stand up to Pharaoh? God reveals his name as Yahweh, which is a Hebrew word built on the Hebrew verb “I am.” Our God, Yahweh, never had a beginning. There was nothing before God. There was never a time before God. At the same time, God has no end. God will always be. There will never be a time without God.
God is absolutely independent; there is nothing that he needs. On the other hand, everything that is not God is completely dependent on God. God cannot improve, because he is perfect. He is all-powerful, and he is in complete and absolute control of every part of his creation at all times. He has a plan and purpose that cannot and will not fail.
All of those things and more were revealed to Moses when God said, “Tell them ‘I am’ has sent you.” God was saying, “I have always been, I will always be, I am all that you need, and you can trust me.”
Whatever it is that God is calling you to do, you can trust him. Whatever he’s called you to do, he’ll empower you to do.
But that wasn’t enough for Moses. Even after understanding who God is and what he’s like, Moses had another question, another excuse — “What if they won’t believe me?”
Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” (Exodus 4:1)
God had already told Moses that the leaders of Israel would believe him (3:18), and he’d told Moses that the people of Egypt will be “favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed” (3:21). The Exodus is going to happen, but Moses still has serious doubts.
God responded by saying, “Trust me to use your resources to do what I’m calling you to do.”
One of the things Moses had was a shepherd’s staff. He was a shepherd, after all. In 4:2-4, God told Moses to throw down his staff. When Moses did, the staff turned into a snake. The Bible says, “he ran from it.” I think that’s an understatement. I don’t know about you, but if I threw down a walking cane and it turned into a snake, I’d be hauling myself past the next village.
When I was a teenager, my dog was agitated, sniffing at something in our garage. Thinking she smelled a mouse, I was opening the drawers in my dad’s tool cabinet, with my dog at my feet with one paw resting on my foot. And then I noticed my dog on the other side of the garage. I slowly looked down, and sitting on my foot was a 10-inch rat. I screamed and ran through the yards of two neighbors and into the third. I like to think that Moses had the same experience.
Then God told Moses to pick up the snake by the tail. I think I’d rather stand in front of Pharaoh. I’m not in the habit of picking up any snake by any part of his anatomy, but I have enough brains to know that picking up a snake by its tail is an invitation to get bitten. Moses, though, summoned up enough faith and courage, and he picked up the snake by the tail, and the snake turned back into his staff. Moses learned a little more about trusting God.
God was telling Moses that He could use the simple things in Moses’s life to make anything happen, including making Pharaoh listen to Moses.
Then, God gave Moses another demonstration of his great power. God told Moses to put his hand inside his robe. When Moses took his hand out, it was diseased. He put his hand back into his robe again, and when he pulled it out, it was healthy again.
I believe God was telling Moses, “I know you don’t think they’ll believe you, but you have to trust me to use my power in your life.”
When God calls you to do something, God’s power will make all the difference. He’s all-powerful, and all of that power will be available to you. He will do through you what you could never do on your own. He’ll use the resources he’s given you to overcome any problem you face. He will accomplish his purpose.
But knowing all of that still wasn’t enough for Moses, and it may not be enough for us. Moses still has some really good excuses for why God chose the wrong person for this job…