“This is your mission… should you choose to accept it.” When Moses met the LORD in the desert, he must have felt like one of those Mission Impossible agents. Go back to Egypt? Persuade his own people? Stand before Pharaoh, armed with nothing but a staff—against all the might of Egypt?
No wonder he asked, “Who am I?”
Despite being assured by the LORD of the burning bush that he would not be going alone, that God would be with him, in all the fulness of his uncreated being, Moses still has questions and concerns. And he is permitted to put them to the LORD, because he’s big enough for us to do that. He isn’t threatened by our misgivings and insecurities. You can dialogue with him. As our Father in heaven, he isn’t fazed by questions.
So Moses raises three concerns, beginning with the reception he might get from his own people: if they ask who sent me, what shall I say?1 The God who is speaking to Moses declares, “I AM who I AM”. He is not some local tribal deity but the eternal, ever-living, self-sustaining God. He is sending Moses back to Egypt. No commission could come with greater intensity or authority.
Ok, fine. But Moses is still not convinced. “What if they do not believe me?”2 What then?
What’s that in your hand, Moses? A staff. No, a snake! Now a staff again. Put your hand into your cloak and take it out—it’s leprous! Put it in and out again—it’s healed.
Signs. Signs of power and authority. The LORD who sends Moses has it all. He always has done. Moses need have no qualms about that. It’s just as Jesus told his disciples, his church: all authority in heaven and earth was his, so … Go into ALL the world.
The eternal God has said he is sending Moses and will work powerfully by signs and wonders to confirm his status as the LORD’s messenger. But Moses really doesn’t feel up to the task and raises his third concern:
Pardon your servant, 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.3
It sounds like he’s pointing to some kind of speech defect, albeit Acts 7:22 seems to deny such a suggestion. So maybe this is far more about Moses lacking confidence, perhaps because of all that had happened in the now-distant past of his younger days in Egypt.
And, truth be told, many of us have thought (and said) similar things when faced with God’s call on our lives. Not necessarily in terms of our speech but simply our fitness for certain tasks. Is that not a valid point to bring to the Lord, that we’re not equipped, we’re not experts, we’re just not able?
It would seem not. In response the LORD asks his own questions of Moses:
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?
Moses is well and truly skewered. The LORD’s response leaves no room for argument. If Moses is unfinished—if he’s incomplete —is that news to God? Can there be any aspect of his creaturely limitations that the LORD is not aware of?
Yes we lack confidence, yes we feel our weakness and frailty—rightly so; necessarily so—but nothing in all that is a surprise to God. He does not call us to follow Jesus and to offer our lives in service because he’s seen we’re superhuman, a cut above the rest. The whole of the Christian life, as well as its particular acts of service, is only possible by the sheer generosity of God and his habitation in our hearts. When Paul aims to encourage Timothy, he does so not by extolling his superior gifts but by urging him, “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”4 Elsewhere Paul makes it as plain as can be that “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”5
The one who calls will also enable our service, whatever its dimensions or difficulties, and despite all our foibles and weaknesses. All Moses’ concerns were couched in terms of him going to Pharaoh—a weak man up against the most powerful. It was all about ‘I’ and that’s a trap we can fall into. The LORD had promised he would be with him; the battle did not belong to Moses and it is not ours either. The LORD calls, sends, equips and authenticates. We can rest securely in that.
Well, it’s tempting to stop there but Moses actually speaks a fourth time. Finally, he pleads, bluntly: “O Lord, please send someone else.”6 And now the LORD is angry. Yes, we can ask our questions, voice our insecurities. But when we've received his promises, his help, his presence, to say “Send someone else”? That’s not doubt; it’s rebellion, even if its origin is fear.
Yet even here grace runs deeper. Moses isn’t abandoned. He isn’t cast off but accommodated: his brother Aaron is already on the way.
Is it time to breathe a sigh of relief, that we can argue our way out of something that feels far too hard for us? Not at all. It is never right to refuse God. It is never wise to anger him through unbelief. But when we do so, when we are faithless, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself.7
Chastened by mercy, may we, with all humility, pray and say, “What he says we will do; where he sends we will go. Never fear, only trust and obey.”8
Exodus 3:13
Exodus 4:1
Exodus 4:10
2 Timothy 2:1
2 Corinthians 4:7
Exodus 4:13
2 Timothy 2:13
From the hymn, When we walk with the Lord, by John H Sammis
Thank you Richard. So good to remind ourselves that Jesus knows all about my weakness and loves me just the same.
Thank you Richard.
1
Begone, unbelief,
My Savior is near,
And for my relief
Will surely appear;
By prayer let me wrestle,
And He will perform;
With Christ in the vessel,
I smile at the storm.
2
Though dark be my way,
Since He is my Guide,
’Tis mine to obey,
’Tis His to provide;
Though cisterns be broken,
And creatures all fail,
The word He hath spoken
Shall surely prevail.
3
His love, in time past,
Forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last
In trouble to sink:
Each sweet Ebenezer
I have in review
Confirms His good pleasure
To help me quite through.
4
Why should I complain
Of want or distress,
Temptation or pain?
He told me no less;
The heirs of salvation,
I know from His Word,
Through much tribulation
Must follow their Lord.
5
How bitter that cup
No heart can conceive,
Which He drank quite up,
That sinners might live!
His way was much rougher
And darker than mine;
Did Christ, my Lord, suffer,
And shall I repine?
6
Since all that I meet
Shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet,
The medicine, food;
Though painful at present,
’Twill cease before long,
And then, oh, how pleasant
The conqueror’s song!