| “He [God] said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob … Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:6, 10). |
| Here we have the important message that God had for Moses; it was now time for him to go back to Egypt, to face the new Pharaoh, and to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. But if you read the chapter carefully, you will find that now Moses makes every possible excuse not to go. Forty years before he was ready to go in his own natural strength, but now, after forty years of looking after sheep, he does not want to go, even when the Lord Himself calls him. |
| First of all, he says, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh?” (vs. 11). He did not feel like a very important person anymore. Then Moses wants to know what name he was to say, when the people might ask him who sent him. The Lord gave him a name suitable for God — “I AM THAT I AM” (vs. 14). Then Moses protested that the people would not believe that God had sent him. (Exodus 4:1). So the Lord graciously gave him two miraculous signs to show them. Then Moses said, “I am not eloquent” (Exodus 4:10), which means that he thought he could not speak well enough. Finally, Moses asked the Lord to send someone else — see Exodus 4:13. |
| All this is very sad, for when the Lord tells us to do something, He always gives us whatever we need to do it. He will give us the courage, the strength, the right words, the money, the help — whatever we need. But Moses once again was looking at himself, and not at the Lord. At last the Lord tells him that He will send his brother Aaron to speak for him, and Moses agrees to go. |
| In these incidents in the life of Moses, we see two main difficulties that we as Christians have in serving the Lord. Sometimes we are too eager to go out and do something in our own strength, and this usually happens when we are young. We saw that in Moses when he killed the Egyptian who was mistreating an Israelite. But now, when Moses is eighty years old, we find his doing the opposite — making all kinds of excuses why he should not go and deliver God’s people! It seems that he had become rather timid during his forty years of keeping sheep. Eventually he went, but the Lord became angry when he made so many excuses. It is important for us not to fall into either one of these ways of acting towards the Lord. Let us be ready to accept His training, but be ready to go when He calls us. |
