Greetings again my Brethren. I do not know about you my friend, but every time God asks me to go somewhere or do something I am not so ready to respond. Sometimes like Moses God must get my attention that I may know it is God and not me with a good idea and so that I will buy in to what God wants me to do or the place where He wants me to go. You know we read about these great spiritual men and women in the Bible and often think they are above the same feelings, disappointments, and temptations, but in reality they were no different than we are. They hurt like us, they cried like us, they felt pain and heartache as we do, and yes we like them have excuses for everything we do not want to do, even for God. Moses was just like us. When God shared with Moses His plan to deliver the Children of Israel from Egypt Moses questioned God’s choice as to whom the leader of the band should be. “And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12 And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.” (Exodus3:11-12) Now at first read you would think Moses was just being humble, but if you take another read and then read on into the 4th Chapter of Exodus you find Moses is full of excuses and reasons why he thinks he is not qualified. Well Moses was right he was not qualified he will never be good enough (nor will we) to do what the LORD wanted him to do that was not the issue. The issue was God called him not based on His qualifications, abilities, or talents, but on God’s good pleasure. If you really take a good look Moses was chosen because of his lack of qualifications, talents, and abilities even though he was a mighty man of war and leadership. John tells us in the book of Revelations, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Revelation 4:11) That is right those “all things” include man and God’s plan for each and every man’s and woman’s life. God chose Moses to be the deliver because it was God’s plan for his life and now it was Moses choice to accept or reject God’s call. Yes Moses was full of questions, but God had answers for each question. Moses asked, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh” and God ignored his question, but gave him something better than an answer a promise that no matter what happens, “Certainly I will be with thee” He (the Almighty God of the universe) will be with him. So to in our lives when God calls us into service He will not leave us nor forsake us. He said, “Certainly I will be with thee.” If you cannot hear His call then you will not be able to hear His promise, but His promise rings loud in our ears, even louder than His call. Well Moses’ lack of qualifications did not work so Moses changes tactics and tries an end run, “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” (Exodus 3:13-14) Now this is big. In the Jewish tradition knowing some ones name gives them power over the person they are talking with. We today say what is in a name, well to a Jew the name tells everything about a person. The name tells what tribe they are from, who their father is, where they are in the social fabric of the local society, and with all of this information you can form an opinion to who this person is and more important is this person an enemy or a possible ally. This is what Moses was doing when he asked God, “What is his name? what shall I say unto them?” Looking for information so that he can hold power over God, well God (knowing the Jews customs and ways) wanted nothing to do with that and relied, “I AM THAT I AM. I cannot begin to tell you the number of sermons I have heard on these five words . . . well I guess I will not go in to all of that. Moses was doing the same thing as he questioned God’s qualifications for him here in these verses he questioned God’s knowledge of whether Moses had the subject matter to be the deliver for the Jewish people. This Moses (even though Jewish) raised in the lap of luxury, in the hall of Pharaoh, living a life of privilege, but who is his father? What tribe does he come from? Again God ignores Moses approaches and answers him with an unconventional response, “I AM THAT I AM: ” His name did not matter, but what mattered was Moses was to tell the people, ” I AM hath sent me unto you.” That was an issue of clear obedience cut and dry. When God speaks to us let us not look for the deep spiritual truth, but hold to God’s simplicity in all we do.
Next month we will continue to look at how Moses a “nobody” raises two more objections to his call each of which God has a reply. What is in our heart to object when God calls. Listen closely my friend do you hear Him call now?
