God didn’t stutter. He was quite clear. After forty-years of utter silence, God plainly said to Moses, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt” (Acts 7:34). “Because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt”(Exodus 3:9–10).
In response to God’s mercy-filled invitation and clear directive, Moses offered up a series of five empty arguments.
Who am I? “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11).
Who are you? “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13).
What if? “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” (Exodus 4:1).
Why me? “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent—either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant—because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish” (Exodus 4:10).
Not me! “Please, Lord, send someone else” (Exodus 4:13).
Let’s look at Moses’s first objection.
Standing shoeless before the glorious presence of God in the un-burning bush, Moses heard the Divine proclamation. “I’ve heard My people’s desperate prayer for deliverance. I’m here to rescue My people and I’ve chosen you as My instrument of liberation. Go!”
“But Lord! Who am I? I’m a nobody! I’m just a runaway murder, a penniless old shepherd. I’m not your man!”
Notice that Moses is concentrated on his circumstances and not on God’s capacity.
God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called. His commands are His enablements. God never asks us to do anything without giving us the power to do it.
At the blazing bush, Moses’s faith was weak, but when he finally stepped out, God repeatedly demonstrated His sovereign strength, His providential power, His gracious guidance! Forty years later, at the age of one-hundred-twenty, Moses delivered his farewell address to Israel. “Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For the Lord your God is the one who will go with you; he will not leave you or abandon you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
Ready? Let’s go!
