(Heb. 11:23-29) The Jews trace their beginning back to a man by the name of Abraham. Abraham, in obedience to God, left home and extended family to go to a new land that God would show him.
Abraham had a son named Isaac. Isaac had a son named Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons. One of them, Joseph, of the coat of many colors fame, was sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers.
Joseph rose to a position of power and prominence in the court of Pharaoh where he was put in charge of all the food in the land during a time of terrible famine.
His family, who didn’t know about Joseph, came to Egypt seeking food. And because of Joseph’s position, eventually the whole gang came to live in Egypt—prospering and living in Egypt.
Hundreds of years later, there arose a Pharaoh who didn’t know about Joseph and all he did to save the country. To this Pharaoh Joseph’s people were just taking up space and using up resources, so he made them slaves in Egypt.
Moses was born into slavery. You know the story. The Pharaoh decreed that all the male Hebrew babies would be killed. In order to save him, Moses' mother put him in a basket and hid him in the rushes in the river.
Pharaoh’s own daughter found Moses and raised him as her own son. He didn’t have any ordinary upbringing. Moses was raised with the silver spoon of royalty in his mouth.
He was a prince. He was raised with the best and the brightest of Egyptian society. He was raised as Pharaoh’s son. He had more money than he could ever spend. He had more power than he could ever wield. He had prestige—he had recognition. The world was at his fingertips.
Then something happed when he was 40-years-old. Have you noticed how often strange things happen to guys when they’re around 40 years of age? Mid-life crisis some call it. I call it mid-life stupidity.
Moses never forgot that he, too, was a Hebrew. When he was about 40 years old, he decided to see what was up with the Hebrew slaves. On his own he decided it was time to rescue the Hebrews.
He saw one being mistreated by an Egyptian so he killed the Egyptian. What a miscalculation. God hadn’t told him to do that. Killing the Egyptian wasn’t the miscalculation. That was a sin.
His miscalculation was in supposing that his fellow Hebrews would throw him a parade and welcome him as their great liberator. Watch out when you start supposing. Moses supposed wrong.
Moses became a wanted man—a murderer. When Pharaoh heard of it, he tried to kill Moses. Moses fled into the wilderness. Rejected by the Egyptians, rejected by the Hebrews. No one seemed to want him.
Moses had too much Egyptian in him. He had enough Egyptian knowledge—but he didn’t have enough God knowledge. He had enough Egyptian power—but he didn’t have enough God power. He was 40 years old, but he wasn’t mature yet.
There’s not time to tell the entire story. It wasn’t God’s time to deliver the Hebrew people. So Moses became a lowly shepherd in the land of Midian. He got a wife and started a family.
One day, when he was 80 years old and tending the sheep of his father-in-law one of the strangest things happened to Moses—the burning bush.
Exodus 3:1 - 6 (NIV) 1Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
God introduces Himself via an unnatural phenomenon: a fiery bush that does not burn up. Moses properly hides his face, afraid to look, as God announces the mission:
Exodus 3:7-8, 10. “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8So I have come down to rescue them…10So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Verse 8, who’s going to rescue the Hebrews? God! Verse 10, who’s God going to use as His spokesman? Moses!
God had not forgotten His covenant with Abraham. He now handpicks a man with the perfect resume for this crucial assignment. Moses had spent half his life learning leadership skills from the ruling empire of the day.
And he had spent the other half of his life learning wilderness survival skills when he fled the murder rap. Who better to lead a tribe of freed slaves through the wilderness to the Promised Land?
God knew that, but Moses didn’t. From the start Moses argued with God. For the rest of chapter 3 and to 4:17, Moses made excuse after excuse as to why he couldn’t do as God requested. Here’s what Moses argued: o 3:11. “Who am I? I’m a nobody.” o 3:13. “Why would anyone listen to me?” o 4:1. “What if no one believes me?” o 4:10. “I’m a poor talker.” o 4:13. “Someone else can do it better than me.”
For the rest of this message think about what you are doing with what God has entrusted you. What kind of excuses are you making?
“Who am I? I’m nobody. I’m slow of speech. Someone else can do a better job.” Even with all the Egyptian education and training, Moses had been on the back side of nowhere for 40 years. I didn’t enter his mind that he was better educated than any of his people, the Hebrews.
His assessment of himself found him wanting. He also had 40 years to feel sorry for himself. He was an 80-year old has-been, and a murderer. How could God use someone like him? “You know what, God, I’ve already blown it. I’m inadequate. I’m too big a sinner.”
Besides, who would listen to him? He’d been gone for forty years. People would not listen to him, and if they did, they wouldn’t believe him. And he wasn’t a good talker. Moses, like us, was a good rationalizer.
God’s call comes at a very inconvenient time for Moses. He’s been a shepherd for 40 years—He’s married—He’s got a kid. Moses is a family man trying to earn a living and raise his family, plan for retirement.
Moses is basically saying, “You know this is not a great time for a career change, God. I’ve been doing this shepherd thing for awhile. Maybe if I were younger, being a deliverer would have been a good idea.”
(or, “It’s too hard.” or “Someone else can do it better.”) What God is asking is going to be difficult, and Moses knows it. It’s going to cost him something, and he doesn’t mind complaining about it to God. “God, I’m just one little person. I can’t go up against Pharaoh.” In other words he’s saying, “Hey, I might get hurt you know.”
Or, “My very own people might not believe me.” This was a real possibility. In other words Moses is saying, “I might get rejected.” You know what Moses is suffering from? All the “what ifs?”
It’s really over-anticipation of all the possible costs, at all the “what ifs, and at himself, he comes up short every time—what if Pharaoh does this or what if my people reject me? What if something goes wrong? What if they don’t like my talk? What if nobody shows up? What if they don’t like me?
We resist serving God because we look at all the possible costs. But, God doesn’t call us to be trouble-shooters. He simply calls us to be servants. Jesus simply said to us, “Go!”
Over and over Moses has been saying, “Who am I to do all this you are asking?” God responds, Exodus 3:14. “I Am Who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I Am has sent me to you.” What does this mean?
Let me tell you what I think is happening. Moses keeps asking, “Who am I to deliver Israel?” Who am I to confront Pharaoh?” “Who am I to speak to the people?” And God responds, “I Am.” God takes the focus off Moses. “Moses, the focus is not you. The focus is what God is going to do.
Like so many of us when God asks us to do something. All we think about is ourselves. We are very self-centered. God reaffirms that He is God, He is alive, He is active, He is Moses’ source of power. Moses isn’t going to do this on his own (remember 3:8).
When God tells you to do something, the issue is not who you are or your abilities or inabilities or your perceived shortcomings. The issue is, “Who is the great ‘I Am’?” that goes with us.
It is God. God goes with us. It is the same God who became active and real in the flesh of Jesus Christ. It is the same God whose Spirit dwells in us, and who will never leave nor forsake us.
The truth is, we are never qualified to do the things that God calls us to do. But God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called. We are not to look at ourselves and ask, “Who am I?” It’s not about us. It’s about God.
. Exodus 4:2. “Then the Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?” This is a powerful question for each of us. The only thing in Moses’ hand was a stick—a simple shepherd’s staff—a common, ordinary, everyday thing.
But it’s that ordinary shepherd’s staff that’s going to part the Red Sea and draw water from a rock. It’s an ordinary thing, but with God it becomes extraordinary. Think about all it represents:
This is just an ordinary skill that God used to lead his people through the wilderness for 40 more years.
Again, an ordinary skill until you remember that sheep are kind of slow and stupid and stubborn and ignorant and frightened. Probably not bad training to lead people through a wilderness—we can certainly sometimes be slow and ignorant and frightened.
As a prince of Egypt he held a scepter in his hand. But then he murdered someone, and now he holds a shepherd’s staff. It represents failure. But God is going to turn that staff to represent leadership and victory and deliverance.
What do You Have to Offer? Are you just an ordinary person with little to offer? Great! You are just who God can use. With God the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
You have life experiences, joys and pains that can minister to others. God can use you.
Your failures are lessons learned that you can share with other people. Your moral assets can be an inspiration. Are you using them for God?
What’s in your hand? You might be thinking right now, “Okay, so my excuses are not so valid. And yes, I know that God, the great I Am will go with me when I serve. But I have one last question: Is it worth it?”
That’s a good question. Is it worth it to serve God? I’m sure Moses must have asked that over and over because from here on out his life got pretty complicated. He’s going to confront the most powerful person in the world.
He’s going to lead a stubborn people through a wilderness for 40 years and listen to them whine and complain (“We don’t have enough food. Where’s the water? We want to go back to Egypt.”)
Moses could have said to them, “Find your own Promised Land.” Did you know that he didn’t even get to go into the Promised Land? God let him see it, but that was all.
Was it worth it? If Moses were here today he would tell us just how it was worth it. I think he would have said, “I can’t believe I argued with God. I can’t believe how close I came to missing out.”
“If only I could tell you what it was like to see the Red Sea part?” “I wouldn’t trade anything for the experience of coming down Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments in my hands, my face beaming with the glory of the Lord?”
Whatever Moses gave up, he gained a whole lot more. He gained a deeper experience of God and of God’s power. And really, that’s all that matters.
What about you? Are you willing to serve? Not all are called to be pastors—it would be a really weird world if we were. But all of us are called to serve somewhere.
Where is it for you? Examine your reasons for not serving. See them for what they really are—Excuses. When God calls you what do you have to lose? What do you have to gain? God can and will use you. He will bless you and other people and show how real and alive He really is.