Monday
Monday
The Call of Moses
The LORD said to Moses … “so now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Exodus 3:10
Being a fugitive from Pharaoh, Moses must have been apprehensive that his hiding place would be discovered. But at some point Pharaoh died (2:23). Hoping that a change of régime might mean a change of policy, the Israelite slaves increased their cries for help.
So the scene seemed to be set for a fresh commissioning of Moses. It happened near Mount Horeb (i.e., Mount Sinai). Here God spoke to him from within a burning bush. He had seen his people’s misery, he said. He had heard their groaning, he was concerned about their suffering, and so now he had come down to rescue them from Egypt, to bring them into the Promised Land and to do it through Moses.
How did Moses respond to the divine call? He had evidently learned his lesson during those forty years of humbling in the desert. Indeed, he had now swung too far in the opposite direction. He advanced five excuses. Did he feel unfit for the task? God would be with him. Would the Israelites question the identity of his God? He must announce him as the God of his fathers, Yahweh, the living and eternal God. What if the people did not listen or believe? Moses must use his staff to perform miracles and so authenticate his ministry. Fourthly, Moses insisted, he was slow of speech and lacked eloquence. But God responded that he was the creator of the mouth and would tell Moses what to say. When finally Moses blurted out, “Please send somebody else,” God was angry but also gave him his brother Aaron to be his mouthpiece.
It is always best to respond to God’s call neither with extreme self-confidence nor with complete self-doubt, but with humble trust in the living God who equips those he calls.
For further reading: Exodus 3:1–11