Exodus 4:1-17
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God responds to excuses with presence, power and preceding grace.
God’s call trumps our excuses
Intro – An Impossible Calling
Intro – An Impossible Calling
Did you know that what I am supposed to do on Sabbath morning is kind of ridiculous? I am supposed to stand up here and speak from the Word of God about you to you. More than that, the way this is supposed to work, when we approach the Word of God together, the very Word of God is communicated to you through me!
Now some may try to make that make sense by putting the Pastor on a pedestal, like we are a breed apart and therefore able to do this incredible holy thing. Not so, and most of you know me too well for that. There is one thing that makes it possible for me to stand up here, and I learned a new phrase for it this week:
God is with my mouth
Here is what I think: at every step in my sermon preparation, God is hijacking my eyes as I read, my mind as I reflect, my memory as I think back on my own experiences and education, my fingers as I type and then… at this last step… he hijacks my mouth and your ears… so that in the midst of all that I say, he speaks His Words.
God is with my mouth. God, please, be with my mouth!
Summary – Burning Bush, God’s Gigantic Plan
Summary – Burning Bush, God’s Gigantic Plan
We are continuing our series in Exodus, we are focusing on Exodus 4
Moses is standing before a bush engulfed in flame. In my imagination… this looks super cool. Then it starts talking… so Moses has some reason to be freaked out.
God calls Moses forward into this holy presence, and he begins to lay out his plan to deliver the people of God out of Egypt. And Moses has a critical role to play… and its pretty simple so far: He is to go and say.
In view of this Gigantic Plan, Moses is intimidated and afraid, and we will see, he makes a total of 5 excuses why he can’t do it.
Five Excuses
Five Excuses
First Excuse: Exodus 3:11-12a
First Excuse: Exodus 3:11-12a
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
Good question. Is Moses inherently ready or up to this task? No. He has been prepared in some special ways, but this plan is 99% God. And God responds in that line:
12 And God said, “I will be with you.
God responds with presence
Second Excuse: Exodus 3:13
Second Excuse: Exodus 3:13
Then Moses says, essentially, “Who are you?” in a roundabout way. It is like when I can’t remember someone’s name so I ask something like “How do you spell your first name?” B.O.B.
“So, when they ask who sent me… what is his name… what shall I tell them?”
God gives him a name… and it is a name of presence
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
God says “I AM.” I am the God who is, the God who always is, the God who is present, and the God who is everything you need.
Third Excuse: Exodus 4:1
Third Excuse: Exodus 4:1
Moses is not done with the excuses. In Exodus 4 we pick up with his 3rd excuse.
1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
What if they don’t believe me?
Well God had already promised in the previous chapter that the elders would believe him… but God show patient grace to Moses. He gives details about how this is going to work.
God responds with power. God gives Moses 3 go-to magic tricks. Well, they are miracles, not anything Moses is doing. That’s pretty obvious in the way Moses reacts.
Staff
Staff
The first miracle, God asks Moses what is in his hand. A staff. Moses throws it down, it turns in to a snake… and Moses flips out and runs away. I imagine the girlish scream. Grizzled 80-year old man flippin’ out.
Then he has to pick the snake back up (holy cow) and it turns back into a staff.
Hand
Hand
Then God has Moses put his hand in his coat and take it out… and it is “leprous like snow.” As in rotting flesh, death sentence skin disease. Moses might have run away again… but you can’t run away from your hand. Then he puts it back in and it’s healed. In, out, in, out, horrible crippling social-reject and dying, perfectly-fine.
Nile
Nile
The third miracle or power God gives Moses is to turn Nile water into blood. This has huge significance in Egyptian culture, but we will tackle that later.
Moses is worried about people believing him… and God gives him power. Three go-to miracles that it seems like Moses can bust out when needed. Very helpful.
Fourth Excuses: Exodus 4:10
Fourth Excuses: Exodus 4:10
But Moses is not yet done with excuses. He has power… he has presence… but He also is still afraid. He makes this excuse:
10 Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
Now much has been made of this verse to say that Moses had a speech impediment or some sort. There is no evidence in Scripture elsewhere to hint at this and much to the contrary. Remember Scripture called him (in Acts) a man “mighty in word and deed” when he was 40. He was trained and educated by the Egyptians and, throughout the rest of his life, he spoke and wrote and taught eloquently enough. Most likely this was, like his other excuses, more in the line of polite demurral.
Humility as politeness… and in fact his other excuses also fit this pattern. This is a feature of Near-Eastern culture and it crops up all over in the Bible.
True humility, polite cultural humility, or maybe even a real insecurity or disability, God responds with confidence:
11 The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
Who made you anyway? Who can take care of that? This guy.
“I will help you speak” is literally “I will be with your mouth.”
And I don’t know why, but I just love that phrase. It is so very specific, a great picture. Like God is reaching out and working my mouth around so the words come out right… maybe even if I don’t say them right… he’s just fixin’ stuff… he’s with my mouth.
Again this is presence. Moses lined up his excuses, and God knocks them down. Or rather, he answers them, quite patiently, showing great grace,
God answers Moses’ excuses with presence and power
Fifth Excuse: Exodus 4:13
Fifth Excuse: Exodus 4:13
But Moses isn’t done. If the other excuses were polite… this one isn’t
13 But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”
This is my favorite excuse. Because isn’t that the heart of it? “Just someone else.”
“But I don’t wanna!”
Somebody has to be better qualified, better educated, more prepared and more motivated than me! Send someone else!
And for some reason, this fifth excuse makes God angry.
Maybe five excuses was just too many. I kind of like that, like the patient father who answers again and again and then “Come on, five?”
Okay, but God doesn’t just run out of patience like me, something is different about this excuse. Most of these were about Moses doubting himself: why me? What do I say? They won’t believe! I can’t talk good.
But this last was a pretty forthright rejection of God’s call. And that is doubt in the caller. Faithless, especially after the promise of presence and the gift of power.
But what I find so interesting is what God says next.
14 Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.
Aaron was already on his way.
I don’t think God changed the whole plan here in response to Moses’ last fear. “Oh fine, I will use Aaron too. In fact, he could do like a priest thing, too, while he’s at it. In fact, now he’s the father and ancestor of all my priests from now on. Just because you’re being a jerk, Moses.”
No, Aaron was already on his way. Now I know how much easier a difficult thing can be to tackle when you have your brother alongside you. “Oh, my brother is doing this with me?” Suddenly the whole thing looks a lot easier.
That was a gift of grace. And it preceded Moses’ fear and excuses. Aaron was already on his way and, I believe, already a part of the plan.
So God responded to Moses’ excuses with presence, power and preceding grace.
God responded to Moses’ excuses with presence, power and preceding grace.
God’s call trumps excuses
Application: Moses – in the intersection of God’s Salvation
Application: Moses – in the intersection of God’s Salvation
Now this is all great for Moses. Moses was a part of God’s special plan of salvation for His people. Delivering them from slavery. God gave Moses specific blessing and words and power appropriate to his mission. What does that have to do with me?
I have never once thrown a stick on the ground and had it turn into a snake. I have thrown a stick at a snake, but that’s different, see? I have never put my hand in and out of my shirt: leprous, healed, sick, healed.
I have never been within 280 miles of the Nile river! (Yes, I looked it up)
But we do live in the intersection of God’s salvation to His people. In many ways, we are the intersection of God’s salvation to His people.
We live in the intersection of God’s plan to save the world
Which makes God’s call on me to love and speak to my neighbor… it makes that a burning bush situation.
I can line up all my excuses…
And God has already said He’ll be with me. Jesus says “I will be with you to the ends of the earth…”
And God has already said He will give me the power I need. Jesus says “You will do greater things than me…” and he gave us the Holy Spirit which empowered his own ministry.
And God has already said He will be with my mouth. The Holy Spirit will “teach us in all wisdom.”
And God has already provided the help, the brothers and sisters I need, to walk with me. Hello brothers and sisters.
And God’s last words to Moses
17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it.”
God has already answered our excuses: with presence, power and preceding grace.
Take up the staff, take up the call.
His Grace is Sufficient
His Grace is Sufficient
I could end there. But God has laid these final words on my heart for a reason this week. I just can’t get this out of my head… so God be with my mouth.
In a different situation in ministry, already in the midst of fulfilling his calling, but perhaps at risk of taking God’s presence and power for granted… or even thinking he, Paul, was responsible for the tremendous success of his ministry, Paul got this word from God. Paul was suffering from something, some pain, some thorn in the flesh, a torment, and he prayed that God would take it away… three times…
And God gives him these incredible words… I just can’t get enough of them this week.
He could have spoken these words to Moses.
I know He speaks these words to me…
2 Corinthians 12:9a
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Yeah, we have excuses, yes, we have weakness. Fantastic!
His grace is already there, preparing the hearts and minds of those you are called to love, serve, and speak to. That grace is sufficient.
His grace is already with you, power and presence, he is with your mouth. That grace is sufficient.
God’s call trumps your excuses. That grace is sufficient.
