When God appears in the burning bush, he sends Moses to bring the children of Israel out of the oppression of Egypt. (Exodus 3:10). Moses is deeply hesitant to do so, he asks “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? (Exodus 3:11) to which God gives what should really be assurance enough, “I will be with you. And this will be a sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain” (Exodus 3:12).
Moses then asks, “What shall I answer to them who ask 'What is the name of he who sends me'?” (Exodus 3:13) whereafter God reveals himself as “I AM WHO I AM” the name by which he shall be remembered for generations (Exodus 3:14) and speaks for another 6 verses about how the Israelite leaders will listen to him (Exodus 3:18), and how the Egyptian king shall not believe him, so he shall perform mighty acts to prove his power and thereafter he shall let the Israelites go. (Exodus 3:19-20). Moses then replies to this most holy monologue, in which God reveals himself by his name for the first time in history (indeed not even Abraham, Isaac or Jacob had this privilege (Exodus 56:3)) with the following shocking question, “What if they dont believe me or listen to me and say 'The LORD did not appear to you'?” (Exodus 4:1) With all due respect to this great man of God,had he not been listening to what God had just been saying???
But our Lord is indeed slow to anger, and abounding in love (Exodus 34:6) and responds to this qn by showing his miraculous power to Moses, turning his staff into a snake and back into a staff (Exodus 4:3) and turning his hand leperous, and back to normal (Exodus 4:6&7) and telling Moses “if they do not believe you or pay attention the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second” then advising him to take some water from the Nile and pour it on the ground where it will turn to blood (Exodus 4:8-9).
And what is Moses' reply to this display of power in response to his previous unbelief? “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.” (Exodus 4:10) The LORD continues in his amazing patience, replying in what is obvious, “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?” (Exodus 4:11) and then gives him the same assurance of his presence and help through this task that he begun with, which at this point should surely have been enough to convince this,our great Old Testament author “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say”. His response? “O LORD, please send someone else to do it.”(Exodus 4:13) Little wonder that the next verse says that the anger of the LORD burned against Moses, and he met him on his way and almost killed him (Exodus 4:24).
Now, interestingly, and this convinces me that some need to SEE the power of God to place their trust in him, after performing some HECTIC miraculous signs in Egypt, the Moses who leads the Israelites out of Egypt is a radically changed man. As they are chased by Pharoah and his army of his best horsemen, trapped between the Red Sea and the advancing enemy, the Israelites mourn, asking if they have been brought out to die in the desert because there weren't enough graves in Egypt, to which Moses replies one of the most oft-repeated phrases in all of the bible, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you, you need only be still.” (Exodus 14:13-14) What a transformed leader.
So conformed was this former doubter into the image of his master, and so thirsty was he for a greater experience of the LORD that he had the audacity to ask to see the glory of God, prefacing this breathtaking request with a display of his desire for his will, “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favour with you.”(Exodus 33:13) then in verse 18,“Now show me your glory!” God, the same God we serve, was so impressed by this request, fueled by this desire, that the next day, he proclaimed his name before Moses and caused all his goodness to pass before him. What a sight! This is the same God we serve today, the same God who may convict you as you read this to thirst after him as Moses did, the same God who wants our single-minded desire to be to see him in all his glorious goodness at the end of our days in worship.
I would be remiss to fail to mention one of the most challenging lessons from the life of Moses that tends to be overlooked. It touches on the matter of depression and its debilitating effect on the christian perspective, and the faithfulness of God to come to our aid when we are at our wits end. When the children of Israel grumble for the umpteenth time, tired of the manna they eat, and asking for meat,he asks of the LORD “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant?What have I done to displease you that you have put the burden of these people on me...I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now-if I have found favour in your eyes-and do not let me face my own ruin” (Numbers 11:11-15).
God empathises with this emotional turmoil of Moses and takes of the Spirit that is upon Moses and places it on 70 of the leaders that they may assist him in the work (Numbers 11:17). However, scope how the depression affects Moses' perspective, when God tells him that he shall provide meat for the people of Israel (Numbers 11:18), Moses once again regresses to his previous unbelief, “Here I am among 600 thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!' Would they have enough if flocks and herds were killed for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?” This, from the man who parted a sea through the working of the LORD. God's response is similar to his previous one at the flaming bush, “Is the arm of the LORD too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.” May we tattoo this statement onto our heads to look upon it every morning in the mirror so that we never doubt the promises and power of our LORD.
It seems this period of depression and unbelief doesn't fully depart from Moses, as at Meriba, where the waters were bitter, God tells Moses and Aaron “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron, gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so that they and their livestock can drink.”(Exodus 20:8) But look closely at Moses' wording and actions as he does this, “So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as he had commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, 'Listen, you rebels, must WE bring you water out of this rock?' Then Moses struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out and the community and the livestock drank”
Must WE bring you water out of this rock? And where in the command was he asked to strike the rock? Listen to the reaction of the LORD and the consequence of Moses's actions. “Because you did not trust me enough to honour ME enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I will give them.” (Exodus 20:12). Wow, I am SO challenged by this, how many times do I decline to declare the LORD as holy in my daily life, how many times do I shy away from honouring him to the world.
Moses, this man of the LORD, was declared faithful in all of God's house, more than any of the prophets, and God was pleased to talk with him face to face, without riddles(Numbers 12:6-8) but lets remember to learn from his mistakes, his pride and his folly, and let them convict us to strive for greater and greater holiness in pursuit and desire of the LORD in our lives.
Be blessed,
hUNJA
Wow, how am I just now seeing this a month later? Can you just let folks know when you post? LOL
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this. Praise God for His patience with us, when our vision is far too limited, our faith too weak, our memory too short, that we fail to realize the depth of His compassion, the completeness of His provision, and the perfection of His will. He is indeed slow to anger, abounding in love... may that love compel us to challenge ourselves, to grow in our faith, to take Him at His word and rest in His promises.