May 26, 2024
Reading: Exodus 3:7-12
Focus: Exodus 3:11 – But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
Father God, it has been a great day. Thank You for all of its blessings. Help us to learn today who we are in You, In Jesus Name. Amen.
God has Moses full attention, and He is telling him that He has seen how His people are suffering in Egypt. God is coming to rescue them and Moses will be the one to lead them out of Egypt to the land promised to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Last week we saw Moses hiding his face from God at the burning bush. God had confirmed that He was the God of the patriarchs and had remembered His promises to them and to the Israelites. Now God was giving Moses his marching orders.
God had not, at that moment, just then decided to give Canaan to the Israelites. He had promised it to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob and his progeny. It was a promise that had finally come to be fulfilled but the Israelites had to leave Egypt first. Not only that, they had to be willing to leave. Remember they had been honored guests when they had arrived. Now, four hundred years later, they were crying out to God for deliverance from Egypt. A lot has happened in the last four hundred years. They had multiplied to the point that the Pharoah was concerned that they would rise up and conquer Egypt. They had multiplied, as we will see later, that they were about two million or more strong. That’s equal to the populations of Chicago, Illinois, or Houston, Texas. And God was telling Moses that he would be the one leading them out of Egypt.
God explains to Moses that He has seen the affliction of His people and heard their cries and He knows their sorrows. This tells Moses that God had not abandoned His people. He was aware of their circumstances and He had compassion for them. God had seen their affliction. They had cried out to God for deliverance and He had heard them. These people probably had no recourse for the treatment they were suffering but God had seen. He had seen their sorrows. The deaths of their sons and the oppression of themselves. God was aware of their troubles. In verse 7, God tells us that even the lowest of the low do not escape His attention when we cry out to Him.
God says that He has come down to deliver His people. Not that He is sending someone in His place, but that He, Himself, has come to deliver His people. This is not the deliverance by proxy, this is deliverance by the very Hand of God. Here we have another of the pictures of Jesus. Jesus came down to this earth to deliver us from the bondage of Satan. Emanuel, God with us, came to be our Deliverer. His life, death and resurrection breaks the chains of Satan and He leads us into eternal life. We simply have to believe and accept that Jesus is the Son of God, come to take away the sins of man. God would deliver His people.
Now God gives Moses his marching orders. Moses would go back to Egypt and ask Pharoah to let His people go. Moses was not being sent to just lead them out of Egypt, but he was sent to Pharoah as an ambassador of God. He was sent to the people as a prophet who was to give them the word of God and to lead them out of Egypt to the land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to all of the Israelites.
One would think that Moses would be ready to do God’s bidding. He knew that his people were suffering. He knew that he had run away after killing an overseer. He knew that he had a price on his head in Egypt. But he knew that now he was a nobody. A shepherd. The kind of person that the Egyptians despised. He was no longer a prince of Egypt, the son of the daughter of Pharoah. I mean, really. He had been gone for forty years. He could just see the reaction of both the Israelites and the Egyptians. And he voiced it in three words, “Who am I?”
Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Have you ever felt like that? Who am I to go to the boss and tell them . . . ? Who am I to get up in church and share . . . ? Who am I to lead a Sunday School class? Who am I to witness to a non-believer? Moses no longer had the confidence of a prince. He no longer had the status of a prince. He was a nobody. Forty years had passed since he had any influence with anyone. Now, who was he?
You will note that God did not answer that question. God said that He would be with him. God spoke those words to take Moses’ focus off of himself and to focus him on Himself. God didn’t tell him that he was a leader or a prince. God simply said, “I will be with you.” Focus on Me and I will go before you, I will lead you and I will make it happen. Then God have Moses this promise. “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” Not if, but when. Not might but shall.
How many times does God call to us and tell us that He has something for us to do. What do we do? Come up with reasons that we can’t. But is it can’? Or is it, won’t? What are our objections? I know that I have wondered if I am capable of continuing to write this blog. I often wonder do I have the knowledge, the words, the ability to get a point across. But then I remember that God led me through my college years to classes that prepared me for this. I remember that He told me to do this. I remember that He confirmed His directive, not once but three times. I know that I have said “I can’t do this.” but then have felt the Holy Spirit touch my concerns and they melt away. God has always given me the words to write, even when it seem difficult. When a blog has been completed and posted I have a sense of ‘Good job’ deep within.
Moses did not yet see that God could and would make it all happen.
Do you?
Father God, help us to respond with Here I am rather than Who am I. Help us to depend on You and Your presence in every task that You give us. Help us to have confidence in You rather than ourselves. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Food for Thought
- Why do you think that God waited for more than 400 years to bring the Israelites out of Egypt?
- If you had been one of those Israelites, what would you be thinking in light of the 400+ years?
- Why was it important that Moses knew that God has seen the suffering of the Israelites?
- What is your reaction to God’s directions in your life?
- How do you respond when God instructs you to do something that you think is beyond your capabilities and skills?
