June 30, 2024
Reading: Exodus 4:1-16
Focus: Exodus 4:11-12 – The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
Father God, Thank You for all the blessings You give us. Help us to know that if You send us, You will equip us with what we need to do the job. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Moses has been given his marching orders. He KNOWS that God, Himself, has told him what he will accomplish. BUT Moses begins to overthink the whole situation. He starts off asking “What if . . .” That is a dangerous train of thought. I don’t know about you, but I ask “what if” a lot. What if no one reads the blog? What if I say the wrong thing? What if . . . Have you ever felt that way? Are you feeling that way? Moses has spent 40 years in the desert rethinking his rash decision to kill the Egyptian that was beating an Israelite. Rethinking his place in the universe. Realizing that he is an insignificant shepherd in the desert mountains. Then God tells him he is to lead a whole nation out of one of the most powerful nations of the known world.
How easy is it to overthink things? When a situation in your life comes up that is kind of out of the box, it’s so easy to think what if . . . I fail . . . I cause more problems than I fix . . . I can’t make people understand what I’m trying to do. I know I do. When I look at the test results before I speak to the doctor, my mind runs all over the place. Is it cancer? Is it something else? What happens now? What am I going to do if . . .? My brain is a very imaginative place. I can think of a million scenarios, most of them bad. So, here is Moses. He is overthinking. In doing so, he doesn’t take into account that God is in control. When God tells you that you are to do a particular thing, we need to remember that we will not be alone. God is there. He will provide all that we need.
Moses’ first question is, “What if they don’t believe me?” Fair enough. That is a possibility. God knew that and He already had a solution to that question. “What is that in your hand?” Pay attention here. God did not say, “Here is something special for you to use.” No, He used the staff that Moses used, on a daily basis, while herding his flock. That staff was a sturdy wooden stick and probably about six feet long, or possible longer. The traditional shepherd’s staff has a crook at one end to be used when rescuing sheep from precarious places or nudging them into the right direction. It was a common item. Nothing special about it . . . until God used it.
God tells Moses to throw the staff on the ground. Moses did . . . and it turned into a snake! And Moses put distance between that snake and himself. Wise man. Now, there are a few snakes in the deserts of Arabia. The sand cobra and a number of vipers. None of which you would be inclined to keep as a pet. Not that any snake is a pet that I would even think of having. Anyway, let’s just say that the snake was probably one that you wouldn’t want to meet on a narrow trail between two rock walls. No wonder Moses ran from it. Then God told Moses to pick it up by the tail. (Sorry, guys, I’m not getting anywhere near that thing.) I can’t imagine what was going through Moses’ mind, but he did it! He picked it up by the tail and it was his staff again. God told him, “This is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has appeared to you.”
Then, God told Moses to put his hand inside his cloak. He did and when he took it out, it was covered with leprosy. In those days, leprosy was incurable and contagious. Those who contracted the disease were thrown out of the towns and cities and had to live away from people. It was a painful, disfiguring disease. Moses had to be terrified. Then God instructed him to place his hand into his cloak again. When he brought it out this time, there was no trace of the disease. God said that if they didn’t believe the first sign, they may believe the second. Then God gave Moses a third sign in the event that the elders were still stubborn enough to need more convincing. He was to take water from the Nile and pour it out onto the ground, and it would turn into blood. So, now Moses had tools to use.
But Moses was still trying to find a reason that he wasn’t the man God thought he was. He tells God that he wasn’t a good public speaker and that he was slow of speech and tongue. It is believed that Moses stuttered. After all that has gone before this particular moment, Moses was still trying to get out of returning to Egypt and leading the Israelites to the Promised Land. Really? What did he not get? God told him that He would be with him. He gave him signs to convince the skeptical. And now, he says he’s not a good speaker? Ok, that may be true but Moses is not trusting God to take care of that too. I can just hear the exasperation in God’s voice, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” Wake up, Moses! You are talking to the Creator here. He created you as you are and knows what you can (and cannot) do. He can also fix those things you think are a detriment. Hello?
But Moses does not give up on the idea of not going at all. He tries one more time. “. . . please send someone else.” The Bible tells us that the Lord’s anger burned against Moses. But He told Moses that his brother, Aaron, would be the mouthpiece of the expedition. God said he knew that Aaron could speak well and that he was already on his way to meet Moses. God promises that He would help them both speak and would teach them both what to do. So, Aaron was to speak as if he were Moses’ mouth and Moses would be as God to him. Now don’t read this that Moses was a god. He was as human as you or me. God would give the instructions to Moses and Moses would relay them to Aaron as God was telling him.
Moses spoke from fear and a deep sense of inadequacy. When God gives us a task that seems to focus on our weaknesses, we need to trust that He will provide all that we need to get that task done. When we face difficult situations, we must be willing to let God help us. Yes, I said, “let”. God is a gentleman. He will not force Himself on us. We can refuse. We can rely on ourselves. I know, from experience, that letting anyone help is hard to do. Letting God help can sometimes be hard too. We often think that there are things that God doesn’t need to be bothered with. Things that we need to take care of. We fail to realize that God cares about all the things that concern us, big or small. We need to do our part trusting that God will do His part too.
Can you trust?
Father God, it is so hard to rely on others for help. We tend to put You in that box, forgetting that You made us and know what we can do with You. Help us to rely on You. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Food for Thought
- Why do you think that Moses was so reluctant to do what God was asking him to do?
- What do you think of Moses’ excuses? Why?
- Do you think that God was exceedingly patient with Moses’ excuses? Why or why not/
- Do you overthink situations that crop up? Why or why not?
- How much of our lives can we trust God with? Why?
