Yet another reason why I’ll never be compared to Moses.

I’m expecting that everyone reading this is interested because of the awesome teaser last week. Go ahead, I’ll give you a minute to go back and look for it.

So we’re talking about the guy who is famous for his excuses. Time and time again Moses argues with God and time and time again God provides an answer. I’ll admit that I started off this morning with a vendetta against Moses. He was assured by God himself, not an angel, a messenger, or a vision, that he was chosen for a very specific mission. His multiple concerns were addressed by God and to every answer there were ten more questions. How selfish could he be?

Then I was reminded that Moses was a flesh-and-bones kinda guy. He wasn’t some superhero as we tend to imagine him. He had his flaws, his insecurities and his very human fears. Let’s look back at some of the key moments of his life:

1. Mistaken Identity: Born a Jew, raised an Egyptian; all of the perks of the royal life with none of the bloodline. Did he know he was a Hebrew all of his life? Hard to say. But he did identify with them as an adult, despite being raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter.
2. Murder: Moses killed a guy. He didn’t kill just anyone, but he killed an Egyptian. Strike against him for the whole murder thing, but also turning himself against the Egyptian people…his honorary people.
3. Anger from the Hebrews: The Egyptians are against him, but at least he has the support from the people of his bloodline. Nope. They’re not impressed either. Exodus 2:13-14 relays the reaction of the Hebrews towards him. They are not overly fond of him. Pharaoh is not fond of him either.
4. Moses in hiding: Scared of death and punishment Moses runs. He starts a new life married to the daughter of a priest (change the genders, but here’s some easy listening).

A lot for one man to take on. He had some serious baggage that caused his to have his doubts about his abilities to minister to anyone. This is the state in which we find Moses at the time of his call; a seriously broken man doubting himself and everyone around him.

So let’s have a look at Moses and his foibles, shall we? Like so many of the other prophets there is an amazing event that seems to go against all of nature’s rules in which God reveals himself. It draws Moses in and he is told that he is in the presence of God. The first emotion that we see Moses express is one of fear. He is damned scared being in the presence of God. He knows that God is great and he is weak. He knows that God could wipe him out without a second thought. What he doesn’t know is that God is about to turn his life upside down. (Now this is a story all about how my life got flip turned upside down. I’d to take a minute just sit right there I’ll tell you how I became a prophet to the people Israel)

So God reveals himself, and not only that but he tells Moses that He knows the problems that His people have been going through. Now that’s fine. Then God unloads the big whammy there: Moses is the guy to fix that!

Here is where you start to see the real fear that Moses has. Now you remember back to Exodus 2:15 right? Pharaoh is not so pleased with the old Moses. So Moses’ concern about going back to tell Pharaoh to free his slaves is fairly legitimate. His life is quite literally on the line here. It’s only human to be concerned with your own livelihood…especially with a wife and kids to take care of! I would be concerned too! And God isn’t asking for Moses to be a robot with no emotions. If he wanted an emotionless robot, he would have made one. Oh man, can you even imagine? How awesome would the 10 commandments movie be if Charlton Heston were a robot? Well, anyways, he was not. He was a human being, someone that people can relate to. He has real human fears, real human emotions and that is who God chose…a real, imperfect human. But He didn’t leave it at that. God didn’t just say to Moses, “Now have fun and try not to get hurt, mmkay?” He promised Moses that He would be there with him, and not leave him to do this on his own.

God also gives Moses a unique promise through his own introduction. The short phrase where God tells Moses, “I am who I am” speaks to his inimitable character. It identifies him as being unidentifiable but the on who always was, always is and always will be. These 5 words leave us confused and enlightened all at the same time. It reminds us, as it reminded Moses, that God is the one who is ultimately in control, and the only one who is truly aware of all the intricacies of this world. Was this the answer that Moses wanted? No, probably not. But more than God just saying, “Hey Moses, tell them it’s Yahweh.” He gives Moses the assurance that He is the everlasting God, and that he will change the people’s hearts to believe in him.

This still isn’t enough for Moses in his insecurity. He is given great signs by God, great and disgusting signs (Exodus 4:1-9…personally I think I would be more disturbed by the leprous hand than the roddy snake…but that’s just me!) And this still isn’t enough to give Moses the confidence that he needs. He can see God’s presence, he can see that God can do great and miraculous acts, but he can’t see that he is good enough to do these things in God’s stead. Sound familiar? I mean sure, my excuse for not doing something is never going to be that I was too slow of tongue but I have been known to go the opposite route and try and get out of something because nobody understands me because I talk too fast. I am terrible at making small talk (How about that weather? Quite a cold snap we had a while back eh? Ohhhhh boy!) I am not a good enough Christian. I break the law (my speedometer doesn’t like to stay at 50km/hour). In short, I would not be a good role model, a good example for all those people who are expecting me to demonstrate Christ in my life. But you’ll notice that not once did God say that he wanted Moses to change. He never once said, “Moses, you have lived a terrible life! You killed people, you’re a coward and you’re quite smelly. Please change so that I can use you to save the Israelites.”

God knows what Moses has done. God tells Moses that he will be there with him the whole time; that Moses doesn’t need to be perfect because God is perfect. This is the part where we see God’s patience wearing thin, and really, can you blame him? He has proved himself over and over again; he has answered all of Moses’ questions but nothing seems to appease him. Moses needs that support that he isn’t willing to take from God. His support comes in the form of his brother Aaron who we hear is up to the job, but who is not there to take over. In no uncertain terms God tells Moses that he(Moses) will still be the one that people look up to. He will be the one who is in charge; the one that people get angry at, the one to whom God will be talking. God has chosen him for a reason, he knows all of his faults and in spite of (or maybe because of) all of them he believes that Moses can do this task.

Where are your weaknesses? What is holding you back? If God can use a murdering chicken chances are that you’re salvageable too.