Excuses, Excuses

Have you ever had that sinking feeling that sickening lightness in your stomach when you realise you've bitten off more than you can chew? When you realise that you're overwhelmingly underequipped to face the task in front of you. I'm tempted to use watching the first game played by the eventual winners of last Saturday's 5-a-side tournament as an example but I think quiet resignation would be a better term. Perhaps you've had the terrifying experience of opening an exam paper to find that you're woefully unprepared, or you've been asked to do a task which everybody is relying on you to complete but you've no idea of where to even get started never mind finish. Well I think that's a fraction of what Moses is feeling at this point half way through Exodus chapter 3.

We've begun the great story of Exodus the scene has been set. Joseph (of Technicolor fame) has been forgotten and Israel is cruelly enslaved to the nation of Egypt. However, God has not forgotten Israel in the background he has been preparing a rescuer for the Jews; Moses is rescued from infanticide, stowed away in an ark and plucked from the Nile by Pharaoh's own daughter. From behind enemy lines God is beginning to prepare Israel's escape route, but that preparation is painful as Moses flees to Midian after committing murder and spends the next forty years in the wilderness tending his Father-in-Law's sheep, learning humility and discipline. Then God steps in again appearing as the pre-incarnate Jesus in the burning bush and commissions Moses in chapter 3v9,10;

9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.

So this is it, God has heard the Israelites pleas for deliverance and introduces the hero of Exodus; Moses er… well no. Verse 11;

11But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

What follows is a conversation, a heated debate even between Moses and God. Moses asks five questions of God as he doubts his own ability and the wisdom of God in choosing him as Israel's rescuer. We'll see God deal tenderly and firmly with Moses as he reveals himself in a new way, with a new name. We'll see how God delights to take broken, flawed characters like Moses and use them to accomplish his purposes, things we could not even imagine in order to reveal more and more of his glory.

So Moses doubts himself, how does God respond? Gently with a promise and a sign; in v12 he promises that he will be with Moses and gives him a sign that he will be able to recall later -  Israel will worship God on this very mountain Moses now stands on; Mount Sinai. The two are linked God's presence isn't just a reassuring pat on the shoulder but a guarantee that God who is present and active in the world, will go before Moses, guaranteeing success.  So God promises his presence but He also points forward to the end of the job, not just the Israelites escaping Egypt but worshipping Him. This is the consistent theme of the book of Exodus; Israel being saved so that they can worship God.

There's a parallel here with our commission here. In Matthew 28 Jesus assures us of his presence saying that he will be with us even to the very end of the age as we call disciples, worshippers of God out from every nation.

Moses still isn't sure though, he wonders in v13 will the Israelites accept the words of a previously failed leader, a murderer in exile tending sheep? It's a reasonable question which many of us will be able to identify with, why should they listen to me I'm no-one in fact I'm less than that – I've failed, I've messed up, I don't have the right to say anything never mind expect people to listen. So Moses asks God to reveal his name, what he's doing is asking God to give him something to take back to the Jewish leaders to give him some credibility. There are various explanations as to what Moses is referring to, one being that the name for God YHAWEH was a closely guarded secret and that Moses knowledge of it would prove that he had genuinely encountered God. In short we don't know what Moses was expecting but God gives him both more (and less) in any case so let's read on v14;

14God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM.[c] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Moses asks God to reveal himself, to give him his name, some aspect of his character, his story and God says; "I AM WHO I AM" -at first glance this seems like a non-answer, God putting Moses back in his place. And you'd be right, this answer is the radical turning point in the conversation. Now the attention is clearly thrust back toward God, Moses lack of ability or authority are not relevant because God's ability and authority are infinite. This is a truth we do well to remember in Exodus it is a book about God.

However, "I AM WHO I AM" is far from a non-answer.

-          God is self-defining.

-          God is unchanging, deliberately difficult to assign a tense to v15b '… this is my name forever'. 'I BE'

-          God is beyond our comprehension and yet he is.

But there's more;

15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD,[d] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. "This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.

God reminds Moses that he YAHWEH is; '…the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob'. Simultaneously God is beyond Moses comprehension and yet he is knowable because he chooses to reveal himself through the covenant with Abraham. God is indescribable, uncontainable and yet he is knowable, trustable. Moses must tell the Israelites 'God is who he is, we don't get to define him but you can be sure that he will always be the same God who made and is keeping his promises to your ancestors – you can't tame him but you can trust him'

Perhaps you need to be told the same thing. God is beyond your comprehension, he defines himself so he calls the shots. Are you tempted to mould God to your expectations? I like God in the NT but not too sure about him judging sinners or how can God forgive people I don't want to be forgiven? If that's you, you're Moses and you need to repent. It really isn't about you. But you don't need to give up on knowing God because he continues to reveal himself now. He is the same God now as the God who made the covenant with Abraham, who talked with Moses here in Exodus 3. He is the same God who walked the earth 2,000 years a go and said; "before Abraham was born, I am!" Jesus is the great 'I AM' perfectly imaging God making fully known and fully accessible the unknowable. Moses takes a message back saying the God of your fathers, the God of the covenant has not forgotten us or his promises, trust him. We however, don't need to wait for Moses. We know God through Jesus the bringer of the new covenant. His death means we know that God is still fulfilling those promises now.

Moses returns to Egypt taking his family with him, he is gently reassured again in v18 that the elders will listen to him but God also warns Moses that Pharaoh will not listen unless; 'a mighty hand compels him.20So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go' That sets up the next seven chapters of Exodus; Pharaoh's opposition and eventual submission to 'I AM'. God will be shown to be God, he is in control, even to the point of turning the hearts of the Egyptians so that they would be willingly plundered by Israel's women in v21, 22 not just escaping Israel but leaving with compensation for their slavery.

So Moses doubts his ability; 'Who am I that I should go…', God answers 'I AM WHO I AM'. God's ability not Moses' will defeat Pharaoh. His ability is beyond our comprehension and completely independent from us, yet we can place our shaking faith into his mighty hands because we know Him who is true to His promises.

As we enter chapter 4 Moses still has his doubts about his effectiveness; "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?" Despite God revealing to Moses the name which He will be called forever and directly assuring Moses in v18 that the elders will listen to him Moses it seems does not yet fully trust God. But again God is gracious and gives Moses three signs;

1. His staff would transform into a snake.

2. His hand would turn leprous and be healed again merely by placing it inside his cloak.

3. Water from the Nile would become blood.

These signs point ahead to Moses confrontation with Pharaoh they are designed to make clear God's supremacy over Egypt. Moses staff will later devour the snakes of the magicians of Egypt, the cobra being the sign of Egyptian military strength. Moses leprous hand symbolises mastery over the Egyptians health, leprosy was common in ancient Egypt and incurable yet I AM heals almost nonchalantly. The Nile the symbol of Egypt's fertility, its life is blood in the hands of God's messenger. The message is clear God is mighty and everyone will now it, trust him.

Moses changes tactic and again tries to refocus the attention on himself in v10;

"Pardon your servant, 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."

Ok Lord, your power is impressive but have you forgotten who you're sending it's me Moses. I'm a failure in exile, half Egyptian, half Hebrew washout and I'm rubbish at talking to people. Now before we criticise Moses to harshly for trying to cast himself in an ancient version of the 'King's Speech' movie let's not forget to examine ourselves first. Moses seems unable, or more accurately perhaps unwilling to apply God's promises to himself, to trust in his ability rather than worrying about the lack of his own. How often do we do the same? How often is our perspective shaped not by the unchanging reliability of God's promises but by the wavering winds of our own self-doubt? It's like choosing to look at the world through distorted glass. God gives Moses one more chance reminding him that this is his creator speaking he knows him intimately, better than himself, He will be with him;

11 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? 12Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.

But Moses is still unwilling and in the face of his unbelief God's anger burns against him. This is a frightening position for anyone to put themselves in. In Exodus 24 God is described as a consuming fire, his anger is just and fearsome, destroying impurity. Moses is in danger of being consumed and yet even here God reminds us of his grace-full provision for us. Often we talk about not trusting God's promises like tax and unfortunate inevitability. Yes we are imperfect sinners but we mustn't let that truth become the catalyst and excuse for faithlessness because the consequences are serious. God is patient with us but that should equal greater trust of him and greater repentance when we are faithless.

God suggests Aaron saying in v16; 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. Remarkably in his anger God incarnates the process through which Scripture was given to us. Moses will speak as if God, his words will be communicated directly through Aaron. What a God of grace who even in his just fury at Moses' unbelief blesses him so greatly.

Moses returns to Egypt stopping to pick up his family and ask his Father-in-Law's permission. God reminds Moses to perform all the signs he has been given, he is to be faithful to the task God has given him no more, no less.  God warns him that Pharaoh will not agree and gives Moses his response in v22;

22 Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me."

God calls Israel his firstborn son, he is their Father absolutely committed not only to bringing the Israelites up out of Egypt but into a land of blessing flowing with milk and honey where they will worship God. God doesn't just pull Israel away from danger he is committed long-term to blessing his people, making them his own. Now further a long in Salvation history we have direct access to the Father by His Son Jesus by whom Romans 8 reminds us we have become children of God who call God 'Abba Father'.

Like an an OT prophet, like John the Baptist and Jesus in the new Moses and Aaron meet in the desert prepared by God, armed with His words and signs pointing to his power. The Israelite elders recognise God's hand upon Moses and respond in the only way they can in v31;

…And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

God had not forgotten Moses, he had not forgotten Israel. They have no land but now they have a leader – Moses. He is full of doubt but he has a God worth placing his trust in, one who is patient even through his unbelief giving him signs of his power, the words of God and the amazing commitment of God the Father to his children. Let's pray…