The Gospel According to Moses: Fix Your Eyes on the Right "I"

{Exodus 4:1-7}

Then Moses answered, "But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, 'The LORD did not appear to you.'" The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff." And he said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the LORD said to Moses, "Put out your hand and catch it by the tail"—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— "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." Again, the LORD said to him, "Put your hand inside your cloak." And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, "Put your hand back inside your cloak." So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. "If they will not believe you," God said, "or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."

But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue." Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak." But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else." Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, "Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs."

[Rev. Dwight Yoo]

God saves people for a purpose. To do good works. He has prepared his people thru experiences & personality for a particular niche in the church. Christians should be glad to serve him. But instead we are reluctant. This is the same for Moses...

Why is Moses reluctant?

1) Because of the people God has called him to serve.

Moses says they will say "The LORD did not appear to you." So he sees them as hard-headed and difficult. He probably recalls how they talked of how he killed that Egyptian and got him chased out of Egypt.

But this really means that we are making God small and people big.

2) Self-centeredness

Some people think they do what God has called them to, without His help. That's pride. But there is also false humility. That is when we think ourselves unable to perform something that God calls us to. We consider our shortcomings. But both pride & false humility are centered on the self.

So what does it mean to be truly humble? It isn't to think less of ourselves, but rather to think of ourselves less... (If God can do all things, then we should be less concerned about ourselves.)

3) He did not want to submit to the will of God.

Moses goes through all these excuses... And God answers all of them. So what does he say? "Oh, my LORD, please send someone else." And God gets angry... but instead of rejecting Moses. God stays patient.