He thought he could help his own people. That backfired. Now here he was in the middle of nowhere, a foreigner with a family to look after but no future to cheer him. All of that about his people and helping them was a lifetime ago.
He has settled for the life of a shepherd. His trusty rod helped in the task of ensuring that the cattle were led and protected. His trusty rod supported him as well as supporting the cattle. He had got accustomed to it as he got accustomed to this new way of life. Ever the outsider, but at least he knew where he stood. At least the cattle wouldn’t send him into life as a fugitive. At least he could lead the cattle around and not get much in the way of rejection. Maybe this would be his lot.
Then he saw the strange apparition … he couldn’t leave it as it was. He had to go to find out what it was. He had to see how that bush could burn and yet not be consumed. How could that be?
He had to investigate … and that curiosity would change his life forever.
It’s worth looking at why that mountain meeting made such an impact on this man.
It was an encounter that this man had previously never experienced. In as much as he may well have heard and recalled stories being nurtured by his mother about his people, the God of his forefathers was a story passed down from generation to generation.
Now, he has an encounter with this God, but he has nothing but excuses for why he cannot do what he has been commissioned to do.
This mountain meeting is instructive to how we can be when even experiencing something clearly supernatural and awesome we can allow our sense of inadequacy and insufficiency to put up excuses for not carrying out a great commission.
This encounter is also instructive in what it says about God, how He goes through the various excuses and in that outlines His purpose and His power to be able to do what He says He will do.
The thing about the call of God is not He gives enough for us to be able to complete the call. He is not just blithely throwing people unprepared. He offers that which is most essential to completing His call – His presence.
Moses, however, gives us a very reassuring response to these offers from God. It’s reassuring because it’s real. Moses puts up every defence he can muster. It’s not as though he has a precedent he can rely on. It’s not as though he has experience in the matter. When he works it out, there’s more reason not to go ahead with this significantly dangerous mission. Even if this God is the one who’s going to be doing the main work, Moses is the one that will have to be the face of this mission. He’s the one that will have to face the people. He’s the one that will have to face Pharaoh. He is the one that will have to put his neck on the block.
A growing relationship with God is just that – one that starts from a place of query and doubt. It’s not everything that makes sense immediately. It’s certainly not straightforward to just always take everything God says about Himself on board with ease and simplicity.
It’s a process. It’s a growing relationship. One that makes sense to operate from a place of honesty, even when that honesty reveals our own sense of inadequacy in the face of the all sufficient God.
(Photo by Frankie Lopez on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 