Moses's Calling to Ministry

Exodus 3:1 thru 4:17

In this passage we find God's calling of Moses to ministry. What was Moses' reaction? He had five objections or questions that seemed to preclude his taking up God's call. God answered him each time, finally giving him a partner, Aaron.

A "calling to the ministry"

We don't find the word ministry in this passage. Why should I use it, then, and what do I mean? Ministry might mean the standard occupation of serving in a church. For Moses, it was a military-political-spiritual-social-legal work for God and "His kingdom on earth". For me and you, it might not be so grand. Then again, it might!

Moses's five excuses

Amazingly, even though Moses saw the burning bush, which spoke to him, that is, God spoke to him from within a burning bush, Moses was not suddenly endued with amazing faith to move mountains. Witnessing miracles does not really make one bold in ones faith.

Instead of a response such as Isaiah's, "Here am I, send me!" Moses was a lot less ready and willing. I suspect Isaiah was still a fairly young man when he was called in Isaiah 6, while Moses was now about 80 years old. Whatever the reason, Moses demurred. He appears, at first blush, to be either humble or self-deprecating. Maybe he was ultra-conservative, or didn't have the ambition, or didn' twant to leave to his pastoral life of Midian to go back to Egypt. Maybe he remembered his failure there as a younger man, 40 years ago, when he lost his position after killing an abusive Egyptian slave-driver, then being tattled on by the very Jews he was trying to help. Or maybe he was just old and didn't want to try doing a new thing.

So when God said, "Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt," Moses started making excuses. God patiently answered each of these. Even the patience of the Lord was put to the test by the 14th verse of chapter 4.

Moses's first question: Who am I?

Moses replied to God's calling with this: "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

Although this sounds like a question, (perhaps akin to the query of Mary in Luke 1:34, "How can this be, since I'm not yet married?") it's the kind of question that lazy young employees offer when given a hard job, in lieu of saying, "Is that in my job description?" or more honestly, "I really don't want to take on such a difficult job. Is there something easier you need done?"

Furthermore, Who am I? is a question that doesn't really matter. When God says, "I will send you," who am I? is really just questioning God, asking, "Do you think you can do anything through me? I know myself, and you are mistaken. I'm not the right man." I want to believe Moses was as humble as he claims later in Numbers 12:3. But he wasn't humble yet, not at 80, not before the Exodus.
I wonder that young people seem to think everything is about THEM. I'm young (only 60), so I get it. But even the elderly Moses thought this way at 80. So self-absorption is not really the affliction of youth. God isn't fooled by all the huffing and hand-waving. He doesn't care you you are; he can use a donkey or a rock to do his work.

God's reply: I am with you

God did not bother answering Moses's question about himself. He said, "I will certainly be with you." In essence, God didn't need Moses at all. God would be the one doing the work. Moses was just to go as the one people would see and hear. So it dies matter that we who serve God are not beautiful, talented, popular, rich or appealing. What matters is that God who sends us is with us, speaking through us, defending us, giving His authority to our words.

Then God added, "And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." To serve God is to minister. It is to worship, and offer sacrifices, and lead others in doing the same. God wasn't just suggesting an exodus to Moses, he was CALLING MOSES to ministry. God wanted Moses as His personal ambassador to His people and to Pharaoh. It was, then, a political role. Ambassadors represent nations and, in this case, God's own kingdom on earth. It would soon become a military role as well, and later a religious role as high priest and prophet. "You will serve God on this mountain" means to minister.

Such a calling is not a light matter. One who simply wants to be a popular religious figure cannot necessarily be useful to God, for many reasons. Popularity is not typically a trait of religious leaders. David was popular as a political ruler, but none of the prophets were popular among the elite. They were all persecuted by the religious establishment and the king. This includes Jesus and the Apostles. Of course, among people they were popular for a time. John the Baptist was so popular that he could conduct services out in the wilderness, and city folks all rode or walked 20 miles to hear him. Crowds followed Jesus as well, until he disappointed them by ignoring their political aspirations.

Moses had spent 40 or so years in Midian being a nomadic farmer. He wasn't eager to return to the city life and enter the political arena in Egypt. I can relate. Popularity and leadership are thorny paths. Success is never guaranteed. But if God is for us, who can be against us? We need nothing more than HIM on our side. Who we are is not the important question when it comes to ministry.

Moses's second question: Who are you?

Instead of being convinced, Moses continued asking questions. Of course, there's nothing wrong with asking questions, especially if you want to understand and know the God you are a minister for. Moses probably had such a good motivation for his next question. He asked, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, `What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" This is a question about God's identity. But the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never had a name, as all the false God's had. What was his name? "Sovereign God", "LORD". That was all the names for God we find in Genesis. Sometimes it was "Lord of Hosts", or "Jehovah Jirah", which is The Lord who Provides.

Our tendency today is to want a BRAND, with trademarked logo, font and colors. "Go, Hokies!" "Wahoo wahoo wahoo, Cavaliers." Perhaps this was the Hebrew notion as well, or the tendency of the Egyptians and Canaanites, who had many competing gods in their cultures.

God's name is I AM

God answered, "I AM WHO I AM." in all caps. The translators here assume either that God was speaking forcefully, or that he was proclaiming "I AM WHO I AM" to be His holy name. I'm sure both are true. "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you." I AM is the same as Yaweh, or Jehovah, or The Lord. That's His name, The Lord. Later in Ex 6, God tells Moses, "I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them." [6:2,3]

It is amazing that God wanted to be known, and not by some mysterious, exalted-sounding name, but as LORD or I AM. Most religions have a great deal of secrets about them. Our God wants us to know Him, and call Him by name, Lord. We may call someone, Mr. Cox if we have no relationship, or Jim if we are friends. His children, though, have a deeper relationship with him, and so call Him by a name reflecting that relationship, Father or Dad. If we had no relationship with God, we would likewise refer to Him simply by his formal name. But those who know God call Him by the relationship name, Lord.

Jesus further revealed God to us, teaching us to call him Father, "Our Father which art in heaven..." There is the relationship of sonship. This is the glory of Christ that is revealed in us.

Earlier, I called Moses's question his second excuse. How was it not just a question, but also an excuse? Did Moses think, as he asked this question, "The Israelites have been in Egypt 400 years. Will they even remember God's name? Will they care that God is sending them out of Egypt?" It may be that behind his question was the objection, namely that "These people don't deserve to have God do this for them. It really is going to be so disruptive, so destructive, so revolutionary, that it is truly not a good idea at all. They will not go along with it, neither will the Egyptians. I see that you can speak from a bush that burns but isn't burned. But just who are you?" Of course, it may also be that Moses truly did not know God, that he was a simple heathen who happened to have been born a Jew, but raised Egyptian. I'm not sure. Neither answer is flattering to Moses. God's answer, however, revealing His own holy Name, was glorious above all glory!

If this sounds like runaway eisegesis, to suggest this question was an objection, as I have, consider what God then says in the remainder of ch.3. He says in v.19, "But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand." God answers the objection Moses didn't voice, because it was there. Moses knew well that it was going to be a most difficult, if not futile, mission to bring Israel out of Egypt. It would be like suggesting the southern and mid-western United States secede and become a separate nation from the east and west coasts. No one even wants to think about how such a split would go down, or what the world would look like afterward.

God, however, was planning decimate Egypt in order to bring about His own judgment on an evil nation and create a holy nation and a kingdom of priests using the enslaved, weak, uneducated, people who had descended from Abraham. For this, Moses was called, commissioned, and sent by God, as a minister. To disrupt and destroy the united nation of Egypt, bringing out a huge number of slaves, on whom Egypt depended, to build a new nation with the people of God, that was what God proposed to Moses.

Moses's third objection: Suppose they will not believe or listen to me?

Next Moses objected, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, `The Lord has not appeared to you.'" By ch.4, I think Moses was grasping at straws, to somehow avoid obeying God's call and taking up the ministry. Why? Because he was back to looking at himself and making this about himself. Moses thought he needed to be credible. To say that God appeared to me and told me to disrupt an entire nation with a message of freedom for all slaves, and this nation was going to have to change its entire society and economy to conform to this message from God, is one thing. To expect them to listen to such a message is another, it was incredible, and Moses himself didn't believe it would get off the ground. So it wasn't his own credibility that mattered, but God's. Did Moses really believe in God? At this point, I'm not sure. He didn't know the power of God enough to pack up and strike out for Egypt. He had more questions.

God answered by showing Moses several miraculous gifts He had given him to do. These, and many others God did not yet show him, would show that it was indeed God who was behind Moses. Miracles require actual authority, not just a credible story. They demonstrate power from God that should make people stop and listen. People usually just applaud the miracle, but go on ignoring the message. But that means they are without excuse, and God's wrath is deserved.

Moses' fourth objection: But I am not eloquent enough

Again Moses only thought about himself and his strengths and weaknesses. He assumed that eloquent speech was required of a minister. “Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.” I can relate. I'm not really an eloquent person. I wish I was, but I know I am not.

This apparent self-deprecation was certainly genuine. Palace educated Moses was likely fluent in Egyptian, but not the Hebrew language. Or perhaps after 40 years, he had forgotten both and taken up some Midianite Creole. Shepherd don't have a lot of opportunity to hone their speaking skills, other than perhaps with other shepherds. Also, Moses was now approaching age 80. I myself have slowed down in my speech at 60. There is nothing false about this objection.

But it was the same mistake as he had made already several times. He was looking at himself instead of at the God who was calling him. He would not be convincing. He had a hillbilly accent now, and spoke slowly, without any wit or charm. Even if they listened, they would not be convinced.

God's fourth response: I made your mouth

God patiently answered again, as he had Abraham when he bargained for Sodom and Gomorrah. He said to Moses, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say." Your mouth may fail you, but God will not fail you. The one who made your mouth and told you to go and speak will give you the words.

Jesus also said the same thing to His disciples in Mt 10:19,20: "But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." Can we who are saved and called to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, actually doubt that God is able to do this through even us? Even me? We cannot! He will be faithful, and even if they don't listen, He will strike their conscience with the sword of the truth, and they will fall at His feet, either in repentance or into perdition and hell.
Moses's last objection: Send someone else
Moses made one more statement. This time it was not a question, nor a mere objection: it was an open attempt to dodge obedience. He said, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send." Now the truth came out. He just didn't want to be the one to go and do such grand things, or he was too afraid of rejection and opposition, or he didn't believe God's power was sufficient, or all of the above.

But this time God was getting angry with Moses. So he told Moses he would also send Aaron with him to be his mouthpiece. Aaron would "be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God." Apparently this was enough for Moses, and he obeyed, after first going to request permission to leave from his father-in-law Jethro.

My calling and yours

Now I admit, that the comparison earlier to the modern day United States was pretty abrupt. But once you consider the history of a nation in the light of the Bible, you have to wonder that people and nations are so foolish as to oppose God and drive Him out of their public discourse. He raises up nations, and He alone decrees when they shall be destroyed. It is the Moses, the minister of God, rather than the political activist or revolutionary, the one who is God's messenger, who is essentially instrumental in this process. A nation as great as the United States, which turns its back on God, is putting itself in exactly the same position as Egypt. And ignoring even the most lowly minister of the Gospel may be the single most foolish thing a President will ever do.

I believe God also called me to serve Him as a minister. I don't know how politically active I need to be. At this point, I feel very much like Moses, wishing he had never climbed up to investigate that burning bush on Mt. Horeb, and making objections and excuses why he was not the right man for the job.

I have been avoiding the direct ministry God called me to for the last 19 years, precisely since October of 2004. That was the year the Holy Spirit urged me to stand on the college campus at VCU in Richmond, Virginia and preach the gospel boldly, in the open air. Though I felt the urge and knew it was from God, I did not have the boldness, faith, guts or conviction to obey. I did many other things, just not this. I didn't feel empowered. I didn't feel trained. I didn't think I was eloquent enough to convince anyone. I knew well, and still know, that most will not listen, and some will become violent toward me. Now it is likely that anything I say will be interpreted as hate speech, no matter how gentle or softly spoken, and I will either be arrested, escorted off grounds, or attacked by God-haters who the police will deliberately not bring to justice.

But I know the time is ripe for such open-air preaching, and that God has put it solidly into my heart to go and preach it. It is, in Jeremiah's words, a fire in me. He writes in Jer 20:9, "Then I said, `I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.' But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not." I must go, not because I am so important or able, nor even because I care. In many ways I don't care. But because God wants it. He loves them, and whether I do or not, I love HIM, and want nothing more in life but the please my Lord.

You have a calling too, don't you? What is it? Perhaps you know it, what Jesus said in at the end of John 15: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning."

Yes, you also must be witnesses of Jesus Christ. Was this not for those whom Jesus had been with? Yes. Is it for you? You alone know. Is Jesus with you? ... well? ... That is your answer. May God give you the calling, conviction, and power to do miracles, proclaim the truth, challenge the powers and authorities of this world in Christ's name, and bring the gospel of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ to many souls in these troubled times we're living in. AMEN