The Call of Moses

Exodus 3

Exodus 3:1–12 ESV

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Last week we saw how Joseph moved his family which is the people of Israel down to Egypt. They were later thrown into slavery by the Egyptians and here God is calling a man named Moses to lead the people up out of Egypt. This is a big task and you can see in the story that Moses was more than a little worried. We only read part of his excuses as to why he was not the man for the job.

There are so many things happening here at the burning bush. The bush itself is a wonder, and on top of that we see how the ground is described as holy ground. The thing that I want to focus in on though is how Moses felt when called by God for this specific task. Moses felt inadequate. He did not think he was the man for the job, he did not think that he had the ability to do what God was commanding. The funny thing about it is that he is right in every way. I think so many of us can relate to this saying; I’m not cut out to lead a Sunday School class, I cant help the youth, I don’t speak well enough to pray in front of the church. The thing is that a lot of the time we are right, the only thing is that in this just like Moses we are forgetting the power of God. If God calls you to do something, no matter how simple or complex, he will be there with you helping you through it all. There is a famous hymn that hits at this titled “yet not I but through Christ in me”. it is not by our own power that we are doing the task that we are called to but it is through God’s power.

In the story of Moses we will see him take a great transformation when he starts to understand the power of God. Here in chapter 3 of Exodus we see Moses the coward but later on in the story we will see him stand on the shore of the red sea and with his staff he will part the waters with full confidence. There was a change in Moses, he started realizing that he couldn’t do it but God could and he trusted in that. In our lives we shouldn’t shy away from what God has for us but we should accept it because he will give us the ability to do whatever it is that he wills.

From here we will see Moses fulfill his call and lead the people up out of captivity in Egypt and towards the promised land. Next week we will see Moses again when he receives the ten commandments and we will take a look at those commandments and see how they apply to us today.