The Doubts We Have

If you were to look back in your life 5, 10, or even 20 years ago, certainly it would have been hard to believe what God had in store. His will for our lives is perfect and yet, if God appeared to us from a burning bush to tell us what He had in store, it would have been difficult to believe. 

One of the most common feelings that we can have at times is doubt. Whether it is what God is going to do or what the response of others. Regardless, the Lord provides reassurance when our hearts are filled with doubt. 

There are two different sources of doubt in the first 9 verses. The first is 

Doubt in God’s promises

These verses are full of pushback from Moses. The first point of doubt here is that the people will not believe Him or listen to His voice. I need to state from the beginning that several scholars are in agreement that this response from Moses is typical during this time and in this culture as a sort of formal protest as a way to express humility. We see this throughout the Old Testament. However, as Moses states this protest here, we must think back to what God promised Him in Exodus 3:18. 

Exodus 3:18 ESV

And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’

The explicit promise from the Lord is made that indeed the people of Israel would indeed listen. The fear that Moses has about whether or not they would listen is still a valid one. But for him to say that he fears that the people will not listen to God is misguided for sure. 

We only know what Moses says and can’t know for certain what was going through his mind. Regardless, this doubt that creeps in, while is a formal protest, also gives us a peak into a lack trust, lack of faith, or even lack of belief on the part of Moses. 

This, I believe, is such a relatable state of doubt for each of us when we think about how we interact with the promises of God. If we consider the many promises of God’s care for you and I, we all too often fail to live as if we believe that those promises are true. Will God care for the wellbeing of my family? Yes. And yet we fret about the prices of food and the rising economy. 

But I want to take this beyond physical needs in our lives? What about our spiritual needs? Do my prayers reach beyond the ceiling? Am I really saved? Listen to 1 John 5:11-15. 

1 John 5:11–15 ESV

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

It is simple to simply think about this passage of scripture in the context of prayer but it extends to the various aspects of prayer. It is not simply that if we pray for things according to God’s will, he will hear us. This also includes salvation. So if there is evidence in your life that you have given your life over to the Lord, there is evidence that He dwells within you. 

Not only do we see doubt in the promises of the Lord in these verses, we can understand the words of Moses as 

Doubt in the faith of others

If we are boiling down what Moses says here, he does not think that the people of Israel will have enough initial faith. What I mean by that is that God promises a sign for the people before chapter four in Exodus 3:12. 

Exodus 3:12 ESV

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.”

The sign that the deliverance of the Children of Israel was one that would be delivered after they had been rescued from Egypt. However, this is a sign that would have required a great deal of initial faith. There was no evidence given up front that the God of their fathers was involved in their rescue. This is why the Lord provides the three signs which we will explore in just a moment. 

It is easy for us to doubt the faith of others. Maybe we are fearful when it comes to sharing the gospel with others or it is the belief that others will not be as faithful to the Lord as they ought to be. Regardless, I believe that this doubt is something that we all struggle with. 

The good news is that God provides signs to ease our doubts. I want to take a few moments as a detour from the three doubts to discuss these signs. 

Signs from God to Ease Our Doubts

God provides Moses with three signs to show the people of Israel that the God of their fathers truly revealed Himself to him. The signs are a staff turned into a serpent, a hand being made leprous, and some water from the Nile that becomes blood once it hits the ground. These signs may seem: scary, dangerous, an illusion or trick, or even simply unbelievable. If witnessed by themselves, none of them would be a welcomed sight. Yet, God uses them to remind His people that He is the most powerful being that is. The Creator God who controls all things. 

Now consider moments in your life when there has been doubt. Maybe the doubt was in God or maybe it was in your brother or sister. Regardless, God displayed a sign in your life that He was in control of the situation and there was no reason to have any sort of doubt. These things are often scary. We talk some about the fact that sometimes God has to put us on our back so that the only way we have to look is up toward Him. We shouldn’t wait this long but it happens all too often. 

The final doubt that we see in this passage is 

Doubt in my own ability

In verse 10, Moses submits yet another formal protest. Because we can understand this statement to be more formal than an actual denial to do God’s will, it makes sense that Moses was not truly “heavy of mouth” as it it is literally translated. Instead, this is a hyperbolic statement meant to show humility in the midst of the situation. 

1 Samuel 18:23 ESV

And Saul’s servants spoke those words in the ears of David. And David said, “Does it seem to you a little thing to become the king’s son-in-law, since I am a poor man and have no reputation?”

Jeremiah 1:6 ESV

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”

Even still, God reminds him in verses 11 and twelve that it is God who has placed a mouth on his face and given him a voice. For that matter, not only the mouth but also the eyes. In other words, the abilities that we use for God have been given to us by Him. God says, “I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” It would seem that such reassurance would have set the concerns of Moses at ease. 

Yet, Moses comes back and rather than pointing at his own inadequacies again, he simply asks God to use someone else. Let me pause here and warn each of you. When God sends you, don’t try to pass off the honor and responsibility to serve God. Why? 

Because verse 14 tells us that this statement angered the Lord. The Lord points out, notably highlighting His omniscience, that Aaron is on his way to Moses. Moses will then be used as a conduit from God to Aaron and then the people and Pharoah. 

So how is it that God resolves this sort of doubt? Some might say that He just gives the responsibility over to someone else. While this is the case at the beginning of their time in Egypt, we will see later in Exodus that Moses eventually takes all of the public speaking duties. 

I tell you this because God uses Aaron to encourage Moses so that He is able to do what God has called Him to do. Yes, Aaron does the speaking from the beginning but it allows Moses to ease into being the public facing figure of God’s people. 

Sometimes, God hears our rebuttal and instead of forcing us to get into doing it, He uses others to encourage us. He may use an experience to show us that we can indeed do exactly what He is sending us to do. 

Doubts are very real. They are inevitable. But this morning we have been reminded that the Lord will move in our lives to correct these doubts and still receive the glory that He is due.