EXODUS 4 - OBEY GOD WHEN HE CALLS
Exodus 4
God decided to call Moses to be the leader that would rescue God’s people from Egypt. As a child, Moses was rescued from a floating basket and raised by Egyptian royalty. Yet after killing a man Moses fled from Egypt and found himself raising sheep in Midian, marrying a wife, and starting a family. God was preparing Moses for how he would be used.
God appeared to Moses and called him back to Egypt to rescue his people from bitter slavery. God made it clear what he wanted Moses to do, but Moses had some concerns and needed confirmation. Moses was concerned that if he told the Egyptians that God talked to him from a burning bush, that they would not believe him (v. 1)
Moses didn’t believe God when the Lord said in Exodus 3:12, “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 simple fact that God was sending Moses should have been enough for Moses to go. But our problem is that when God says “go” we ask too many questions, which only reveals our unbelief.
Yet, God was patient with Moses and his questions, and God offered him additional signs to help him obey. Moses was given a staff that could miraculously be turned into a snake and when he would catch the snake and it would turn back into a staff. Moses could put his hand in and out of his cloak to make the skin on his hand turn leprous. And for extra measures, Moses could take water from the Nile River and when poured onto dry ground the water would become blood. These three miracles would show that God had authorized Moses’ leadership and give Moses the confidence that God was with him (v. 2-9).
God will at times give miracles to help our belief, but in scripture we see repeatedly that miracles do not always help belief, and at times may even hinder us from trusting God simply at his word (ex: Matthew 12:39, Luke 16:30-31,Hebrews 3:7-12, John 6:66).
These three authenticating miracles were still not enough to convince Moses that God was sending him, and so he made another excuse to not go. Moses said he could not speak well. Moses spoke to the God about his lack of eloquence and the stammer of his tongue. God spoke back to Moses, and said, “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.” (v. 10-12).
Moses was unable to hear and see that God wasn’t interested in what Moses could do for God, but what God could do through Moses. When God calls someone, he does not call them based on their own abilities and qualities. In God’s own good pleasure, God decides who he wants to use and how he wants to use them. After all this clarity, Moses still did not want to be used by God, and he asked the Lord to send someone else (v. 13).
The Lord became angry with Moses for his unbelief and unwillingness, yet God was merciful to Moses and therefore sent Aaron to go with him. God would give his words to Moses, and Aaron would speak God’s words to the people. This partnership was marked with a lot of problems that could have been prevented had Moses just allowed God to use him how he wanted to in the first place (v. 14-17).
Moses finally agreed to be sent by God. After receiving the blessing from his father-in-law to go, Moses went back to Egypt with his wife and sons. Moses was given his first words to speak to Pharaoh. He was to perform the three miracles before Pharoah, and ask that God’s firstborn (Israel) be released, or God would kill Pharaoh’s firstborn. But in a twist of events, God sought to kill Moses on the way to Egypt, because Moses had not circumcised his firstborn. If Moses would not obey the sign of God’s covenant with Israel, he would not be used to perform God’s miraculous signs to Egypt. God expects his leaders to obey first before they go on telling others to obey (v. 24-26).
After a near death experience and receiving his wife’s disapproval, Moses was struggling to go forward in his calling. God spoke to Aaron and sent him to encourage Moses. God wanted Aaron to hear from Moses what God had been telling him. On the mountain of God, Moses finally came to the place where he believed the words of God and was willing to do what God had commanded of him. Together, Moses and Aaron called together the elders and the people of Israel, and they spoke all the words of the Lord and did the miraculous signs in the sight of the people (v. 27-30).
It took a while for Moses to believe that God was sending him, but once he obeyed it was evident by the people’s response to the Lord’s words that God was going to use Moses. The chapter ends by saying “And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.” (v. 31).
What is God calling you to do; where is he calling you to go? And what might be the result if you trust him and obey him when he calls?