Scripture: Exodus 3: 10 – 4: 18
Sermon: The Call of God
Topics: Dialogue, Objections, Call
Preached: October 14, 2018 AM
Mike Abma
Preamble:
We will be tackling a fairly large passage this morning.
That is because it is all part of one long extended dialogue between God and Moses.
God calls Moses,
and Moses raises objections – 5 different objections.
Instead of reading the whole passage in one sweep,
I will be reading those objections and God’s response one at a time.
So keep your Bibles open,
as we read,
reflect, then read again.
As we go through this passage,
I would like you to keep two things in mind:
On the one hand, this passage is specific to Moses,
to his call and his experience.
But on the other hand, this passage needs to be seen
in the context of the whole Bible
and in the context of the Call that comes to us as well.
So let’s start our reading.
Remember that Moses has been hanging out in Midian for years,
Perhaps 40 years.
He is not a young guy anymore.
He may have been as old as 80.
And suddenly God reveals himself to Moses in a Burning Bush.
But that revelation comes with a call, a mission, an assignment.
We pick things up at 3:10
Remember, this is a dialogue and I will be reading it in dialogue form
OBJECTION # 1 I Am Nobody 3:10-12
GOD: So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’
MOSES: ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’
GOD: ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’
The thrilling thing about this passage,
this dialogue between God and Moses,
is that Moses is so utterly human.
What is more human than asking from the get-go:
“Who Me?
God, you have got to be kidding.
Who am I? I am just a loser living in Midian.
And you expect me to be going to Pharaoh?
You have got to be kidding.”
In 1997, when I was serving a church in Canada,
I received a letter,
written by Henry DeMoor.
It was a letter to see if I might be interested in a call from Woodlawn.
Do you know what my first reaction was?
It was practically word for word the same as Moses’
“Who Me?
You must be kidding.
This is some kind of joke, right.”
To which Henry DeMoor replied,
“Glad to see you have a sense of humor.”
The truth is, whenever we are called by God
to do something on behalf of him and his Kingdom,
we feel totally unworthy.
So let me tell you a secret – we are unworthy.
Maybe not the secret you were expecting.
But the truth is, it really is not about us, is it?
It is about God.
And when God calls,
God promises.
He promises to be with us.
He promises never to leave us alone.
Moses is not done objecting.
But you will begin to see a pattern.
Moses raises an objection about himself.
And God keeps trying to turn Moses’ attention back to God.
Here is his second objection.
OBJECTION # 2 I HAVE NO AUTHORITY 3: 13-22
MOSES: ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’
GOD: ‘I am who I am.’
He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’
15God also said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”:
This is my name for ever,
and this my title for all generations.
16Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and say to them, “The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have given heed to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. 17I declare that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” 18They 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; let us now go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.”
19I know, however, that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it; after that he will let you go. 21I will bring this people into such favour with the Egyptians that, when you go, you will not go empty-handed; 22each woman shall ask her neighbour and any woman living in the neighbour’s house for jewellery of silver and of gold, and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters; and so you shall plunder the Egyptians.’
This second objection of Moses is more modern than it sounds.
Moses knows that for 100’s of years,
God had been seemingly silent.
It was as if God had disappeared between the time of Joseph and Moses.
So if Moses suddenly showed up
Saying that God had sent him,
He knew the first question he would be asked is
“What God? Who is this God?”
And don’t we often feel the same way in our modern world?
Once we begin speaking about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
Once we begin speaking about God, the Triune God,
Who has revealed himself as
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Isn’t it true that we live in a world that will say,
“Hey, that is so yesterday.
That is so old-school.
We don’t believe that kind of stuff anymore.
This God you speak of is just some projection of your imagination.
If he really exists, where is He? Where is the evidence?
God’s answer to Moses,
is also God’s answer to us.
God answers: I AM WHO I AM.
He has no great interest in proving himself or his existence.
But he has a great interest and insistence in saving his people.
He has a great interest in pulling his people out of darkness
and into his marvelous light.
God makes it clear to Moses that rescuing his people
will come at a cost.
It will not be easy.
So, by what authority do we go into the world
to be witnesses of our God?
In ways, we have no authority, in and of ourselves.
But we can point to the cross,
And we can say that the only authority we have
Is from the one who came,
The one who suffered
The one who died
In order to save us all,
In order to pull us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Now to Objection # 3
OBJECTION #3 NO CREDIBILITY 4:1-9
MOSES: ‘But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, “The Lord did not appear to you.” ’
GOD: ‘What is that in your hand?’
MOSES: ‘A staff.’
GOD ‘Throw it on the ground.’
So he threw the staff on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses drew back from it. 4Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Reach out your hand, and seize it by the tail’—so he reached out his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5‘so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.’
6 Again, the Lord said to him, ‘Put your hand inside your cloak.’ He put his hand into his cloak; and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. 7Then God said, ‘Put your hand back into your cloak’—so he put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his body— 8‘If they will not believe you or heed the first sign, they may believe the second sign. 9If they will not believe even these two signs or heed you, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.’
What is objection Number 3?
It is that people will not believe us.
To this objection, God gives signs of his power to Moses:
A staff becoming a snake then becoming a staff again;
A hand becoming leprose then becoming whole again.
Signs of God’s power.
When we are called by God to be his people
and to be his witnesses in the world,
there is always the danger that people do not believe us.
People do not like being lied to.
People like having proof or at least evidence.
Moses’ objection is our objection – What if they do not believe me?
Here is our task.
Our task is simply to tell the story,
The story of our Creation,
The story of God’s covenant faithfulness.
The story of Jesus,
His death and resurrection
But also his life and his miracles.
We do not have to make anything up.
We have everything we need right here in this text.
This text is filled with signs – signs of God’s power.
Whether people believe us or not
well, we leave that up to the work of the Holy Spirit.
At the end of John’s gospel, John puts it this way:
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples,
which are not written in this book.
But these are written so that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,
and that, through believing, you may have life in his name.
OBJECTION # 4 NO TALENT 4:10-12
MOSES: ‘O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.’
GOD: ‘Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.’
Here we have a very personal objection.
Moses says: I can’t do it.
I do not have the gift for that.
I am simply not a very good speaker.
I do not have that talent.
Doesn’t that also sound so very familiar.
It is saying to God,
God, I am willing.
The problem is simply I am unable.
Sorry God. I would if I could, but I can’t.
God refuses to take No for an answer.
God promised to be with the mouth of Moses.
To give him the words he needed.
That promise remains today for all those God calls.
Jesus says in Luke 21 not to worry about being his witness.
Don’t worry about whether you are eloquent or not.
“For I will give you the words and wisdom that you need.”
This is the promise of the Holy Spirit,
The Spirit that will guide what we need to say
The Spirit that will direct how we are to act.
We don’t all need to be as pious as Mother Theresa’s
or as eloquent Billy Graham’s.
We simply need to listen to the call –
The call to be followers of Jesus Christ
And the call to be his witnesses in the world,
To shine with his light.
OBJECTION # 5 NOT ME – PICK SOMEONE ELSE 4: 13-17
MOSES: ‘O my Lord, please send someone else.’
GOD:
14Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, ‘What of your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. 15You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. 16He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him. 17Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.’
This is the WORD of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Can you sense Moses’ exasperation?
He has been trying to wriggle out of this call with 4 objections:
* Who Me?
* What Authority do I Have?
* What Credibility do I Have?
* What Talent do I Have?
Now Moses is pretty much out of excuses,
So he simply says, “Please God, Not Me. Send someone else.”
I find God’s answer quite lovely.
God says to Moses,
“Okay then, let me put you on a Team.
You can go with your brother Aaron.”
The beauty of that answer remains true.
We are never witnesses alone.
We are always part of a Team.
When all the members of that Team
Are collected together it is called the Church.
The Church – the Ecclesia –
the Called Ones,
The ones called by God.
The ones commissioned by God.
God’s team in this world to do his work.
Another wonderful thing about this whole passage is God’s persistence.
God does not give up on Moses.
God was determined to have Moses.
And God is determined to have us – each one of us.
This is good news.
No matter how old we are,
No matter how far we have wandered,
No matter how many objections we raise
No matter how unqualified we feel
God wants us.
God wants us to be his.
God wants us to share his light
God wants us to be witnesses of his love.
God wants us to be part of his redemptive enterprise
Of pulling people out of whatever darkness they are in,
And pulling them into his marvelous light.
CONCLUSION
Here, for me, is the wonder of this passage.
On the one hand,
It is very specific to Moses,
And to the task Moses is given.
But, on the other hand
This text is not just about Moses.
It is about you and me, it is about all of us
And God’s call to each of us.
People in the church sometimes have this odd idea
that a call from God is just for Special People.
But to know God
Is to have some burning bush experience of God;
To know God
Is to have some kind of encounter with God;
To know God
Is to have heard some sort of call from God.
Maybe you heard it or felt it
In a class you took
Or in a book you read
Or through a person you respected
Or through an experience you lived through
Or maybe …..maybe even through a sermon you heard…
But there was something in your life that stopped you in your tracks
Something in your life
after which you have never been quite the same;
Something that told you that this was God speaking to you.
The question is not whether you have been called.
The question is
what are you doing in response to that call?
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen
PRAYER
O Lord, help us to heed your call.
Help us to respond by following you
and shining with your light in all that we do, and say, and think.
In Jesus name.
Amen
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