Why me, LORD?

 

                                                                                                  Moses

                                             Called from the desert

He’d wandered into the far side of the desert in search of grazing land for his father-in-law’s flocks. Mount Horeb rose in the distance, and halfway up the slope, a puff of smoke floated skyward, shimmering in the sunlight. Who had lit the fire? Curious, he hurried towards it. 

But wait, there was something odd about those flames.

 Why weren't these vibrant, crackling orange tongues of fire consuming the bush? The air, thick with the smell of burning branches and spiky leaf, heated his face. His heart pounding, he stared, mesmerized; the flames, a dazzling, fiery spectacle, leaped high above him, crackling in the dry desert air..

  “Moses!”

 “Here I am!”

 “Do not come closer. Take off your sandals, for this is holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

 Moses covered his face, afraid to look at God. Did Moses’ life flash before his eyes? Pharaoh’s daughter had adopted him as a baby from his Hebrew family, raising him in the Egyptian court. As a young man, Moses had killed a sadistic, callous Egyptian, infuriated at Hebrew slavery. The Hebrews heard of the murder, and he fled into the desert, where he married a Moabite and shepherded his father-in-law’s flocks. Now eighty, he’d been away from Egypt’s splendor for forty years.

 Alone, God met him beside the burning bush, demanding his full attention.

 “Moses, my people are crying for relief from the Egyptian slave drivers. I will rescue them and bring them into a spacious country. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites from Egypt.”

 “Me, Lord God? I can’t be their advocate before Pharaoh, nor bring the Israelites from Egypt. Why would the Hebrews believe me? What would I tell them?”

 “I AM WHO I AM. I am the everlasting God through all generations. Gather Israel’s elders. Tell them I have seen their misery and have promised to bring them into Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. The elders will listen to you, and together you will visit Pharaoh.”

 “It’s unlikely the elders will listen.”

  “I will give you three signs: your staff will transform into a snake, your hand will become leprous and be healed, and water from the Nile will turn into blood.”

“Pardon me again, Lord, but I’m not an eloquent man.”

“Who created your tongue and your mouth? Am I not the Lord? Go, I will help you speak and teach you what to say.”

“Pardon me, Lord. Please send someone else.”

God burned with anger. “Your brother, Aaron, speaks well, and he’s already coming to meet you. You will speak through him and use your staff to perform signs.”

 Despite miraculous signs and plagues, Pharaoh hardened his heart, but God sent each plague as he promised, and Moses’ faith deepened. While God warned the Pharaoh to let the people go, Moses and Aaron grew bold for the Lord, issuing Egypt’s ruler with God's ultimate warning.

 “At midnight, I will sweep through Egypt. Every firstborn son will die, and Egypt will groan with unprecedented wailing. I will distinguish between Egypt and Israel. When I see lamb’s blood on their doorposts and lintels, I will pass over the Israelites.”

 Moses, now the great general, led 600,000 Israelites, besides women and children, under God’s mighty hand through the Red Sea. They wandered in the wilderness for forty years, afraid to enter the Promised Land. He pleaded for them with the Lord for food and water, suffering their ingratitude, grumbling and, eventually, their idolatry while he communed with God on Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments.

 At one hundred and twenty, Moses uttered his parting speech.

 “I can no longer lead you, neither will I enter the Promised Land, but the Lord your God will lead you across Jordan and deliver you from your enemies. Be courageous, for the Lord, your God, will never leave you. Obey him with all your hearts, and you will be his treasured possession.” A humble leader, confident in his unfailing GOD.

 Moses climbed Mount Nebo, where God showed him the promised land. Once again, alone with his Maker, the great general died, and God buried his faithful, humble servant's body in Moab, and welcomed him to heaven.

 How often has God called us into his service, and we have been afraid? 

Do we think: ‘I don’t have the qualifications. I’m a nobody. Isn’t there someone else?’

 From Moses’ perspective, his long absence from Egypt had robbed him of his confidence. I wonder if he had been away from the God of his fathers. Had he been a brash young man, a privileged member of Egyptian society? Or a misfit, despised by the Egyptians because of his Israelite birth, and the object of Israelite resentment because of his social status? If he hadn’t fled, could God have delivered his people sooner? A hypothetical question, indeed. During his life in the desert, he learned meekness and respect, along with survival skills he would use in the wilderness. God was overseeing all these circumstances. 

 God saw qualities and experience in Moses which he had discounted in himself. His knowledge of Pharaoh and Egyptian culture would be invaluable while he represented his own Hebrew heritage. As a mature man, he'd become desperately aware of his inadequacies, but God would move him forward, equipping him for another forty years of service: God brought along his brother who could represent him, trained him in the gift of patient meekness, until he fostered a close and dependent relationship with the Almighty.

 When Jesus calls workers, he provides the people and the skills, training them as they trust him. 

Has he asked you to serve him? Have you wandered away lately? From a mustard seed of faith, he may restore you and grow your faith into a mighty tree of blessing. Let’s respond to his call on our lives, knowing he will go before us, supplying every need.