“Here I Am – But Please Send Somebody Else”

“Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it. Then God’s anger burned against him…” (Exodus 4:10-14)

There’s an old axiom that says, “If there is anything that we learn from history, it’s that we don’t really learn anything from history.” Sometimes it seems we are so insistent on doing things our own way and maintaining our personal point of view that we are doomed to repeat our mistakes over and over again.

I heard a funny story about a newspaper reporter who was dispatched to a community that had been subjected to heavy rains and floods. He took a boat and found a woman named Mrs. Smith who had retreated to safety on her roof. As he interviewed her, they watched a chicken coop float past them. Next, an old refrigerator floated by, followed by a VW bug. They watched as a man’s hat floated by, but then the hat reversed direction and started floating back upstream. When it got about thirty feet upstream it floated back down, only to reverse again and travel upstream. This was repeated six or seven times, and the reporter finally asked her, “Mrs. Smith, can you explain the erratic direction of that hat?” She said, “Oh, that’s just my crazy husband - he said he was going to mow the lawn come hell or high water.” - Now that’s a stubborn person!

Now in case anyone might be wondering; obstinacy is not actually a fruit of the Spirit. As far as I can tell there are not many pig-headed people in the Bible who were used greatly by God. The Lord normally works through people who are yielded to His purpose and plan. Moses almost seems like an exception to the rule when he receives his call to ministry. Moses was a man whose pride should had been tempered by spending 40 years minding his father-in-law’s sheep in the desert. Because of past mistakes in his life, he had come to think of himself as a nobody. Growing up in Pharaoh’s house he had power and prestige. But he lost it all when he made the terrible mistake of murdering an Egyptian and was subsequently banished from the kingdom. Instead of waiting upon God, he took matters into his own hands and decided that he would attempt to deliver Israel from the bondage of Egypt through his own power. The price tag for that mistake was high. It took forty years for the would-be king to be prepared to be used by God.

But did he learn his lesson? When God finally calls to him from the burning bush in the desert, what is his response? “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:10-11) Incredibly, in his pride Moses says to God, “No, I won’t do it!” You say, “Wait a minute. Moses is not expressing pride. It’s humility that’s stopping him from answering the call.” But look again. Under the guise of humility Moses is using his own make-believe insignificance to excuse himself from the task God was giving him. He’s saying to God, “Your plan doesn’t make sense to me. Your wisdom is flawed in choosing me! I don’t agree with you.” Wasn’t it Moses’ wisdom that got him into trouble in the first place? Anytime we attempt to establish our wisdom as greater than God’s, it is an expression of our pride.

In response to Moses’ refusal God does three things:

1. God Gives Him a Promise: (Verse 12) “And God said, I will be with you.” God promised His presence. “ I will help you. I will strengthen you and will uphold you. You will not be alone.”

2. God Gives Him a Plan: (verse 14) “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God told him to say, “Tell them that ‘I AM’ sent you.” God is ‘I AM’ in the sense that He always has been and always will be. “Nobody determines My character. There is nobody shaping Me or making Me what I am. I am not in the process of becoming, I simply Am—without beginning, without end. I am in power now and forever. That's what it means to be God. Tell the Israelites to be confident. When the God who simply is from all eternity resolves to do a thing, He will do it!”

3. God Gives Him Power: (verse 4:1-3) Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you?’ Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it.” God provides Moses with supernatural power to convince Pharaoh, but even this wasn’t enough to convince Moses to move forward in faith.

Moses again says, “Yes, I hear you Lord, but I still don’t know how to speak eloquently. Please send someone else.” Over and over Moses keeps repeating the same mistake. He trusts his own wisdom more than he trusts the wisdom of God. He refuses to abandon the limitations of his own mind and trust completely in God’s plan. As such he keeps offering one reason after another why he can’t fulfill God’s plan for His life.

If there is anything we learn from history, it is that we don’t often learn from history. How much better to pay close attention to the lessons the Lord is teaching and respond in faith to God’s calling. 1 Corinthians 10:11 says, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” In other words, learn from the examples both good and bad, which we find in the Scriptures. No matter what God calls you to do, He will provide the promise, the plan & the power to accomplish. All we need to provide is the faith to follow.

For the Glory of the King,

PT