Life has a way of testing what we say we believe. Following Jesus is a costly proposition; sometimes costing us our job, a relationship, a promotion, or perhaps our life.
History is replete with instances where a person’s belief in God brought criticism, threats of violence, and imprisonment. Such was the case of Martin Luther, founder of the Reformation movement that sowed the seeds of Protestantism in the sixteenth century. Charlie Kirk was recently assassinated for voicing his beliefs on biblical principles that many conservative Christians say we believe.
What will we do when God challenges us to say or do something that can be very costly? Today, we rejoin Moses at the blazing bush where God appeared to him and told him the exhilarating news that He had heard the pleadings of Moses’ enslaved kinsmen and had come down to free them. This is unbelievable, something Moses had yearned for, and likely had prayed for, since fleeing Egypt to save his own skin! This is the happy state of things as we leave Moses in Exodus 3:9.
But things are about to change in Moses’ mood and disposition when God tells him what He has in mind to keep His promise to Abraham. Imagine the shock, the utter disbelief that pierced Moses’ heart and mind when he heard these words, “Come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:10.
Moses’ immediate response is a protest, an insistence that God has made a terrible mistake, and should find someone else to take on this terrifying task. Moses’ response seems like something of an insult to the Almighty; as to say, “You’ve got to be kidding.” “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? Exodus 3:11
This protestation with Yahweh continues into Exodus 4:13, stirring God’s anger with Moses, and concludes with the appointment of Aaron as the mouthpiece for Moses before the Hebrew elders and Pharaoh himself.
At the center of Moses’ resistance is one thing: fear, nurtured by a strong sense of pride. If you examine Moses’ arguments in Exodus 3: 11, 13, and 4:1, 10, you will notice the repeated use of the pronoun “I.” That’s the essence of the problem here, and isn’t that the problem most of us face when confronted with a difficult situation? It’s about us, our inability to face the challenge before us, our laziness, or our unwillingness to take the step of faith in God that is required. We generally look for the easy path, want “convenient Christianity” rather than doing the hard but godly stuff that Jesus requires of us.
It’s easy to pray for the needs of a friend, neighbor, or family member so long as saying words is all that’s required. It’s a different thing to pray for someone and honestly ask the Lord to show you something you can do to be an answer to the prayer you have just offered. Christianity is easy so long as all you do is talk about it.
Is there something God has put on your heart to do? If so, He will do for you what He told Moses, “I will be with you.”
What Moses was told to do would cause any of us to tremble in light of the dangers involved. Living for God sometimes brings us face-to-face with life-altering choices, decisions we cringe at when considering the possible outcomes. In such times, we must trust the God who is faithful and take the risk, accepting the discomfort, and move into the choice and live it out.
Moses was correct, in a sense. He saw a big problem that he couldn’t handle alone. Isn’t that a natural “human” response, something we may mimic often? We look at the problem as big, forgetting that our Lord is bigger than anything we will ever encounter in this life or in death. After all, He conquered sin, death, and the grave for us, and He lives to make us victorious in the challenges we face in our brief sojourn in this world. God is with us; who can prevail against us!