Day 311

Day 311

Pray (ACts)

Read - Exodus 3:13-15

Message - Alan Burke

After asking ‘who am I’, Moses, now albeit it a round about way asks God, 'who are you’? (13). He had just been given a wonderful assurance that it was not who he was but whose he was, that God would go with him and be with him in all that lay ahead and to that Moses said…

“Suppose I go”

Enthusiastic, isn’t he! If we had asked Moses to do a wee job for us we would at this stage think to ourselves it’s time to find someone else. But this reluctant recruit wants to know… “what shall I tell them?”.  

Why the question? It isn’t because God’s people had forgotten them because the Hebrew midwives feared the Lord more than Pharaoh (1:17). So what is it then? Well it seems that Moses was still fixated on himself, he no doubt remembered his last dealings with his people and wondered how they would respond when on his return he told them how he was out in the wilderness looking after some sheep, how encountered a burning bush that wasn’t burning and a voice told him to the Israelites out of Egypt. 

You wouldn’t take this guy seriously, you might think age has got the better of him. And then what, even if they took him seriously how’s he going to go before Pharaoh? Well, just as before the problem with Moses was that instead fo looking to the greatness of God he is so caught up in himself, the important thing is not who Moses is, but whose he is, whom he belongs to and that God is ever present with him, all that was required of Moses would be that he would go forward in faith for this was God’s work and not his.

If Moses had taken the time to consider and remember that he came before, the God of his fathers, this whole conversation would have been so much shorter, if Moses had simply taken God at his word, for God would do it, not Moses. This was all the work of God in his plan to redeem his people and bring salvation to the ends of the earth, then it would have been a very different exchange, but Moses was caught up in himself. 

I don’t know about you but I take a great deal of comfort in the midst of this, the unwillingness of Moses, how he is so caught up in himself and its led to fear, doubt, unwillingness, hesitation. 

That may sound really strange, but remember Moses is listed among the greats of the faith in Hebrews chapter 11. How many of you have had doubts, been filled with a sense of inadequacy at God’s calling on your lives, left feeling that you good enough, you don’t deserve God’s grace, how you are a miserable christian. If that’s you this day then stop getting caught up in yourself like Moses did and instead look to the greatness of God. 

In Hebrews we are told Moses is a man of faith, a faith that had been worked in him by God just as the faith we have has been worked in us by God so that we might become his children, when we are filled with doubts, filled with a sense of inadequacy at God’s calling us through faith then we need to stop looking at ourselves and look to whose we are, for we are God’s through faith. 

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not our own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph 2:8-10). In all that lies ahead it is not us that salvation depends on, our inadequacy rather it is God who was, and is at work. 

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC
Q 79 Which is the tenth commandment?
The tenth commandment is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’ s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’ s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’ s. (Exod. 20:17)