Never Forsaken: Arguing with God

 

Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, 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.”  Exodus 4:10

 In today’s reading (Exodus 3:19-4:17), we return to the conversation between Moses and God in the wilderness at the burning bush. Let’s pause there a moment though and not read over the situation, accepting it as a simple, well-known story. Moses had a full-on, recorded conversation with God. Now, I talk to God a lot, and often I feel like I hear from Him. Very occasionally I even feel like I have a bit of a back and forth with Him where I say, “but this…” and He points something out to me. But I have NEVER had a full-on conversation with Him where He spoke to me so clearly and specifically as this. I’d venture to say that most of us haven’t. So, truly, this story is incredible in many more ways than we may have considered. It wasn’t just the miracle of the burning bush, but even greater was the miracle of having a back and forth with God like this. Moses was able to ask all his questions and have the honor of hearing and experiencing God’s responses to them.

 To recap a little from last week, Moses’ first question was, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11). This likely reflected his changed heart and mind over the 40 years that he had served as shepherd for his father-in-law’s sheep in the wilderness after having been raised the first 40 as a prince of Egypt who had been taught that he was to be the deliverer of his people. God’s answer to Moses was a reassurance that he would not be doing this task in his own strength but that God, Himself, would be with him. Then Moses asked, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13) and I wondered if this had been a point of mystery and challenge for Moses in his early life – what is my God’s Name? In answer to this query, God gave Moses His Name that has been used ever since, YHWH, אֶהְיֶה and transliterated into English, Jehovah. Yes, God has many names, but this one is the linchpin that we see over and over in scripture. And now we are caught up to where we step into the conversation today.

 Moses first asked God what His Name was, then goes on to wonder what will happen if the elders of Israel don’t believe that God has sent him, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?” (Exodus 4:1). This seems like a very valid concern to me. Now, if I had an encounter in the wilderness with God that was as clear as this, I would not hesitate to believe that I had been sent by Him, but if I simply heard about someone else’s encounter, I would also be looking for a bit of proof. I can think of one such story that I don’t believe at all but has been propagated throughout American history. So, Moses asking God for some proof to show the Israelites makes sense, but was he? Was he asking for proof, or trying to offer one of many excuses that he wasn’t the right person for the job? In any case, God’s answer here had to get Moses’ attention. God directs Moses to his staff and then, to his horror, turns it into a snake. The way the Bible says (in Moses’ own words as he wrote this section), “Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.” (Exodus 4:3) shows you how Moses felt about snakes. This is a lot like how I feel about spiders, I think. This is a man who has lived for the past 40 years in the wilderness herding sheep. He has to have encountered his share of snakes, but when he sees this one, he runs from it! And then God commands him to, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” (Exodus 4:4). I don’t know if he felt the same way that I do when I go to squish a spider I’ve encountered in my bathroom, but I suspect a very similar feeling resided in the pit of his stomach. There’s no way that he could get out of this, he had clearly been commanded by the all-powerful God in how to deal with this creature that terrified him. And here’s the thing, we know what was going to happen when we read this. We know that when he grasped the snake, it would turn back into a staff. How do we know? We watched the Charlton Heston movie of course! Ok, so I’m dating myself a bit here and many from younger generations may not have had this privilege, but most of us that had exposure to the church in our lives have heard this story. What you have to keep in mind is that when God commanded Moses to grab the snake by its tail, Moses didn’t know what would happen next. It’s not like grabbing a tiger by it’s tail, that snake could very easily whip around and bite you! But, as much as Moses feared the snake, he feared God more in that moment, and he obeyed. To his amazement, that snake turned right back into his staff. I bet he never quite looked at or held that staff in the same way again though!

 But God didn’t stop there. He went on to tell Moses to put his hand into his cloak and when he did and took it out, he found that his hand was, “leprous—it had become as white as snow” (Exodus 4:6). If the snake hadn’t shaken him up enough, this had to. Leprosy was a terrible death sentence. It had to be one of the most horrible, miserable ways to die slowly, literally watching your body fall apart while being ostracized from all of society. When Moses looked at his hand, he had to know real fear. But God doesn’t leave him there long, He has him put it back into his cloak and this time, when he pulled it out, it was just as before. That relief had to be palpable. God gave Moses one more proof, that of pouring water from the Nile on the ground and it becoming blood, but this was more conceptual than demonstrated for Moses because they were pretty far from the Nile at this time. You’d think after this heart-stopping answer, Moses would be quite hesitant to ask God another question, but that should just go to show you how strongly Moses felt about all this.

 “Then Moses said to the LORD, ‘O my Lord, I am not an eloquent man, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.’” (Exodus 4:10 NET). Have you ever found yourself making excuses to get out of something? Trying to convince someone that you are just not the right person for the job? What Moses was about to find out was that rather than proving he wasn’t the right person for the job, he was proving that he was. To humbly paraphrase God’s response, He essentially said, “Funny you should mention that because I was looking for someone who wouldn’t get all the credit for what I’m about to do through him. I made you just the way you are on purpose and you are exactly the person I want for this job.” When Job posed questions to God in Job 29-31, God gave him a similar, if much longer response, and it put Job in his place. But, I think, Moses was still in a place where he feared what God was asking him to do more than he feared God. Have you ever been there? Sometimes the task before us is SO overwhelming, so terrifying. For me, I know that God will love and forgive me even if I don’t follow through with what I feel like I’m supposed to do, so that adds another element of hesitation. Do I fear the task more than God? Maybe. That’s not good, but it’s honest. But you have to realize, Moses didn’t have a personal relationship with God. He didn’t talk to Him every day. His understanding of God was from a very distant teaching, perhaps as old as when he was nursed by his mother. On the other hand, he had lived 40 years in the wilderness as a fugitive from Egypt, rehashing all the reasons he would never go back there.

 That was clearly fresher in his mind as he continued to argue with God, posing his final request, "O my Lord, please send anyone else whom you wish to send!" (Exodus 4:13). The Bible tells us that at this point, “the LORD became angry with Moses” (Exodus 4:14). I’ve been confused by this at different points in my life. How could God become angry when He knew this would happen? Then God reminded me of times where I didn’t want to have a certain conversation with someone because I “knew” how they would react, and then when I had the conversation and they reacted exactly as I’d expected, I would get angry. So, I guess I have a point of understanding for this. Then God tells Moses something that just sets my head to spinning. He tells Moses that He will let his brother, Aaron, be his spokesperson. That, in itself, isn’t terribly shocking. What gets me is what immediately follows, “Moreover, he is coming to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.” (Exodus 4:14). Aaron was already on his way to meet Moses. Why? Why, after 40 years of separation, and who know how many before that, was Aaron coming to meet him now? That couldn’t have been a coincidence. God knew BEFORE His conversation with Moses at the burning bush that Moses would argue and beg to get out of the task God had intended for him. God knew that Moses would need help to get through what was ahead of him. And God had set it up in advance. Even before this conversation, even before God got angry with Moses for all his excuses, God had put in place a plan and set it in motion, causing Aaron to head towards Moses. Praise God!

Here’s the Thing: Whether it’s a spider you have to squish or a conversation you have to face, sometimes things are really hard to do, and we want to make excuses and find any way to get out of them. “Surely there is someone else better fitted to this task!” But if God has called us to the task, there are no amount of excuses that will absolve us. True, we could decide not to obey Him, but that will certainly not go better for us. Sometimes, like Moses had to when he reached out to grasp the snake by the tail, we have to push through that fear, set aside those beliefs about ourselves that have kept us in bondage for so long, and trust God. You see, He had a plan in place far before you ever encountered this situation and you can trust absolutely that He will see you through it!