Exodus 4 Heart to Heart
God and Moses are still having a heart-to-heart talk about Moses’ future. Moses is doing all he can to have God pick someone else.
It’s time! God is ready to bring His people out of Egypt. And He has chosen the person to be His voice to Pharaoh. We left Moses and God in the middle of their discussion about this.
“What is that in your hand?”
“What? You mean my staff?”
“Yes. That will do. I want you to throw it on the ground.”
Moses looks puzzled for a moment but obeys. “AIEEEEEEEE!!!” Screams Moses as he runs from the spot his staff hit the ground. It turned into a SNAKE! From about 10 feet away Moses watches the snake move on the ground.
“Go pick it up by the tail.”
“WHAT! But…”
“Go.”
Moses creeps up on the snake. He puts his hand tentatively towards it then snatches it back.
“Go!”
Taking a deep breath Moses then quickly reaches out and grabs the snake’s tail. He is ready to drop it and run again but it immediately turns back into his staff. A DEEP sigh escapes from his lips.
“That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you” (Exodus 3:5).
Moses nods and wipes the sweat from his brow.
“Put your hand inside your cloak.”
Moses slowly slips his hand inside his cloak. He is a bit nervous because the last time God told him to do something a snake was the result. He is wondering what is going to happen next, but this seems harmless enough; so far.
God waits silently until Moses takes his hand back out of his cloak.
“AIEEEE!!!” Moses yells as he looks at his hand. It looks like he has leprosy. His eyes are huge and his mind starts running away with the fears of what will happen to him next. He will be exiled!
“Put your hand back in your robe.”
Moses doesn’t even hesitate for a second. He sticks his hand back under his robe.
God waits again for Moses to pull his hand back out.
Moses starts to pull his hand out then stops. “Please don’t let it be something worse” he thinks to himself. He takes a deep breath and pulls it the rest of the way from under his robe. A smile breaks across his face as he sees his hand fully restored!
“’If they will not believe you’ God said, ‘or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign…’”
Moses wipes the sweat from his brow once more and looks closely at his hand, examining even the finger nails, marveling at the transformations that have taken place.
“’…If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice,…’”
Moses’ eyes go wide and dread grips his throat. “What does He have in mind next” wonders Moses.
“…you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground’” (Exodus 3:8-9).
Moses breaths a deep sigh of relief that he didn’t have to participate in another “pre-test” for the people. But he is still not ready to take on the job God is telling him to do.
Moses tries another way to get out of the job God is calling him to do.
“I can’t speak very well. ‘I’m not eloquent, either in the past or since You have spoken’ (Exodus 3:10) to me. I get tongue tied and can’t think under pressure.”
God shakes His head. “Another excuse” He thinks. Not that God didn’t know this one was coming. “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak” (Exodus 3:11-12).
Moses is exasperated. He doesn’t want to go! This job is too dangerous and scarry. It’s time to get straight to the point. “Oh, my Lord, PLEASE send someone else” (Exodus 3:13, emphasis added).
Now God has had enough! He is angry with Moses’ refusal, but He is STILL not going to let him off. “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs” (Exodus 3:14b-17).
“There is no way out of this” thinks Moses, so he stops arguing. “At least God agreed to send someone with me to do this job.” Moses is excited to be reuniting with his birth brother. This will be the first time he has seen him since he was taken to the palace of Pharaoh after being weaned.
In Heaven, Jesus and the Holy Spirit sit back and laugh. They got to watch the whole exchange.
“Moses is a stubborn man” remarked the Holy Spirit.
“Yes. But he will be just as stubborn for Me” says God.
“I was wondering when he would run out of excuses” chided Jesus.
“He did seem to have a LOT of them” laughed the Father.
“And you are certain that HE is Your man” questioned the Holy Spirit.
“Absolutely! I made him just for this time.” Answered God with a look of determination on His face.
Father God, You have a plan and purpose for my life. You haven’t spoken to me as clearly as You did to Moses. Have I put up ‘road blocks’ too. And I know that You have been, and still do. knock down. Thank You for not giving up. NOT on moses, and NOT on me.
