Who Am I? Exodus 2:23-25, 3:1-15, 4:10-17 - Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Have you ever worked hard, put your heart and soul into something, gone the extra mile for someone, only to be told that your best isn’t good enough?

Our hyper-competitive, materialistic world tells you that you are not good enough unless you’re the best. You must be rich, powerful, beautiful, universally adored, and a winner.

But what if I told you that the heroes of the faith were nothing special when God called them?

Jeremiah said, “I’m just a boy,” when God called him to be a prophet. (Jer. 1:6). Mary, mother of Jesus said, “I’m just a virgin.” (Luke 1:34). Peter cried, “Get away from me, Lord, I’m a sinful man!” when Jesus called him (Luke 5:8).

But nobody struggles with inadequacy as much as Moses. 

     

The Burning Bush by MikoFox on flickr.

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro when the Lord suddenly spoke to him in a burning bush. God has seen the suffering of his people and heard their cries as they are enslaved, oppressed, and persecuted by Pharoah. Therefore, God is sending Moses to Pharoah, to bring his people out of Egypt.

Just consider the gravity of what God is calling Moses to do…

You may recall that when Moses was born, Pharoah ordered the extermination of all Hebrew boys. Desperate to save her son’s life, Moses’s mother set him in a basket and floated him down the Nile River. Pharoah’s daughter rescued him, named him Moses, and raised him in Pharoah’s household. But Moses soon witnessed the suffering of his kindred. One day, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews. He was so enraged that he killed the Egyptian and hid the body. When Pharoah learned what Moses had done, Pharoah vowed to kill him, forcing Moses to flee to Midian, where he lived for decades, ultimately getting married and raising a son. Things go on like this for decades until God appears in the burning bush and sends Moses to do what Moses knows is impossible.

Listen to how he objects to God’s call: (1) “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and bring my people out of Egypt?” (2) By what name am I to call you before the people? (3) “I’m not a good speaker!” (4) Send someone else! (5) Pharoah wants to kill me!

So why did God still send Moses? And why did Moses eventually go?

Moses saw what the Lord can do when he threw his staff onto the ground and God turned it into a snake. And God performed many other miraculous signs before Moses ever went to Pharoah. But even after all the plagues, the Passover, and the parting of the Red Sea, Moses still struggles. It doesn’t help that the Israelites rebel the instant something doesn’t go their way. Slavery was hell. And yet, despite all the wonders God performs through Moses, they want to go back to Egypt.

I’m sure there were many times when Moses wished he’d ignored the burning bush. The mission was proving to be impossible, reinforcing what Moses knew all along: that he wasn’t good enough.

But here’s the truth: Moses wasn’t good enough. He wasn’t a good public speaker, he lacked charisma, he couldn’t control his emotions, and he took it personally when people rejected him.

I should also add that Abraham and Sarah weren’t good enough to be mother and father of God’s people. They were too old. Jeremiah was too young. Mary was just a young woman. Paul murdered Christians. But God doesn’t call the best and the brightest. God doesn’t even call the willing. God’s call begins by God showing you who God is and what God can do: a burning bush that isn’t consumed by the flames. A staff that turns into a snake. God accomplishes something so impossible that you cannot deny God’s involvement. When you see God’s glory, when you receive amazing grace, God calls you, and you’re no longer asking, “am I good enough?” The question before you: “is God good enough?”

God calls you out of what’s comfortable, what’s familiar, and what’s predictable, and what’s easy. God whispers your name, taps you on the shoulder, or puts a burning in your heart to take action or make a change. But when God calls, and the devil shouts: you’re not good enough. If you try, you’ll fail. If God were truly with you, it wouldn’t be this hard. It wouldn’t take this long. If God was good, there wouldn’t be this mess! Everything would be perfect!

Modern life has taught us to expect instant results. Instant gratification. If something’s hard to do, then it isn’t worth doing!

This is why, when you try and you fail, you give up: because your failure validates every doubt you had about yourself, about God, and about what’s possible.

When you believe the lie that you aren’t good enough, you have all the reasons you need not to come to church; not to pray; not to help others; and certainly not to go out and do hard things.

But again, the Christian life is never about showing others, yourself, or even God that you’re good enough. Jesus Christ was good enough, but the cross was humanity’s way of telling him, “No, you’re not.” Nothing is ever good enough for sinners.

Here’s the question you should be asking: Is God good enough: to provide for your needs; to heal your wounds; to conquer your fears; to show you a life of purpose; to make a way when there is no way?

Next time the devil deceives you into believing you’re not good enough, remember this: The Lord is God. You are a child of God. God gave you life so that you may know his greatness and behold is glory. God doesn’t call you to instant success, but a lifetime of faithfulness and trust so that all know you will know that God is great.

So how will God be great in you today?

Exodus 2:23-25, 3:1-15, 4:10-17

²³ After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Their cry for help rose up to God from their slavery. ²⁴ God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁵ God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

3 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. ³ Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰ Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” ¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” ¹² He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

¹³ But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” ¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:

This is my name forever,
and this my title for all generations.

¹⁰ But Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” ¹¹ Then the Lord said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹² Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.” ¹³ But he said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.” ¹⁴ Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, “What of your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know that he can speak well; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. ¹⁵ 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 what you shall do. ¹⁶ He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him. ¹⁷ Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.” (NRSV)