TRUST THE LORD

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?"

Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"

"A staff," he replied.

The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground."

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail."

So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.

"This," said the Lord, "is so 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."

Then the Lord said, "Put your hand inside your cloak."

So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.

"Now put it back into your cloak," he said.

So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

Then the Lord said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."

Moses said to the Lord, "O 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."

The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."

Exodus 4:1-17

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

This would perfectly sum up the conversation we find between God and Moses in our passage today, taken from the first seventeen verses of Exodus, chapter 4. Look again at those verses here:

Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?"

Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"

"A staff," he replied.

The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground."

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail."

So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.

"This," said the Lord, "is so 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."

Then the Lord said, "Put your hand inside your cloak."

So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.

"Now put it back into your cloak," he said.

So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

Then the Lord said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."

Moses said to the Lord, "O 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."

The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."

Here, we find Moses revealing an internal problem, a problem that is not uncommon in believers and non-believers alike.

What was the problem?

Put simply, Moses didn't trust that God could truly do what He said He could do and what makes this completely unbelievable is that Moses had already witnessed a bush that was burning and yet unconsumed, an obvious sign of God's miraculous power, a power that clearly displayed that He would make the unconventional conventional and the impossible possible.

Further, Moses had heard God speaking to him directly from the burning bush, providing assurance that He would be with him as he returned to Egypt in order to carry out the plan he was given.

Yet, despite all this, we read Moses saying this to God:

"What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you?’"

Now go back to when God initially tasked Moses in chapter 3. There you will find Him saying this:

“The elders of Israel will listen to you.” v.18

God had told Moses that the elders were going to listen to him and yet, we find Moses fearing they wouldn’t believe him. So either God was lying or Moses wasn’t trusting, and since God is perfectly true in every way, then we know who is at fault here. And yet, we find God being patient with him. In fact, He doubles down on showing His wonder working power to try and instill confidence and faith in Moses that he could indeed do what he was being called to do because His God was with him every step of the way.  

First, he tells Moses to throw down his staff and when he does, the scriptures tell us that it turns it into a snake before reverting back to a staff after Moses grabbed the snake by its tail.

Then, God tells Moses to stick his hand into his cloak and then withdraw it. When he does, Moses finds his hand afflicted with leprosy which miraculously disappears when he sticks his hand back into his cloak and removes it.

Two miracles, back to back, that could only be done by a power beyond that of any person, the power of God Himself.

Now, these two incredible personal experiences by Moses should have been enough for him to surrender any doubt within, subscribing himself to God’s service but we find the Lord providing yet a third example of His astounding power for Moses to tap into if need be. This involved drawing “some water from the Nile” and pouring “it on the dry ground” for when he would do this, God promised Moses that the water would “become blood on the ground."

After all this, surely Moses would surrender any disbelief, right?

Not exactly. For as we see, Moses still hasn’t used up all of his excuses as he still tried to wiggle out of doing what God was ordering him to do. We read him saying this:

"O 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."

Again, we shouldn’t lose sight of how patient the Lord is with Moses, and we need to remember this as He is dealing with us as well when we have a litany of excuses for not fulfilling His plans for us. In response to Moses’ latest excuse, we find Him saying this:

"Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

In other words, God is telling Moses that He was the One who created every man and woman in all creation. It was He who crafted every part of the body to carry out its special functions and therefore He was the One who organized and ordained them to work in harmony in order to carry out His will and way.

And so when God asks Moses, "Who gave man his mouth?", He's talking to us as well. We need to understand that saying the right things, the things that honor our Lord, will only happen when we seek Him first so to get the words to speak through the mouth He gave us. When it comes to our Christian walk, we need to seek the path He wants us to walk using the feet that He placed under us. And in regard to carrying out His purposes, we only need to place our full trust in Him to do whatever he wants to do in and through us, believing that all He does in partnership with us will work out to His glory.

That’s all we need to do and yet, we, like Moses, still fail badly in carrying this out as we allow our fears to override our faith.

We're afraid to speak about the Lord to others because we're afraid that we might be rejected or ridiculed or persecuted. And so we remain silent, even though the Lord wants us to speak out.

We are too often afraid to go where the Lord wants us to go because the way ahead might feel uncertain with potential dangers. And so like our reluctance to speak, we allow our anxiety and fear to get the best of us and end up standing still when the Lord wants for us to go and do what He demands.

And I am sure that we, like Moses, can test the limits of God’s patience to the point where He becomes angry over our stubborn resistance and refusal to let go of our excuses and place our total confidence in Him.

Well, indeed the Lord gets frustrated and mad at Moses, finally telling him that He would speak through his brother Aaron as well as him, adding that anything that Aaron said would still be received as if it came from Moses himself.

In other words, God is making it clear that His will is going to get done, no matter who speaks the words that He provides. With this, we had better understand that if we stubbornly refuse to allow the Lord to use us to accomplish His will, then He will just find someone else to use instead. The bottom line is that His will is going to be accomplished one way or another.

Now, I don't know about you but I don't want to let the Lord down, the same Lord who has given us everything to include the guarantee of eternal life through His Son, a guarantee we gain simply by believing in Jesus as Savior. As we consider His calling for our lives, we need to ponder this:

If God has given us His all, shouldn’t we be willing to give Him our all in return?

It’s a convicting question, for sure, but one we all need to be challenged with as believers.

My prayer is that we’re fully grasping what the Lord is saying to us today through His Word. For the message here us that we need to trust Him, not just with some of ourselves but with all our heart and soul and mind, understanding that He will never lead us anywhere to do anything without being right there alongside us.

Friends, as we have clearly seen through these past three messages.

We’re not alone.

God has a plan.

Let’s believe these things in trust and surrender ourselves to Him and His purposes.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.