Can’t or Won’t?

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Opening Prayer

Living Lord, again I come before You seeking fellowship with You and Your gracious guidance in my life.

Read Exodus 4:1-17

^[1] Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?” ^[2] Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. ^[3] The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. ^[4] 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. ^[5] “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.” ^[6] Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous-it had become as white as snow. ^[7] “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. ^[8] Then the LORD said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. ^[9] 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.” ^[10] 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.” ^[11] The LORD said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? ^[12] Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” ^[13] But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” ^[14] 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 he will be glad to see you. ^[15] 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. ^[16] 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. ^[17] But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

Meditate

Moses made a serious attempt to wiggle out of God’s will (1-12). God answered all his excuses and Moses had to come clean. He simply didn’t want to do it (13)! God is not fooled by our excuses!

Think Further

We are told that Moses was an extremely meek person (Num. 12:3). In this chapter (and chapter 3) we learn that humble people can be extremely stubborn. I run up and down the ladder of Moses’ excuses, climaxing with the blunt, “Send someone else!” Do examples spring to mind of disobedience in my own life masquerading as humility? Note Moses’ words in verse 10, “I am slow of speech and tongue” (the “I” is emphatic) and the emphasis in the Lord’s reply in verse 11, “Is it not I, the Lord?” Do I make my own defects a ball and chain, limiting what the Lord intends to do through me? If I am a reader with a sight or hearing impairment, does this verse propose the revolutionary idea of my suffering as a divine gift? How does this verse remind me that the way I am has not escaped the notice and design of God’s loving providence?

The signs and wonders are not just arbitrary magic acts; they are contextualized for people who live in Egypt, where the pharaoh’s headdress incorporated a cobra; where skin diseases were rife; where the Nile was the country’s life-giver; and where it seems that the pharaoh had an official called “The Mouth” so that he did not demean himself by speaking directly. I ponder too God’s angry patience in answering Moses’ stubborn self-rubbishing by providing his eloquent elder brother (how did he not get killed years before?) “…who will be glad when he sees you” (14). Who can sufficiently adore the unyielding love of the One who will not take our “No!” for an answer, but instead overwhelms our reluctances with his kindness? When God calls me to a task, how do I differentiate a credible “I can’t; please help me” from a disobedient “I won’t; ask someone else”?

Apply

When has God reassured you of his presence and power? What concerns do you have about doing God’s will or following his lead? How does Moses’ experience help you?

Closing prayer

Lord, I am somebody because You made me, because You love me, because You died for me. For this grace, beyond my deserving and sometimes my desiring, I thank You.

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