My girls group just finished up a fantastic Beth Moore Bible Study (The Patriarchs) which took us through much of Genesis. I decided to keep going on my own into Exodus and have been praying, as Beth says, for God to make me smarter than I am! I want supernatural insight into His word to digest it and make it pertinant for this season. I'm going slowly so I can really meditate on the passages and today I was chewing on chapter 3, the story of the burning bush. I know it's a very well-known passage but it's loaded with some crazy stuff that I just can't help but share...
So the background info you need to know is that Moses was caught killing an Egyptian and therefore fled from Egypt, got married and was living with his wife's family. So he's taking care of his father-in-law's flock and ends up seeing a bush that is on fire, but not burning up. We all know that it ends up being God speaking to Moses through the bush which is crazy enough on its own, but that's totally not what this post is about. What gets me is the conversation that God and Moses have. God has heard His people crying out to Him to free them from the Egyptians and He has a plan for deliverance. He tells Moses that he must go to the Pharaoh and bring the Isaelites out of Egypt. Moses first responds basically by saying, um God? I'm pretty much a nobody and you want ME for this job?? God assures Moses that He will be with him and will give him a sign so that he'll know that it was God who sent him. When Moses has brought the people out, he will "serve God on this mountain." ahhh but check it out (v. 12)....God's sign? It won't happen until after Moses has actually gone to Pharaoh and taken God's people out of Egypt! Then Moses starts in on the "what ifs". What if the people ask for Your name? What if they don't believe me or listen to me?
So as I was meditating on all of this, I realized how many of us can relate to what Moses is going through (ok or at least I can!) You feel or hear God asking you to do something that is out of your comfort zone. Our first response tends to be "sorry God, you've got the wrong person. Obviously you seem to have overlooked the fact I am ___ (fill in the blank: afraid, shy, too small, too whatever!). After God makes it pretty darn clear that He wasn't wrong and He's got the right person, we start in on the 'what ifs'. If we're going to HAVE to do this, we want assurance that it's all going to turn out, that nothing will go wrong, that we'll be ok. So we go through all the possible situations...what if this happens. What if they say this. what if, what if, what if. And that brings me back to God's sign. The one that won't actually come until after Moses has stepped out in obedience and trusted his ability to hear from God. I know personally there has been many a time when I've thought I've heard God speak something and then I've second guessed myself. I can just hear Moses after the fact: "I MUST be losing it! God appeared in a bush and asked me to confront Pharaoh and command him to let the Israelites go. That couldn't have been from God. I must have just made that up." Wouldn't it have been MUCH better (you know, if Sarah was in charge) for God to give Moses the sign before hand? :) Then you'd know what you heard was from God and you can go on your merry way to confront Pharaoh.
How would we learn to discern God's voice if we never had to trust that we've heard it or mess up a few times when it turns out it wasn't? How is it faith if we always know how it will turn out? God asks for our obedience to His voice and we can know that it will be okay because the victory is already His! I want to let go of the 'what ifs' this year and learn to walk more in quick obedience! And I'm excited for chapter 4! :)
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