Saturday 21 November 2009

Who am I that I should go?

But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" - Expdus 3v11

I don't know quite what to think of Moses’ response to God's call for him to go back to Egypt. I don’t know if he was humble or afraid or a combination of both. He had been shepherding for forty years. He was forced out of Egypt because of his killing of a taskmaster. We don’t for certain, but this Pharaoh was probably a step brother who might very well remember him. I suspect that his reluctance was a combination of both fear and humility.

I am not so sure that the reason for his question is all that important though. ‘Am I really qualified to go and do this? Can I go back to Egypt, speak to the king, and rescue my people? Am I really the one?

Jeremiah had the same question many hundreds of years later. When God called him he doubted his ability – ‘I can’t do this! I am only a kid.’

Most of us have been there as well. God lays out a task for us that we just don’t know if we can do. Maybe we are just afraid to do it. Maybe we think we are too weak, too foolish, and too common to do the job.

God has an answer. ‘I will be with you…go ahead and serve Me.’

What more could Moses want? What more could Jeremiah want? What more could we want.

God: ‘Go into the world and preach the gospel…’
Man: ‘Wait, I can’t do that! Who am I that I can do such an important task? Who am I that I should go to the people and show them the way of deliverance?’
God: ‘…and lo I am with you always…’

Who are we that we should go? Not much. We are the weak, the base, the foolish, the ignorant, the unskilled, the unqualified, and the incapable.

Not much of a C.V. is it? No, but it leaves out one thing. When God is with us nothing is impossible and we learn pretty quickly that only He gets the glory!

No comments: