Moses and The Wrong Question

Did you just ask ME that?

Alethea's Mind

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” Exodus 3:1-3

As I read the third chapter of Exodus, I had a funny thought about what would have happened if I was Moses. Exodus 3 would have been one of the shortest chapters in the bible that would read something like this:

Exodus 3:1-3: Now Tosin was keeping the flock of her father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and she led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to her in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Tosin saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. And Tosin said, “What kind of crazy juju is this? I can’t deal!” And Tosin turned aside and ran for her life.

run

THE END.

But Moses didn’t do that, thank God. We still have the entire book of Exodus because he turned aside to see why the bush burned; he didn’t run. But as we read further, we see how the conversation between God and Moses ensued, and we know that although Moses didn’t run away with his feet, he tried to run away with his words. And God, like a very experienced parent, knew this child all too well . . .

After God had told Moses about the state of His Children in Egypt and that He had heard their cry, he dove straight to why He wanted Moses’ attention:

The conversation between God and Moses, with little add-ons by me:

God: “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt . . . ”

Moses: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

God thinking: Okay, did you just cut me off? And for what? That question? Now I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear what you said and pick it up from where you interrupted me . . . So what was I saying?

God: “. . . But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

God thinking: I’m done. Now you can speak.

Moses: “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name? ’ what shall I say to them?”

God thinking: Good job, Moses. Now that’s the right question. The question is not about who you are, it’s about who I AM!

God: “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

***

We all know how Moses tried to win this battle of wits but ended up getting himself a sidekick instead, so I’ll stop right here. What God is telling me through this little discuss is simply this:

It’s not about you, girl. IT’S ALL ABOUT ME!

Many times we have looked at our abilities and thought to ourselves

“I must be God’s best choice, if not His only choice!”

or

“I don’t think God thought this through. How could He send me? Me of all people?”

And sometimes our thoughts even about our salvation may tow the same line:

“I’m such a good girl, I do no wrong, that’s why God must love me so”

or

“I’m too much dirt, God can never love me”

Really?

I don’t think so.

Here’s my personalized version of John 3:16: For God so loved dirt like me, that He sent His Son to clean me up; if only I just believe this, He’ll live His eternal life through me.

It’s all about Him: His strength at work in our weakness, His grace at work in our lives, His unconditional love that paid our way through.

It’s not about me, it’s all about Him.

So if God ignores our funny excuse of “who am I?”, then just maybe we’re asking the wrong question.

 

I originally wrote this in 2014, though I have done a few edits today. The Lord led me to it this afternoon because recently there are so many things He has asked me to do that I have tried to run away from thinking I’m not good enough. It will never be about my strength. He has promised to never leave me, and that is all I should care about.

good to go

IT’S TIME!!!

27 thoughts on “Moses and The Wrong Question”

  1. The Lord showed His love too! Patience and mercy. How many times have we tried to tell people something and they just don’t get it and we get mad and storm off?

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    1. In fact, that was one of the things I was led to share with teens at church yesterday. We talked about who Jesus is, and one of the points was Jesus is patient, pointing out how he patiently healed, taught and still chases after us. We must allow Him to be formed in us.

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      1. Getting closer to Him and the fruits of the Spirit. Nothing makes us more like Him than that.

        “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

        But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”
        ‭‭Romans‬ ‭6:16-18, 22‬

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  2. Tosin, I liked this a lot. When you imagined what your response might have been to the burning bush, it got me thinking of how many times we observe other people in their circumstances, and we think we know what we would do in those same circumstances, but we don’t really know until we are faced with them ourselves. It could be totally different than what we could ever imagine.

    Also, I liked your emphasis on how it is all about God, and not about us. It reminded me of the song we wrote together. Maybe you could post a link to it here. It is very fitting, I believe.

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    1. Oh, thank you, Sue. So there’s a possibility that I might not run away from the bush? You know I tell God to save the supernatural experiences for when I get to heaven because I don’t think I’ll do well with them. But like you said, I’ll never know.
      Yes, I think our song speaks well for this post. It’s really all about God.

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  3. Your post prompts me to think on Hosea and Gomer. We are like Gomer, and God continues to pursue us. How do we not understand that it’s not about us – that US is what brought us to our utter ruin, and leads to desolation and bitterness???
    As always, God ends with the promise of a blessing. And He always follows through. We see the fulfillment of His Great Promise in Jesus Christ, and He has so much more for us as we follow and obey Him.

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  8. I love this! I would have ran for the hills, too! 😀

    It amazes me that even if we run God follows and brings us back. And usually He’s got something for us to do that makes us want to run again. But we need to stop and realize it’s about Him and He’s going to protect us through it.

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    1. True!!!! God did that for me on Friday. He opened a door for me but I was scared of what was on the other side, so I went to look for someone else to walk in with me and the Lord wasn’t very pleased that I didn’t trust Him enough. But He was the one who helped me get back on track. His mercies are new every morning. Thank you, Michelle 🤗

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