Moses—Heeding God's call to service (Exod 3:1-14)

HINENI: HEEDING THE CALL OF GOD (Exod 3:1-14)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2002

There are sayings that advise us to be cautious, such as, "Look before you leap" and "Watch your step." Many times these warnings are just figures of speech, expressions that admonish us to be careful. Other times they are quite literal.

Driving down a country road, Dennis came up behind a Mennonite buggy. This was not an unusual sight in southern PA, and normally he would just go around it. The road, however, curved too much to see if any cars were coming from the other direction, so Dennis came to a virtual crawl. What he noticed—and would certainly have missed had he simply passed the buggy and moved on—was a hand-printed sign on the back of the carriage that read: "Energy efficient vehicle: Runs on oats and grass. Caution: Do not step in the exhaust."

In our passage this morning, Moses gets a similar warning to watch his step but for an entirely different reason. He is about to encounter the Lord, and the very ground of that meeting place is holy. It is the prelude to a remarkable series of events, and Moses soon finds himself Heeding God's Call to Service.

 

The history of God's people suffers a significant gap in the biblical record. After the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—their descendants spend over 400 years in Egypt. The only description of that period, though, is a single verse in the opening chapter of Exodus...

Exod 1:7 ...the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

That is not much to say about four centuries, and it raises many questions.

• Did God appear to the people during this period?
• Who served as the great religious leaders, the stalwart examples of faith?
• Did the Israelites' spiritual condition keep up with their numerical increase?

We do not know the answers. When next God speaks, however, He does include some theological education.

 

Before we get there, though, let me make one observation: While this series about Heeding the Call of God focuses on men, I do not want to give the impression that women play an insignificant role in the history of God's people. On the contrary, as we make our way to this next subject of our investigation, it is not the men who distinguish themselves. They are, in fact, conspicuously absent from the narrative. Recounting these events, the author of Exodus, acknowledges the crucial role of women in advancing the divine plan.

• When Pharaoh attempted to disrupt that plan by killing all newborn males, the text says nothing about the fathers' reaction but does tell how...

Exod 1:17 The midwives...feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.

• When the infant Moses was in jeopardy, it was not his father who intervened but his sister, encouraging another woman, Pharaoh's daughter, to care for the child.

Without the actions of these women, there might not have been a Moses, Heeding the Call of God. That is just an aside to help keep us men from thinking too highly of ourselves.

 

Please turn to Exod 3 where Moses, now an adult and a fugitive from the Egyptian authorities, has made a new life for himself as a shepherd in the wilderness of Sinai. God is about to appear and tell him to return to Egypt, but...

 

I. The order is suicidal. (Exod 3:1-10)

Exod 3:1 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 desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 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. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up." 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush,"Moses! Moses!" [He replied, Hineni]

5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

There are several intriguing elements in this passage. The opening verses mention the priest of Midian and the angel of the Lord, individuals about which the author provides little more than a brief identification before moving on. There is the bush that burns without being burned. Even the dirt takes on an unusual significance as God declares it holy. All these elements, however, are merely the

backdrop for what God tells Moses in...

Exod 3:8 ...I have come down to rescue [my people] from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land....

If Moses was able to process this information, he may have been thinking... Well, it's about time God helps Israel. Wherever the Lord had been for the past 400 years, He's finally ready to make good on His promise to the patriarchs.

 

Whether or not that is what is going through Moses' mind, his pondering soon turns to panic, as God says in...

Exod 3:10 ...I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.

What is God thinking? Surely, He must know that the authorities consider Moses persona non grata, that he is in hiding because his last attempt to help the people ended miserably. The Israelites mocked him for presuming to be their leader, and the Egyptians wanted to execute him for murdering one of their citizens. God needs a serious reality check. He may be able to free Israel, but to suggest that Moses is the man for this job is ludicrous. He will surely fail, and the consequences will be most unpleasant for Moses and for Israel.

The result of failure for Moses is that...

A. It will hasten the fugitive's arrest.

At this point, the Egyptian authorities are not actively pursuing Moses, but that could change if he shows up on Pharaoh's doorstep. (There is no statute of limitations on murder.) He is safe in Midian, and prudence dictates that he remain there. Returning to Egypt will surely hasten the fugitive's arrest.

 

The result of failure for Israel is that...

B. It will worsen the captives' anguish.

At this time, the Egyptian government is engaged in extensive building projects, but that would cease if the slave labor force suddenly left the country. Pharaoh is certain to do whatever is necessary to keep the Israelites working, discouraging any aspirations of freedom with even harsher oppression. Trying to leave Egypt will surely worsen the captives' anguish.

 

God obviously does not grasp the seriousness of the situation, or He would not make such an absurd demand. He must still be thinking in terms of Jacob's voluntary sojourn in Egypt several hundred years earlier, when the people fled the famine in Canaan. Perhaps if the Lord had not waited so long to renew His interest in Jacob's descendants, their departure would not be the problem it is now. Whatever God has been doing for the past 400 years, He has apparently not kept up with current events, especially with the plight of His people, or He would not have allowed their enslavement. To make matters worse, when the Lord finally shows up, He expects someone else to clean up the mess.

 

Do you ever wonder if God is paying attention to your situation? Do you ever suspect that He is busy with other things or just not interested in your troubles?

 

You are not alone. The psalmists often speak as if God were absent or unconcerned.

Ps 10:1b Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
Ps 13:1b Will you forget me forever?
Ps 89:49a ...where is your former great love...?
Ps 101:2a ...when will you come to me?
Ps 119:84a How long must your servant wait?

These questions are an honest attempt to come to grips with God's apparent silence, and there is nothing wrong with asking them. At times, God may seem to be unavailable, but He still expects His people to reach out to Him and, in that reaching, they will find Him.
 

What precipitated God's appearance in Exod 3? It was the prayer of God's people in Exod 2. Look at...

Exod 2:23c ...their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.... 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

Israel's prayer elicited a response because of God's promise. As He later said to Moses...

Exod 3:7b I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

Does God still hear the prayers of His people? Can you be sure of this? Indeed, you can. John writes...

1 John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

I encourage you to persevere in prayer, to continue seeking God even when He seems distant.
 

For those of you who have walked with the Lord for many years and have the confidence John describes, that is what you now have to offer those whose walk with the Lord is still relatively young.

2 Cor 1:4 [God] comforts us...so that we can comfort [others] with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

They need to know that God may seem to be inattentive or unavailable, but He still expects His people to seek Him and, persevering in that, they will find Him. As He says through Jeremiah...

Jer 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

God's commissioning of Moses to deliver the people of Israel is an unexpected turn of events and not at all a welcome one. On the surface, the order is suicidal. Moses is not in Pharaoh's good graces and is hardly the proper candidate to represent God in the Egyptian court. Moses objects to the order, yet he eventually comes to understand that, despite these apparent difficulties...

II. The outcome is salvation. (Exod 3:11-14)

Exod 3:11 ...Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." 13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: '1 AM has sent me to you.'"

Did you notice that God does not answer Moses' question—Who am I?—by listing his qualifications. "You're the man, Moses, because...

• You speak the language of Egypt,
• You know the inner workings of Pharaoh's court, and
• You're on a list of people government agents would most like to see."

God uses none of these reasons to explain why He has chosen Moses. In response to Moses' question, "Who am I?", which is really an excuse for not going—another way of asking, "Why me, Lord?"—God answers, "I will be with you." Contrary to Moses' first impression, God is not sending him to Pharaoh's court, God is accompanying him to Pharaoh's court, and who Moses is matters far less than who is with Moses.

 

You will notice that God does not give Moses the details of this assignment. There is...

• No mention of Pharaoh's stubborn refusal to release Israel,
• No reference to the many plagues that will fall upon the Egyptians,
• No hint that the exit strategy will require the people to cross the Red Sea with enemy soldiers in hot pursuit.

If you were Moses, would you not be interested in such matters? Apparently, they are "need to know" only, and God does not think Moses needs to know, at least, not yet. What God does reveal about this event is that...

A. It will establish the shepherd's calling...

...and...

B. It will end the slaves' captivity.

Whatever doubts Moses or the people of Israel may have about the credibility of God's representative will vanish when they finally leave the bondage of Egypt behind and come to Mount Horeb.
 

Again, you may notice that God does not give Moses the details of this trip. There is...

• No mention of having to contend with shortages of food and water,
• No reference to the attack of Amalek that almost destroys the fledgling nation,
• No hint that Moses will have to spend hours each day listening to people's complaints.

If you were Moses, would you not be interested in such matters? Apparently, God does not think Moses needs to know about them, at least, not yet.

 

Do you ever wish that God would tell you what the future holds so you could decide whether or not you want to go there? Jill is in her senior year of high school and is making plans for her career, deciding what she wants to be when she grows up. Suppose God says, "Jill, I want you to be an organic chemist," but makes...

• No mention of her having to repeat her junior year at a different college because the first school she so carefully chooses will go bankrupt,
• No reference to her lab experiment in genetic engineering that will go awry and destroy the entire rhubarb crop in three states,
• No hint that the hard drive of her (non-Macintosh) computer will crash, taking with it the only copy of her almost-finished master's thesis.

If you were Jill, would you not be interested in such matters? God, however, does not reveal all we might like to know, even when such information could keep us from making some significant mistakes.

 

Why does He not tell Moses or you the cost of Heeding the Call of God? Perhaps it is because He does not want you to think you can solve or avoid all the problems of life on your own. Perhaps He wants you to realize that the most important aspect of any assignment God gives is not the person who undertakes it but the presence and power of the One who undergirds it, or, as Moses learned, who you are matters far less than who is with you.
 

When God calls to Moses from the burning bush, Moses answers, Hineni, "Here am I." Little does he realize what that response will require of him. Despite his uncertainty, though, Moses does as the Lord commands, returning to Egypt. God may not give you such a potentially dangerous assignment, but His expectation is the same, that when you hear His voice, you will say, Hineni— Heeding God's Call to Service.

For the Bibliography and Endnotes see the pdf here.