“Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you will say.” Exodus 4:12
I love this story because it is a genuine picture of our humanity and God’s sovereignty. God meets Moses in the desert of Horeb and explains that He intends to bring the Israelites out of slavery; and he has chosen Moses to lead this venture. As Moses vehemently protests, you can’t help but feel sorry for the poor guy. He would have been quite content feeding sheep for the rest of his life.
Yet God reigns over Moses’s protests. Moses argues that he’s ill-equipped and lacks eloquence. Though I am kind of on Moses’s side here, I have got to admit that I am a fan of God’s answer: “Who has made man’s mouth?” That basically silences Moses’s side of the debate. Then, in exasperation, God promises that He will give Moses the words to say.
Throughout this whole discussion Moses remains completely honest with God. Rather than saying “I cannot do this” perhaps Moses should have said “God, I know what you want of me, but I cannot do this alone.” To me, the beauty of the story is that he does not say this – and thus, we see it is true that Moses is not eloquent and super-spiritual. He is just a normal guy that does not want to trade a docile flock of sheep for a herd of unruly Jews.
The truth is, we are all useless without God. However, protesting against His plan for us is not the way to express humility. Moses’s protest is merely a lack of faith. True humility is recognizing that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
That said, there will always be days when I would rather be tending sheep.
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