Exodus 4:1-31

Excuses, excuses, excuses; it seems that we all make up excuses throughout the course of our lives.  The reality is that excuses are simply another form of disobedience.  When God’s will is very clear to us but we do not like what we hear; we justify our refusal to obey with excuses.  When God was ready to use Moses, he was not ready to trust and follow God.  Moses had become comfortable in his new life and become complacent towards the call of God in his life.   Being comfortable and complacent is very dangerous.

MOSES ARGUES WITH GOD: Moses begins his excuse making process with a legitimate question.  He recognizes that the task he has been given is above his own abilities and that the people might not believe him and that Pharaoh would certainly not agree to what he was supposed to do.  God assures Moses that He will empower him with signs that will demonstrate to all that he has been sent by God.  The rod becoming a snake, the hand turning white and the water becoming blood; all would be convincing demonstrations of his authority.  People usually want some sort of a sign before they are willing to trust God.  In this case God agrees to provide these signs.  Moses now moves on to his own inadequacy.  He claims to be slow of speech.  God assures Moses that He will be his mouth and give him the words to say.  The truth is that none of us are adequate to do the work of God on this earth.  However, God has empowered us by His Spirit with all that we need to obey God’s Word and do God’s work.  God’s presence in our lives is all the assurance we need to live a life of obedience before Him.  Now Moses gets down to the real heart of the issue; he tells God to send someone else.  Moses is simply comfortable with where he is in life and does not want to “shake things up”.  All of our excuses about being accepted or not having the necessary gifts are really just “polite” ways of saying no to God.  This is a very dangerous place to live.  God’s anger burns against Moses just as it does against all of us who try to excuse our disobedience of Him.

MOSES AGREES TO GO: God agrees to send Aaron with Moses and Moses finally agrees to go.  He gets permission from his father-in-law and then he loads up his family and sets off for Egypt.  Along the way, God meets him again and is about ready to kill him because he has not circumcised his male child.  Moses had spent so much time away from his people and from God, that he had neglected his responsibilities to his family and before God.  God is able to use anybody, but He insists that those He uses be obedient to His Word.  We must never fool ourselves into thinking that we can serve the Lord and not take care of the areas of disobedience in our hearts.  Now that Moses has agreed to Go, God begins to work in his heart to make him into an instrument that is clean and useful in His hands.  Whenever we set out to serve the Lord, we must always examine our own hearts and repent of our sins so that we might be effective examples of His grace.  God is not looking for perfect people.  He is looking to perfect people through repentance and grace.   

MOSES ASSEMBLES THE GROUP: Moses and Aaron arrive in Egypt and they gather the people to show them all God plans to do.  They are received warmly by the people who have been crying out to God for their freedom.  When the people realize that God has heard their prayers their first reaction is to worship Him.  This should always be our reaction when we understand what God has done for us.  Worship is what God desires from the heart of every man on the earth.  Prayer to the Lord and praise for what the Lord has done are both forms of worship that move the heart of God.  Anytime we desire or see the hand of God at work in our lives, our immediate response should be to worship.