New Morning Mercies #271

No need to fear what God will ask of you, because in the asking is always the promise of grace to empower your heart and hands.

Consider God’s call to Moses to lead the Israelites out of their cruel captivity in Egypt. In Moses’s reply, we see a reflection of our frequent response when God asks something of us:

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “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.” . . .

But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” (Ex. 3:7–12; 4:10–13)

Throughout this amazing encounter with the Lord, Moses does what we often do as we evaluate what God has put on our plates and how he has called us to respond. Moses omits the ultimate fact that changes everything about the way we think and should respond to God’s call. That fact is not the difficulty of the calling or your perceived ability to answer that call. It is not the size of the situation or the size of your wisdom and strength. This life-changing fact is that the God of glory and grace, who calls his people to do his will on earth, always goes with them as they obey his calling. He never sends without going too. When he sends you, he doesn’t give you a bunch of stuff to help you along the way. He always gives you himself because he is what you need and he alone can give you what is required.

When Moses finally says, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else,” it is clear that he does not understand the present power of his identity as a child of God. Because he is God’s chosen child, he is never, ever alone. Because he is God’s child, God will never send him on a task by himself. Hope for Moses’s success is not to be found in his personal strength and wisdom, but in the expansive glory of the One who sent him. Remember today that when God sends, he goes too!

For further study and encouragement: Deuteronomy 31:1–8