No Excuse

DEVOTION

EXODUS

NO EXCUSE

Ex 3:11-15

11 But 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: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" 15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

NIV

There are several truths we could focus on here. First of all the fact that God is, I AM. The second is the excuse of Moses, which is the first of three excuses, "Who am I?" It does seem interesting that Moses should ask who am I, and God should answer, I AM. First we have to understand that Moses is standing in his bare feet, on holy ground before a bush filled with flames yet not being consumed and having God audible speaking to him. It just cannot be any more of a direct contact with God, other than perhaps God appearing to him in the form of a person in all his glory, but then Moses would not be able to handle that and live. The physical cannot inherit the eternal. It would make sense the physical man could not actually see God in all his eternal glory, although he was able to see Jesus in the physical representation of God. Yet here Moses stands in the presence of the Almighty and he attempts to give him an excuse why he should be the one chosen to go back to Egypt and talk Pharaoh into letting the Israelites leave. We are going to see more excuses in the complete exchange between God and Moses, but let us consider this first excuse for now. "Who am I that I should go?" Was Moses just being humble or did he actually not have any confidence in himself or God? Was he being afraid, thinking of what happened and how he was scorned by the Hebrews? Did he truly feel inadequate for the task? God told him that he would be with him and not only that but that as a sign he would in fact worship God after he brings them out of Egypt. God was foretelling Moses the future. He was telling him he would be successful in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses still is not convinced and asked who he should tell the Israelites sent him to bring them out. God just isn’t any plainer than what he tells him. Our lesson is in this excuse of Moses. Did he truly not know who God was, or his name? Yet he is attempting to excuse himself from this task. We know when God speaks to us, when he directs us in the way we should go. We know when it is God and when it is ourselves who make a decision for our life path. When God tells us to do something or go someplace, or leave someplace, or speak to someone, or whatever, do we try to find some reason, some excuse not to do that which he requires of us? It would seem impossible for a believer to go through their entire life and never hear from God. We all think it is important to pray, to bring our petitions before him. But then why would we not think he would answer? He is not just a genie in a bottle who makes the answer show up. He wants to answer us, to speak into our hearts and minds. Sometimes he even speaks to us in an audible voice. Sometimes he even speaks without us first asking him something. Sometimes he does something to grab our attention so we are listening instead of talking. Either way, God does want to speak to us, to direct our paths, to show us the way we should go. There are times he speaks very plainly through his word. He has already given us so much direction, so many truths for us to live by. Why do we try to find excuses not to follow his directions? Surely we have always done what he has asked when he spoke directly, in an audible voice. No question about that at all. When he healed we testified, when he told us he would give us a new home, we went and found it, and he provided the funds. When he told us to live here, we sold our home and moved. This is the testimony of one of us; others have more, have other testimonies of when God spoke to them. So then why do we find excuses not to follow the rest of his speaking to our hearts and minds through his word? When he tells us not to store up treasures here on earth, why do we try to find an excuse why we should? When he tells us to love our enemies, why do we give some excuse why we should not? When he tells us make every effort to live in peace with all men, why do we try to excuse our not doing that? When he tells us to forgive those who sin against us, why do we try to find an excuse to harbor hard feelings instead? When he tells us to trust him, why do we want to trust ourselves? On and on the list could go, all throughout his word to us. Even with this great spectacular sign before him, Moses was having a difficult time just saying, yes Lord. That should give us some solace, knowing Moses was having a difficult time obeying right away. We certainly are not as great a man as Moses, but yet we need to see that when God speaks, either audibly or through his word, we need to listen and simply say, yes Lord. No excuse.