The conversation continues. God has asked Moses to return to Egypt and lead the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land. Moses has already objected, “Who am I to lead the Hebrew people?” and God has already responded, saying, “I will be with you.”
But Moses isn’t the eager leader. He continues to be concerned the Hebrew people will not follow him. It is hard to know for sure if Moses is stalling or if his next objection is genuine. Either way, it is revealing.
Moses tells God that the title God has given, “I am the God of your fathers” is not enough to convince the Hebrew people to follow him. Moses asks God for his name that the Hebrew people believe he has really been sent by the God of their fathers.
Did Moses doubt this was the God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
Did Moses actually not know God’s name? Was God’s name some sort of secret code that Moses would grant him access into the upper echelons of Hebrew leadership?
Much has been made regarding God’s response. The Hebrew literally translates, “I AM WHO I AM.” Is God making a philosophical statement that he is the self-existent one or is he rebuking Moses with a response equivalent to the parental, “because I told you so” or “I brought you into this world…”?
I don’t think Moses knew God’s name. I don’t think the Hebrew people did either. There is no reason in scripture to believe that their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew it either. The point here isn’t that they didn’t know God’s name. The point is that many had forgotten about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the God they served.
But God hadn’t forgotten them.
God remembers us and knows more about what makes us who we are better than we do ourselves. And he isn’t limited by our ignorance when he calls us. He tells us what we need to know and we learn along the way because he walks with us as we journey.
How well do we need to know God for him to call?
September 3, 2008 at 2:50 am
The format for the daily devotional is excellent. It is short and to the point, yet it provokes reflection on just how I fit in to the “call.” Unlike the complicated life he led before as one of the pharoah’s leaders, Moses lived a quiet and secure life “out in the country.” Moses needed no political skills or crafty power brokering to lead sheep! He was called out of a comfort zone to a challenging environment. God made Moses “an offer he could not refuse.” Although with less fanfare, I see myself in a similar situation as Moses. However, there is a comfort zone within the challenging environment called missions & ministry – it is knowing that He walks with us and best of all, He forgives me for my missteps.
September 3, 2008 at 12:52 pm
How well do we need to know God for him to call? We need to know him well enough to trust in him to lead us and walk with us. We stepped totally out of our comfort zone to move to the Middle East. I knew it was God leading us here. We trusted in his providence – our Jehovah Jireh – and all the doors of what the natural world calls circumstance were opened. Why are we here? I don’t know right now but like Abraham, I trust the God of the universe that his plans will unfold as we yield to him obediently and walk with him daily. God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called.