Today I’m thinking of another unlikely hero. God called this person into His service in spite of what this person had done in his past. I’m sure no one saw this coming. In fact, when God called him, this person was living in exile because he had committed murder and then fled to a foreign land to escape the consequences of his actions. He had been hiding out, so to speak, for many years. He had married and he worked for his father-in-law as a sheep herder. That is until one day when this happened –

“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, . . . There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. . . . God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’ . . . The Lord said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey . . . So now, go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.’ ” (Exodus 3:1-10)

That’s right. Our unlikely hero is Moses, a murderer living in exile. Moses had run away, but God sought him out after all these years for the very important task of leading the Israelites out of Egypt. God was going to bring His chosen people out of bondage and into freedom. And God was going to use Moses to accomplish His good purposes for His chosen people. However, Moses didn’t think he was the right man for the job.

“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ ” (Exodus 3:11)

God’s response? –

“And God said, ‘I will be with you.’ ” (Exodus 3:12)

Moses was filled with fear and self-doubt about this overwhelming assignment from God. God’s solution to Moses’s objections was His Presence going with Moses. Still, Moses continued with his resistance to God’s instructions –

“Moses answered, ‘What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ? ‘ ” (Exodus 4:1)

Moses’s objections continued –

“Moses said to the Lord, ‘O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.’ ” (Exodus 4:10)

Eventually Moses ran out of excuses, but he still didn’t want to accept God’s assignment. After all, it wasn’t going to be easy. Who would want to go up against Pharaoh, the most powerful ruler of his time? And so Moses pleaded –

“But Moses said, ‘O Lord, please send someone else to do it.’ ” (Exodus 4:13)

Notice that this is just the opposite of Isaiah’s response to God’s call, which was – “Here am I. Send me!”

How many times have you or I said what Moses said to our Heavenly Father? (find somebody else to do it, it’s too difficult, too scary, too uncertain for me to even attempt it) Perhaps we are not unlike this banished sheep herder turned rescuer and leader of God’s people? Just goes to show, it’s never who you think it will be, right? Moses didn’t want to do what God was asking him to do BUT – Moses did have this promise from God. God told Moses –

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’ ” (Exodus 6:6-8)

Notice all the wonderful, miraculous things God promises to do for His people, the Israelites. God promises to bring them out from under the Egyptians yoke. God says He will free them, He will redeem them, He will take them as His own and He will bring them into the land He promised to their forefathers and God will give that land to them. In this story, God is doing all the heavy lifting. The power and the miracles are God’s alone.

God chose to work through Moses to accomplish His sovereign purposes for His people. The miracles were all God’s. God just used Moses to display His power to Pharaoh. Reminds me of what Jesus taught in John about God’s power in our lives –

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. . . . If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.” (John 15:5, 7-8)

Moses was the branch. The Lord God was and is the vine. Moses didn’t part the Red Sea. God did. Moses led the Israelites through the desert to their promised land. But it was God who was leading Moses. It was God in the pillar of fire by night and in the pillar of cloud by day, going in front of the Israelites as they traveled in order to guide them on their way.

“By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” (Exodus 13:21-22)

So Moses obeyed God’s instructions to go to Pharaoh and demand the release of the Israelites who were currently being held in bondage. And the rest is history as they say. And not an easy history. Moses had to face down the powerful Pharaoh many times before the Israelites were released. Later Moses would meet with God on a mountaintop and receive the stone tablets with the ten commandments. Leading God’s people proved a heavy responsibility, but Moses stayed faithful to God’s calling even though it wasn’t easy. (the Israelites often complained against God and even worshiped a golden calf they made while Moses was away meeting with God on the mountaintop)

But Moses faithfully followed God’s instructions, doing all that God asked him to do. Quite a transition from herding sheep to leading (herding) a whole nation of people from bondage into freedom. But God knew all along what He was doing. Maybe shepherding sheep is good preparation for shepherding people? Both require a lot of care and patience and ultimate reliance on God.

I identify with Moses’s reluctance to rise to the challenge and respond to God’s invitation to serve Him in a particular way. Like Moses, I can think of a million reasons why I am not the one for the job. I don’t have the skills, the training, the resources, the position – the list is long. And then there’s fear. Fear will hold me hostage, not allowing me to step outside of my comfort zone. I’m sure Moses was both comfortable and content with his life as a sheep herder. And Pharaoh was one bad dude. Pharaoh had a reputation. BUT – God’s reputation was and is exponentially grander and greater.

Whatever my Heavenly Father asks of me, I can respond in faith with courage and with confidence because God tells me (and you, too) –

“I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are My servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:9-10)

Surprising but true! I (and you) am called. I (and you) am chosen. (didn’t we all long to be picked for the team when we were children?) I don’t need to be afraid. God says He will give me strength. God says He will help me. I believe Him! May I respond to God’s calling more like Isaiah did and less like Moses’s initial response.

After all, it’s never who you think. God is calling you and me today. Hopefully, we won’t be like Jonah and run away in the opposite direction. Let’s be bold enough to accept God’s calling on our lives. After all, we know this to be true –

“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’ ” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

sincerely, Grace Day