Say hello with fire

This week's sustained Bible attack comes from Exodus 3:1-15:

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 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. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

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—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

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.”

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?”

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.’”

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 you shall call me
from generation to generation."

This story is fun too. Job interview FAIL! If you read the next chapter, you'll see that God continues to call Moses, and Moses continues to analyze the calling to death, trying to come up with excuses for why he's a bad candidate for the job God is calling him to. This chapter is a good illustration of what happened when God called Moses, though. God keeps saying "I want you, and I've chosen you," and Moses keeps saying "But what if? And what about?"

Moses is a lot like most of the people I know. He's not bright, he works hard not to have to work, and the best way to get his attention is to put something shiny in front of him. Moses was out wandering around in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of sheep when God put fire in front of him to get his attention. Moses was like "Heheh. Fire! Fire!" and wandered over to check it out, when God spoke to him. The thing I like about this introduction is that it shows that God knows exactly who Moses is, likes him anyway, and uses what he knows about Moses (which is everything) to construct the perfect introduction. How many times has God used a circumstance that attracts our complete attention in a non-religious sense, to speak some important lesson or calling to us? He knows exactly how to bait the trap, and it's awesome.

Moses then continues to argue with God and express his worries. To me, they sort of fall into the "dumb relationship questions" category of stuff people ask when they're insecure. "What if you find someone better, like my brother Aaron?" "What if I got in a car accident and was paralyzed from the neck down? Would you still want me then?" "But I'm not smart and computery. Once you find that out, wouldn't you hate me and think I'm too stupid to be around?" "My family is not rich, but yours is. Won't that be a problem?" Moses completely ignores the fact that God knew him well enough to pretty much select him from infancy and even orchestrate the perfect introduction in the middle of nowhere, and instead focuses on his insecurities and worries. Never mind that God can do anything and is pretty much made of pure love. Moses has issues. So do we sometimes.

Moses was afraid and insecure, and thought way too hard about life for the amount of brainpower God gave him to work with. He was so focused on these things that he dragged his feet on his calling. God had to pretty much pull him along, and even had to get his brother involved to help. Would you want to do that to God? Later, once the Israelites are bouncing around the wilderness, we see Moses melt down at every sign of difficulty in his path, blowing up at God and being all high-maintenance. Despite all of these things, though, God still sticks with him and uses him as his mouthpiece. We know a lot about Moses, but that says even more about God.

If God chooses you, go with it. Don't try to talk him out of it. Don't let yourself mistrust him and his choice. Even if you screw things up, he will stick with you. He probably knew that before choosing you, you know? God designed the universe. He knows what tools are best for what problems. Don't be reluctant to be a tool. Moses put God through a lot of hassle in order to be used. We don't need to do that. Maybe we can learn from Moses' experience and be used more efficiently when God has plans for us.