Hello friends. I am back.

This blog has been a journey for me. You can’t really see that, of course. All you can see are the three posts I managed to squeeze out in the first five months and then nothing for the last nine months. You’ll have to take my word for it. I may not have posted anything but I have thought about this blog every day for the last nine months.

Why not post, if I’ve spent so much time thinking about it? Why think about it, if I’m not posting anything? And why bother coming back to it after so much time?

Well, buckle up kids, it’s story time.

Exodus 3-4 is the call of Moses and the burning bush. If you are not familiar with the story, Moses is a Hebrew (the people of God) that was raised by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. When Moses grew up, he killed an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew and, fearing punishment, fled Egypt into the desert. He married and became a shepherd. While he was keeping his sheep, the Lord appeared to him as a flame of fire burning a bush, yet the bush was not consumed by the flames. Curious as to why the bush was not burning up, Moses turned aside to take a closer look and “when the Lord saw that [Moses] had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush.” (Exodus 3:4)

I love this, because it is such a great picture of the interplay between God’s calling and our response. God beckoned Moses with a clearly supernatural sign. Some less observant individuals might not have noticed that the bush was not being consumed, and some less curious individuals might have seen it and been too frightened or too busy to approach, only to spend the rest of their lives sitting in front of their own fires wondering about the bush they once saw that burned without being consumed. Moses, however, answered the call with curiosity. “‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’” (Ex. 3:3)

Moses had no idea what was going to happen when he approached that bush. He approached with simple curiosity. Yet because he did so, God called to him and laid on him the task of freeing the Hebrews from enslavement in Egypt, dispersing the light of this rescue across the centuries as a reflection of the future saving work of Christ. But in this moment, God beckoned, Moses approached, and God spoke.

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… Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Exodus 3:7-10

Moses does not say “OK, God, you got it! No problem. I’ll just head down to Egypt right away.” Instead, he raised five objections: four very legitimate ones, and one final protest.

First, he points out his own insignificance, probably thinking of his past. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Ex. 3:11) Moses is well aware of the optics: a Hebrew man raised in the Egyptian royal household now speaking on behalf of their slaves using the words of a God he himself barely knew. It sounded ridiculous. It sounded offensive. Seriously, who was he that either the Hebrews or Pharaoh should’ve listened to him? Yet God responded, “‘But I will be with you…’” and then he gives Moses some reassurance, “‘…and this shall 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.’” (Ex. 3:12) (Note that the sign confirming he was truly sent by God to do the thing will occur after the thing has already been completed. I have the urge to be snarky here but I won’t. Suffice to say that Moses did the thing and did in fact serve God on that mountain.)

And God was not angry with Moses for being afraid.

Secondly, Moses, who was not raised in Hebrew traditions, asks “‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’” (Ex. 3:13) And for the first time in Scripture God speaks His name, His divine name, YHWH, “I am who I am“, and He speaks it to this murderer, this slave turned prince turned self-exiled shepherd who knew all the gods in the Egyptian pantheon yet did not know the only One who had ever called to him.

And God was not angry with Moses for his ignorance.

Third, Moses protests that “they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” (Ex. 4:1) A legitimate concern that turned out to be well founded, because Pharaoh did not listen to him. God gives him three miraculous signs to perform in front of Pharaoh to prove that God was the one who sent him: turning his staff into a serpent and then back into a staff, causing his hand to instantly become first diseased and then whole again, and finally turning the waters of the Nile into blood when poured onto the ground.

And God was not angry with Moses for asking for proofs.

Fourth, Moses points out that “‘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.’” (Ex. 4:10) We have no reason to believe that Moses was making this up, it’s likely that he may have had a stutter or just been a poor public speaker. Yet God reminds him who is really in control, and it’s not Moses. “‘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.’” (Ex. 4:11-12)

And God was not angry with Moses for being imperfect.

Finally, despite all the answers and proofs that he has been given, Moses begs to be released from this task: “‘Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.’” (Ex. 4:13)

And this time, because of Moses’ unwillingness to be obedient, God was angry with Moses.

In response to his resistance God appoints Moses’ brother Aaron to speak on Moses’ behalf. God would speak to Moses, Moses would speak to Aaron, and Aaron would speak to Pharaoh and the people. This foreshadows Aaron’s later role as high priest, mediating between God and the people and offering continual sacrifices to God on their behalf. It even further foreshadows Jesus’ role as the Great High Priest who offered his own body as a sacrifice and then “sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering [Christ] has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 9:12-14)

This whole post to say: I am coming back to this blog because as much as I have, like Moses, questioned and made excuses (and I have no shortage of either), at the end of the day I am not willing to say to God, “Please find someone else.” I put it off, making excuses, knowing I’d eventually be right back here writing this post, somewhat shamefully but writing it nonetheless.