What Did You Say God?

“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.”

Exodus 3:5-10

 

Have you ever been so fascinated by what you were looking at that you totally did not hear what was being said at the time?

When I read this passage I wonder if perhaps that happened to Moses.

On the other hand, we are not told that prior to this Moses had ever heard the audible voice of God so perhaps that had a way of searing the words spoken into Moses’ spirit.

I say this because it is at this point that the “facts” of the mission Moses was about to embark on were spoken by God.

God said: “I am sending you…”

Moses said: “You are sending WHO?”

Not!

God was sending Moses to do what Moses had tried to do in his own power some 40 years earlier.

Moses had killed an Egyptian who was beating one of his “own people”.

We may sense a call or mission from God, we may even be told of something specific that God is going to do – as He had told Abraham and Sarah – concerning a son.

But we, like Moses, Abraham, Sarah and a host of other Bible characters, can quickly move out of the will and the plans of God when we fail to listen to His voice and get the facts. If you look back at the verses above you will see that God speaks some very detailed plans to Moses unlike the day Moses killed the Egyptian.

On that day he responded, perhaps out of zeal or passion but not out of obedience to the direction of God.

We often can be guilty of acting based on our passion or zeal.

But we miss the plans of God, even though we feel so strongly about what we are doing, because we don’t wait on His instructions.    

“Faith doesn’t need to wait on instructions!” you argue.

But I would contend that we do.

In the verse above God begins by introducing Himself, identifying the problem, expressing His concern, offering His solution and commissioning Moses as the one He is sending.

I don’t know about you, but I think that gives Moses a whole lot more to go on than only the passion and zeal he had forty years earlier.  

You may argue, “Well, God doesn’t always give us that much detail.”

Perhaps you are right.

But more often than not we move out ahead of God calling our actions “faith” when in reality we just haven’t waited on His specific details.

So, what is our response?

Listen to Gods’ voice and get the facts from Him!