As we continue our message series, “Liars, Cheaters, Cowards & Other Bible Heroes” I thought I should mention that this title was chosen because we have a tendency to put the heroes of the Bible up on pedestals, and to think of them as so much different from ourselves. We might be tempted to think that they are so different from us that we could never be like them. Yet as we look more closely at their stories, we see that they are full of failures and flaws and foibles, just like us. Just as God used them, so He wants to use us in great ways to build His Kingdom.
This week we are going to look at Moses; truly a central figure in Salvation History. He was the guy that facedowned Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world at the time, and got him to release the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. Moses was the man “... whom the Lord knew face to face….” (Deut 34:10), and received the 10 Commandments from the LORD.
Moses was certainly a great man, yet even he had a rap sheet. He was not the best speaker (his brother Aaron had to be his spokesman most of the time), he was not the most organized leader, and oh yeah, he murdered someone.
Moses did not really embrace God’s plan for his life. He came to it very tentatively and he had a lot of pushback against God. So if you sometimes struggle to embrace God’s plan for your life, if you are constantly pushing back against God, congratulations! You are in good company.
I am not going to recount all of Moses’ life -- for that I would encourage you to read the second book of the Bible, Exodus. Rather I am going to focus on just event in his life, what we call his call and commissioning. This is the famous story of the burning bush, which can be found in Chapter 3 of the book of Exodus.
You might recall, that Moses was raised by an Egyptian princess, but as a young man he murdered an Egyptian who was abusing one of Moses’ fellow Hebrews. After that he had to high-tail it out of Egypt because Pharaoh wanted to kill him. He ended up in Midian, working for his father-in-law Jethro.
One day, while he is tending the flock, Moses and the sheep are near Mt. Sinai. Moses sees a bush that is on fire, but he notices that it is not being consumed. “So Moses decided, ‘I must turn aside to look at this remarkable sight. Why does the bush not burn up?’” (Exodus 3:3). That decision changes his life.
The next verse tells us, “When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called out to him from the bush: Moses! Moses!” (Exodus 3:4). It is only when Moses turns aside that he can hear the voice of God. This is true for us as well; God is trying to communicate to us all the time and wants to speak to us and develop this relationship with us. But in our busy hectic lives, we are running from one thing to the next and running to get out of the door. We never really stop to listen and turn aside to God. If we want to hear God’s voice, we need to turn aside from time to time to hear him.
God assure Moses that He is not some distant God, and that He is not some kind of Divine Watchmaker who created the world, wound it up, and then just left it all alone on its own. God tells Moses that He has noticed the suffering of the Israelites, and that now is the right time for Him to set them free. And the really good news is that Moses is God’s man for the job.
How do you think Moses reacted to finding out that God has picked him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt? How would you react? Basically Moses tells God that He has the wrong guy, that he is really a nobody. God reassures Moses that He will be with him, and when Moses still grumbles, God basically says to him, “Moses, you don’t get it. It’s not about who you are. It’s about who I am and what I want to do through you.”
Moses continues to make excuses for why he is the wrong guy for the job. He essentially tells God, “I don’t even know you very well, God. Heck, I don’t even know your name. How can I serve you?”
We often make the same excuse for not responding to God’s call to be an active disciple, like when we are asked to volunteer to be involved in some ministry in the parish. We say things like, “I’m not holy enough. I don’t even know the Scriptures enough. I don’t know the Catechism.” Like Moses, we need to understand that when God invites us to serve in some particular ministry, that God is going to make us worthy, He is going to give us the graces we need to do the work He wants to accomplish through us. It is about Him, and not about us. That in calling us to some ministry, God is inviting us to get to know Him better, and until we say “OK,” we are stunting our relationship with Him.
Moses continues to make even more excuses; pointing out that he is not a very good public speaker. He is basically saying to God, send someone else. “Then the Lord became angry with Moses” (Exodus 4:14). The LORD has finally had enough of Moses’ excuses, and tells him that he is going to do it. You know the rest of the story: the plagues, the Passover, the crossing of the Red Sea, the 40 years in the desert. Moses ends up dying just before the Israelites cross into the Promise Land.
This is what we should learn from Moses. There is a time and a place for comfort, but we need to understand that if we always choose comfort, we will never make an impact. And in our heart of hearts, we will never be content nor satisfied unless we are making a difference. If we have been baptized into Jesus Christ, then we ARE somebody. Jesus calls us to use not our power, but His power to make a difference in the world.
So, what is the one problem that you are trying to solve right now in your life? Have you “turned aside” from the normal distractions so that you can notice the spirit of God stirring in your heart, calling you to solve the problem? What is the problem God wants you to solve? This week will give 10 to 15 minutes to turn aside and say to God, “God, this week put a burning bush in my life, a sign of a problem that You have called me to solve. God, let me hear You calling me to be part of the solution to that problem; to take the little bit of money, time, energy, and resources that I have from You, O God, and use them to make an impact.”