Exodus 3:14, 15, “God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations.”
When you feel inadequate, remember Moses. Picture in your mind the most powerful, wealthy, influential, lying, verbally and physically abusive person in a high office that needs to be confronted, who is anti-Christian, and has caused and done unjustified harm to fellow believers in Christ. How would you react if God chose you alone to bring freedom and stand up to this government official? This was Moses who felt hindered and insecure, so he lacked confidence in his ability to speak and lead the Hebrew Israelites out of the land of Egypt, in order to stand up to Pharaoh as God instructed him to do. So, he argued against God’s chosen intention for him in freeing the Israelites and bringing them to the promised land.
Moses had insecurities with his inability to speak well, and his fears were an attack on God’s character due to his arguing and protesting against what God told him to do. Moses had sinful fear controlling his thoughts when it tempted him not to follow the revealed will of God (Ex. 4:10-14). We see in Ex. 4:10, “But Moses pleaded with the LORD, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” Then God asks him, “Well, who do you think made your mouth – I did!” God reassures Moses that He will be with him as he speaks and will instruct him in what to say. Moses was overthinking everything out of fear, worried about people’s reactions and how they might respond to him, and that he would embarrass himself. Sinful fear was controlling Moses’ thoughts when he was tempted to fear man more than he feared God. Moses failed to focus on God’s attributes – grace, deliverer, sustainer, omnipotence, sovereignty, and ability to do anything consistent with His desires as God, omniscience – has complete knowledge of everything, even before we say it, omnipresence, and He is righteous. God is always present everywhere with the fullness of who He is -Yahweh -the great I AM.
Moses was a strong leader in the end and God allowed his brother Aaron to help him. But at first, Moses was fearful, insecure, had false pride, low self-esteem, and lacked the courage to be God’s sole mouthpiece to Pharaoh, the political king. We must not make that mistake. We must be mouthpieces for God as Moses was. God will provide us with strength and ability where needed because He can see the end of our journey and knows the best and safest route to get there, just as he did with the Israelites, so that we will know that He is the LORD, which God declared throughout the book of Exodus, to Moses and regarding Pharoah.
Yes, we have modern Pharaohs in our time, as Moses had in the book of Exodus. Not willing to concede that there is a divine creator whose power is higher than themselves will be reckoned with at God’s appointed time, which gives us hope. Jesus stated in Matthew 8:28, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM!” Then in Hebrews 13:8 we read, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.”
Human leaders have much to offer and answer for in their governmental responsibilities, yet we, above all, must keep our eyes on Christ, our ultimate leader. He will never change as He is the great I AM, Yahweh, Lord, Jehovah, The Self-Existent One. Ask Him to show you something new about Him today that you have never seen before. Remember He is the great I AM, the Self-Existent One, the promise keeper!
Listen to Thank You Jesus for the Blood by Charity Gayle.