Excuses...
| But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be a sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you (plural) will worship God on this mountain." (Exodus3:11-12) |
Now here at the burning bush, God gives Moses a chance to start over, but there's an issue that needs to be cleared out of the way first...
Moses' question appears humble and self-deprecating. If Moses was really being humble then God's answer would have been different. If we put the "I's" in bold then we get a better sense of what this is all about.
As it stands Moses acts as if it all depends on him.
He will go to Pharoah and he will bring the the Israelites out - All by himself. I can just picture him get ready to put on a long face because God has given him this impossible task to fulfill.
God's answer makes short work of the objection:
1.I will be with you.
2.When you have brought the people out you and the people will worship me on this mountain.
When the job was done it would be obvious that God had done all the hard work!
Later on Moses will offer other excuses:
- Who exactly shall I say is sending me?
- Why will they believe me?
- I don't speak too well... (The sh sh sh sheep taught me to st st stutter)
Each time God deals with his objections, but each time the issues were the same:
Moses thought it was all about him - WORSHIP says it's all about God.
Moses thought he had to do it all alone - God says "I will be with you."
