Moses Ablaze: Giving Excuses to the Burning Bush

Often times, deep down inside we realize that God is not necessarily safe.   Following Him is not lollipops and daisies.  While it may be true that He is our shelter, protection, refuge…  He does not call us to follow Him down a safe looking path.  We may not always say it; but it is there in the back of our minds.  He is the God who calls us down the rocky narrow path.  He is the God who calls us all to follow Him.  He is the God who says that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  No; God isn’t safe- He is a consuming fire!

In the words of C.S. Lewis- He’s not safe; but He is good.

It is the Good part that we are so attracted to.  We like the idea of a god who leaves us be to live our lives, and then when we are in trouble- just like a genie in a bottle- he pops out to grant our undying wishes. He coddles and consoles us, tells us all we want to hear, never asks anything from us and never has us do anything uncomfortable.

But as I said, that is not who the REAL God is.  And we, in our heart, know that.

So sometimes when we come face to face with God- when we hear His call- our response to protect our insanity of comfort and contentment, is to respond with the “I can’t” excuse.

Moses is a perfect example of this.

God appears to Moses in a burning bush.  He calls Moses to a very big task- to free the Israelites from slavery; to free them from the cruel hand of the task master.

Note:  God does not ASK Moses to go.  He TELLS Moses he will go.  We must understand something: As with Moses, God doesn’t ask.  He commands.  Then either we choose to obey or we choose to disobey.  Period.

But Moses is comfortable where he is at.  He is content.  Why should he put aside his life to go run off on some crazy adventure? Who talks to a bush anyway?  So Moses does what most of us are so good at doing:  He turns to the “I can’t” excuse.  But not just once- four times he tells God “I can’t”.  Let us examine them. 

Excuse #1: “I can’t because You have the wrong guy”

In Exodus 3:11 Moses says “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh?”  He is essentially telling God that He doesn’t know what He is doing by sending Moses, because obviously God has the wrong guy- who am I to go?  Often we see things that need to be done.  We see all around us a world hurting, a world in pain.  But when we feel compelled to do something about it, how often do we say to ourselves- I’d love to do it, but who am I that I should go?  I really am not the right person for the job.  I hope God calls someone to step forward soon to make a difference- but I know that it isn’t me!!!

But how does God respond to Moses?  In verse 12, he says “Certainly I will be with thee!”   As long as we go with God, in obedience to God, then we ARE the right person for the job!  We don’t need to worry about what WE think about ourselves!  God is with us, all we need to do is be obedient!

Excuse #2: “ I can’t because I am not knowledgeable enough”

Moses responds in exodus 3:13, “when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?”

Moses told God basicly, whoa wait a second I don’t even know Your name.  What am I suppose to tell them when they ask me who You are?  What am I supposed to say?  DID YOU THINK OF THAT GOD?   Did You think about the idea that they might ask me something that I just can’t answer? 

Often we say “I would love to do something- to tell people about Jesus, but I can’t because hey- I don’t know enough.  I mean what if they ask me about the trinity? Or predestination?  Or what if they ask for a detail by detail explanation of eschatology?  I just don’t have the answers!!!”

God’s answer to Moses, and to us:  “I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”  You can because He will always give us what we need to finish the task He has set before us!  He will not ask us to do something and then not give us all we need to complete it.  Do we really think that God will set us up for failure?  Of course not!

Excuse 3:  “I can’t because They will not believe me”

In exodus 4:1 Moses says “But, behold, they will not believe me…”  Well, after all, it is not like he was in a famous movie…  he wasn’t the top news anchorman of the day… He wasn’t rated Egypt’s sexiest man of the year.  So how was he supposed to expect them to believe what he was saying? 

How often do we keep our mouth shut saying this?  I can’t because no one will believe me so there is no sense in wasting my time.  I would love to, but they don’t know me, they don’t know that I am a pretty honest guy.  I have no established reputation with them.  No instead we need to pray that Angelina Jolie gets saved, or Derek Jeter: because everyone knows them and will listen to them.

God’s answer is to show him through miraculous signs that it is not up to him- or us- to convince other people of what we are saying.  Our task is to take the Gospel to all nations, to stand for what is right, to stand for Jesus- God is the one who will take care of the convincing.  Then it is their choice whether they  believe or not. 

Excuse 4- “I can’t because God did you forget that I have a speech impediment?” 

In Exodus 4:10 Moses again comes up with an excuse:  “O my LORD, I am not eloquent… but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”  After God shows Moses His power, Moses has the audacity to say that he is not capable because of the way God created him.  Sorry God but You must have forgot this tiny problem, that You gave me this disability and there is nothing I can do about it!

Sometimes God will give us a task and our response to him is the same- I can’t because… You gave me this disability, or that disability…  But do we forget that it is God who created us?  Do we really believe that God is stupid or forgetful? 

God’s answer to Moses and us:  It is I who created you, I am fully aware of everything about you and yes- I STILL want you to do it!

We need to understand something: God is not concerned with how we look, or what handicaps we may or may not have, or how much knowledge we have, or anything but our obedience out of a joyful heart.  We may see our efforts as foolish attempts- but God sees them differently.  I love the way Paul put it in 1 Cor. 1:27-29: “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.”  He LOVES to use what we deem as “weak” or “incapable”!

When God calls us to a task we must put to death the excuse machine- put to death the “I can’t” man that dwells inside of us.  Train ourselves for the race, and run it hard- run to win.  Moses finally got it; he finally submitted to God, and when he did- God used him in a way that changed the world. 

I ask you this in closing- are you content with half-living a dead life, with false contentment, false comfort?  Are you ready to step away from self reliance, from disobedience, from bad attitudes, from the “I can’t” syndrome?  There is a world of hurting people in desperate need of a hero- a saviour. 

The funny thing is, that while God is the Saviour, He already has some people in mind to take the message of hope to the lost people…  And it’s you and I!  And we can talk all day about what you want to do in life, about if you want to be a rock star or a scientist, or a politician or an astronaught or a sports star or somebody famous but understand that NONE OF THAT is as important and relevant in your life as this: Are you going to do the task that GOD has given you?  Are YOU going to take the Gospel to all the world, whether it be as a missionary in the jungles of Africa or as a salesman on a car lot pointing those you work with to Christ?

You have a choice to make- you can continue to live like the cowardly version of Moses; you can keep running from God, or you can put down the things keeping you from a closer walk with Him.  You can try to keep following that “safe” god who doesn’t really exist- continuing to thank him for the good things and being satisfied in asking and asking and asking for blessings- or you can really get to know who God is.  You can stay in the confines of your safe zone with God, only to find out in the end that your idea of Him was totally messed up- or you can allow Him to take you on the adventure of a lifetime.  You can try and find satisfaction in living to exist- or you can rock the world around you, making real change in broken lives by choosing to exist to live!

The time has been given to you…  Now what will you do with it?