An Unlikely Deliverer
Last week we began studying Exodus 3. I said that the end of chapter 2 is Moses’s way of saying, “God is fully aware of what’s happening to his people and he’s about to act.” Or as C. S. Lewis would say in The Chronicles of Narnia, “Aslan is on the move!”
In chapter 3, God takes center stage and starts to reveal his plan to save his people. What’s the plan? How will he act?
God could’ve rescued Israel in a number of ways, but he decides to use a man to accomplish his plan. And not some great man with power, nobility, wealth, or an army. No, he chose an aging, poor, obscure, displaced immigrant shepherd who was minding his own business.
He chose to use Moses, the Hebrew turned Egyptian, the prince turned exile, the royal son turned shepherd. Moses isn’t doing anything special. He’s faithfully fulfilling his duties in the ordinary things of life when the presence of God suddenly changes his life.
Moses is an unlikely candidate to be the deliverer of God’s people. But God calls him anyway, and Moses responds in the same way we usually do. This part of Exodus (3:1-4:17) is all about God’s calling of Moses and Moses’s reluctance to answer that call.
God choosing Moses teaches us about the kind of person God uses. The kind of person God uses must know God’s holiness, God’s call, and God’s plan.
Last week we looked at Moses’s encounter with God’s holiness. Today, we’ll look at God’s call to Moses, God’s plan for Israel, and God’s call and plan for your life.
God’s Call to Moses
In verses 7-12, God calls Moses to deliver his people. In verse 8, the Lord says that he has “come down” to deliver his people. This language is reminiscent of his response to the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:5) and Sodom and Gomorrah (18:21). It’s what God says when he’s about to intervene in human affairs, especially in judgment.
The verse says that God has come “down” to bring his people “up.” God’s condescension is always for his people’s salvation. God comes low to bring us high.
It says that he’ll bring them to “a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” This language is reminiscent of the Garden of Eden, where everything God made was “good.” God bringing Israel to Canaan will be like a return to the Garden.
He says the land is “flowing with milk and honey.” Our tour guide in Israel told us this describes the topography of the land. Milk comes from goats and goats live in the hills and mountains, so the land will have mountains. Honey refers to the sweetness of the juice that comes from pomegranates, dates, or grapes, which grow in fertile valleys and plains. Canaan is thus a land of mountains and valleys, a land capable of producing all that Israel needs. This was a beautiful promise for a people suffering in slavery.
Verse 9 says that God sees the oppressed and the oppressor. This is good news for the one, bad news for the other.
Then in verse 10, something unexpected happens. In verses 6-9, the focus is on God and what he’ll do: “I am the God of…,” “I have seen,” “I have heard,” “I know,” “I have come down to deliver them,” “I will bring them up,” “their cry has come to me and I see their oppression.”
But then God says to Moses, “I’m sending you to deliver my people.” The emphasis in verses 6-9 is the Lord’s action, but then he says Moses will be the deliverer. It’d be like me saying to Suzy, “Hey babe, I know we need to build a new house, I’ve found the right piece of land, I secured the money, I drew up the plans, and I bought the materials. Now will you please go build the house?”
This helps us see that Moses is making a legitimate point in verse 11. He’s confused and doesn’t understand what the Lord is asking. He’s wondering, “Why are you saying that I’m going to rescue them when you just told me that you’re going to rescue them?”
Moses’s reluctance is understandable at this point. He’s saying, “I’m not God, how can I bring Israel out of Egypt?” We can sympathize with Moses because we understand what it feels like when God asks us to do something that feels impossible.
God responds in verse 12 with a promise to calm Moses’s heart, “I will be with you.” Cambridge scholar Richard Bauckham says that discovering that God is with us “is probably the most important discovery anyone can make, for, once made, it colors all life’s experiences.” He says that the Lord’s presence with us is “how life should be.”[1]
This is also a play on words with the Lord’s name in verse 14. “I will be” and “I am” are the same word in Hebrew. The “I am” is with Moses. As one commentator says, “Moses’ assertion that he cannot do this task is correct but entirely beside the point. He is not doing the saving. Moses says, ‘I cannot do this.’ Yahweh responds, ‘You’re not, I am.’”[2]
Moses would be flying blind when he returns to Egypt, but God being with him was all that mattered. The reason God keeps introducing himself as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” (vv. 6, 15) is to reassure him that the same God who was with them is also with him. The God of the patriarchs is the God of Moses. As Alec Motyer says, God was still “the God who calls into the unknown, overcomes impossible odds to keep his promises, bothers with those who have tried and failed and, certainly in the case of Jacob, is the God who can take the unpromising material of our lives and transform it.”[3]
We can begin to see a pattern of redemption begin to develop here. This isn’t the last time God would “come down to deliver” his people out of the hand of their enemies, out of their bondage and affliction, and “bring them up” to a “good and broad land.” And this isn’t the last time God calls someone to himself and then sends them to others with the good news of redemption (Mt. 28:18-20).
God’s Plan for Israel
How did God plan to use Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt? He starts to unfold the plan in verses 13-22. The flow of thought in these verses goes like this: God says to Moses, “This is who I am” (vv. 13-15), this is what see (v. 16), this is what I’ll do (v. 17), and this is what you’ll do (vv. 18-22).”
Verse 13 is the second of five times Moses questions God about his call and plan. It seems as if he’s projecting his doubts onto the Israelites. If the first objection was, “I don’t think I can do this,” then this second objection is, “No one else will think I can do this either.”
The straightforward implication of Moses’s question is that Moses doesn’t know God’s personal name. There’s no implication that the Israelites are ignorant of it. They would have to know it if Moses’ appeal to it is going to help him win them over.
We’re going to look more extensively at verses 14-15 next week and consider what God’s name teaches us about God. For our purposes today, God likely reveals his name at this point because he wants Moses to know that he’s the God of the patriarchs, that the one he’s heard about is the one speaking with him now (v. 15).
In verse 16, the Lord tells Moses to take his message to the elders of Israel first, not Pharaoh. Verse 17 says he’s to tell them of God’s promise to deliver Israel out of Egypt and take them to Canaan.
Then in verse 18, there’s an unexpected development in the plan. Moses and the elders are to go to Pharaoh together. God wants everyone to get into the act![4]
Their initial request for Pharaoh appears as if they’re only asking to go a three-day journey and then come back. But verses 8, 10, or 17 don’t give any impression that the Israelites will be returning to Egypt, so how do we understand this request?
Some commentators say that a “three-day journey” simply refers to a long journey without implying a return trip, so this is the same as boldly saying to Pharaoh, “Let my people go!”
But other commentators suggest that this could be another example of God’s people using cunning and misdirection to accomplish God’s purposes, similar to the midwives’ response to Pharaoh in 1:19. By limiting their request to only a three-day journey, they hoped to outwit the tyrannical monarch.
God could also be using this request to reveal just how obstinate Pharaoh is. His rejection of their modest request reveals his true character. This is why in verse 19 God gives Moses a note of caution. Moses is warned of Pharaoh’s hardheartedness. In 4:21, when God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, he’s simply giving him over to what he would’ve chosen otherwise.
God is preparing Moses for disappointment in his dealings with Pharaoh. He wants to protect him from despair and let him know that his mission will require a sustained effort.[5]
The Lord tells Moses that Pharaoh won’t listen to reasonable persuasion, even if the terms are presented in as non-threatening a way as possible. Persuasion won’t work, so the Lord says he’ll have to use force (v. 20). This foreshadows the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea.
Then there’s this beautiful promise in verses 21-22. This promise of provision is evidence of God’s kindness toward his people. He understands that as slaves his people have nothing, so he promises a miraculous provision, “I will give you favor with the Egyptians.”
The fact that it’ll be the women who “plunder” the Egyptians illustrates Israel’s decisive victory over Egypt. This wealth would later provide for the beauty and richness of the tabernacle. God would use his enemies to bless his friends.
God’s Call and Plan for Your Life
Now that we’ve seen God calling Moses and God giving him his plan for Israel, what does any of this have to do with you?
This text helps us understand God’s call on our lives. A pattern in the way God calls people in the Old Testament begins here. The most famous call narratives are with Joshua (Josh. 1), Gideon (Judg. 6), Samuel (1 Sam. 3), Isaiah (Isa. 6, 40), Jeremiah (Jer. 1), and Ezekiel (Ezek. 1).
In each case, God initiates contact, the recipient is living an ordinary life, the recipient is jolted by what God is asking them and responds in humility or disbelief, but they come to learn that God is greater than their inadequacies, lack of experience, or lack of talent. He makes it clear that it’s his power at work, not theirs.[6]
The Calling to Salvation
These call narratives show us that God’s call is to salvation and vocation. First and foremost, God’s call is to salvation, a calling that he initiates. God calls us into his kingdom, we don’t invite ourselves.
We can’t invite ourselves because we understand God’s holiness and our sinfulness. They understand that we can only enter the holiness of God if we’re covered by the holiness of God. They understand that in Jesus, God stepped out of the bush and onto a tree. On the cross, Jesus walked into the fire of God’s holiness so that we wouldn’t have to, that he took our uncleanness so that we can be cleansed, that the clean one became dirty so that we could be clean, that the Holy One took our unholiness.
Have you encountered the holiness of God and been covered by Jesus’ righteousness? Has God called you to himself? Every Christian has had a Mount Horeb experience of sorts because every true Christian has encountered the holiness of God and been truly changed. Like Moses, the direction of our lives was eternally altered by God. And like Moses, we may’ve resisted, but God’s grace overcame our resistance so that now we want to follow God, however imperfectly.
The Calling of Vocation
God calls us into his kingdom, and then he calls us into some kingdom service. God has unique work for each of us and you don’t need a magical formula to figure out what it is. You simply need to look at your life, know yourself and listen to others.
First, look at your life. Whatever is right in front of you is what God has called you to. Marriage and singleness are callings from God (1 Cor. 7:7). Your kids are your calling. Your current job or school is your calling. Your current neighborhood and friend group is your calling. Church membership is a calling. Calling isn’t about what’s next, but what’s right in front of you.
Second, know yourself. As you make decisions about the work you’ll do, consider what you’re good at, what gifts and propensities and interests do you have. What comes naturally to you? What do you enjoy that others hate? This isn’t the only or main thing to consider. Elevating personal satisfaction to the top of the list of things to consider is very modern. It’s not wrong to think about, but it shouldn’t be the determining factor.[7]
Third, listen to others. Did you notice how God incorporated the elders into his call on Moses’s life (vv. 16, 18)? Moses wasn’t to be a lone ranger but was to work for the group by working with the group.[8]
Our vocational calling isn’t a private matter. Hearing a personal word from God isn’t enough to confirm what he wants us to do. The church is a body with many members, so God’s call on our lives should be checked by others in the body.[9]
As you consider what to do with your life, don’t do it in isolation. God has given you amazing resources in the church through elders and brothers and sisters in Christ.
Moses Is Just Like Us
Even with great counsel and clarity about what we should do, we’re still more like Moses than we’d like to admit. We’re reluctant, unsure of ourselves, afraid, and struggle to trust in the Lord.
This narrative doesn’t emphasize Moses’ great courage. Tom Schreiner puts it like this, “The story does not elevate Moses to greatness by emphasizing his courage. He does not represent a brave ‘general’ who is ready to rescue God’s people. Instead, he pleads and begs to be relieved of his duty, for he is deeply conscious of his inadequacy. Moses’ greatness stems not from his own inner strength but rather from his recognition that without God he could do nothing.”[10]
The Moses of forty years ago was full of self-confidence and took matters into his own hands. The Moses of now asks to be relieved of his work.[11] Moses is a changed man. He’s deeply conscious of his inadequacy. He feels utterly incapable to do what God is asking him to do. He’s afraid of the unknown. In other words, he’s just like us.
The Called One Can Help Us in Our Callings
So how did Moses, and how can we, find the strength, courage, and resources we need to do the things God calls us to do?
We must start in the presence of God. Moses didn’t learn what his life mission was until he encountered God. As Motyer says, “True Christian service begins…in the presence of the Lord…Before he sent him out he brought him in and let him stand in his presence and commune with his God.”[12]
We start in the presence of the One who perfectly answered God’s call on his life. Jesus’ “call” is similar to others in the Old Testament, but also very different. He was living an ordinary life before his extraordinary mission began and there were periods of intense struggle with his mission (eg. praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and his cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
But what you never see in Jesus is obstinate rejection, feelings of inadequacy, or a stubborn reluctance to do what the Father sent him to do. The Father and the Son are one, so there was always a unity of purpose between them. Jesus never needed a sign from God to know what to do.
This means that Jesus has a strength in himself that we can’t find anywhere else. He’s holy and independent. We’re unholy and dependent, so the only place we’ll find the resources we need to answer God’s call on our lives is in him.
An Incredible Thing
It’s an incredible thing that a holy God calls us into his service. Like Moses, we must move from approaching God out of curiosity to approaching him with the awe and reverence and surrender that he deserves. If we’re approaching God flippantly, he tells us what he told Moses: “Stop, come no further. I am not a matter of curiosity. I am holy.”
When we stop and gaze at God in Christ and listen to him, we’ll find all we need to do what he wants us to do. So what is God calling you to do? Maybe to repent and believe the gospel? Maybe to seek wise counsel as you make plans? Maybe for help and wisdom as a parent, spouse, employee, student, church member, or neighbor?
God uses the most unlikely people to do the most unlikely things. The kind of person God uses knows God’s holiness, his call, and his plan. Are you this kind of person?
[1]Richard Bauckham, Who Is God?: Key Moments of Biblical Revelation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020), 11.
[2]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 101, italics his.
[3]J. A. Motyer, The Message of Exodus, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2005), 56.
[4]Enns, 107.
[5]See Nahum M. Sarna, Exploring Exodus: The Origins of Biblical Israel, 2nd ed. (New York: Schocken Books, 1996), 55-56.
[6]Enns, 117-8.
[7]See Sebastian Traeger and Greg Gilbert, The Gospel at Work: How Working for King Jesus Gives Purpose and Meaning to Our Jobs (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013) for help thinking through this.
[8]Enns, 123-4.
[9]See Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will, Or How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Impressions, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, Etc. (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009), 99.
[10]Thomas R. Schreiner, The King In His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 29.
[11]Alfred Edersheim, The Bible History, Old Testament, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, originally published 1876-1887), 48.
[12]Motyer, 63.