Friday, March 18, 2011

Exodus 4:1-20

1But Moses protested again, "Look, they won't believe me! They won't do what I tell them. They'll just say, `The LORD never appeared to you.' "
 2Then the LORD asked him, "What do you have there in your hand?"
 "A shepherd's staff," Moses replied.
 3"Throw it down on the ground," the LORD told him. So Moses threw it down, and it became a snake! Moses was terrified, so he turned and ran away.
 4Then the LORD told him, "Take hold of its tail." So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it became a shepherd's staff again.
 5"Perform this sign, and they will believe you," the LORD told him. "Then they will realize that the LORD, the God of their ancestors--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob--really has appeared to you."
 6Then the LORD said to Moses, "Put your hand inside your robe." Moses did so, and when he took it out again, his hand was white as snow with leprosy. 7"Now put your hand back into your robe again," the LORD said. Moses did, and when he took it out this time, it was as healthy as the rest of his body.
 8"If they do not believe the first miraculous sign, they will believe the second," the LORD said. 9"And if they do not believe you even after these two signs, then take some water from the Nile River and pour it out on the dry ground. When you do, it will turn into blood."
 10But Moses pleaded with the LORD, "O Lord, I'm just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I'm not now, even after you have spoken to me. I'm clumsy with words."
 11"Who makes mouths?" the LORD asked him. "Who makes people so they can speak or not speak, hear or not hear, see or not see? Is it not I, the LORD? 12Now go, and do as I have told you. I will help you speak well, and I will tell you what to say."
 13But Moses again pleaded, "Lord, please! Send someone else."
 14Then the LORD became angry with Moses. "All right," he said. "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? He is a good speaker. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. And when he sees you, he will be very glad. 15You will talk to him, giving him the words to say. I will help both of you to speak clearly, and I will tell you what to do. 16Aaron will be your spokesman to the people, and you will be as God to him, telling him what to say. 17And be sure to take your shepherd's staff along so you can perform the miraculous signs I have shown you."
 18Then Moses went back home and talked it over with Jethro, his father-in-law. "With your permission," Moses said, "I would like to go back to Egypt to visit my family. I don't even know whether they are still alive."
 "Go with my blessing," Jethro replied.
 19Before Moses left Midian, the LORD said to him, "Do not be afraid to return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead."
 20So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to the land of Egypt. In his hand he carried the staff of God.

Points of Interest:
• ‘Look, they won't believe me‘—Moses suspects that a little name-dropping might not be enough to convince Pharaoh, or even the Israelites, that he has been sent by God. So, God mercifully gives him some more demonstrable proofs. In some ways, these proofs are even more important for Moses now than they will be for Pharaoh or the Israelites later. As we will see tomorrow, it’s not entirely certain that the Israelites would have required such signs. And these signs ultimately prove unconvincing to Pharaoh. However, for Moses, they give some indication that God has the willingness and the ability to equip him for his commission.

• ‘it became a snake’—The fact that the staff becomes a snake is probably significant. The snake was a symbol for Pharaoh (the snake on the forehead of King Tut’s headdress is probably familiar to most of us). So, symbolically, God is saying that he has the power to make and un-make pharaohs—and that he has put that power in Moses’ hand. Blood in the Nile, which was the center of the Egyptian economy, society, and even religion, is similarly a sign of God’s power over Egypt.

• ‘I'm just not a good speaker’—apparently, despite the excellent classical training in rhetoric he probably received during his education, Moses suffers from the amazingly common malady, fear of public speaking. Even this barrier is not too big for God.

• ‘Lord, please! Send someone else’—Moses has reached the end of his logical objections, and the real truth comes out: he just doesn’t want to go. This is another typical element of the hero’s journey: the refusal of the call. It almost always takes some coaxing, or even force, to convince the hero to heed the call to leave the ordinary world and go on the mission. When it gets right down to it, we often just don’t want the adventure. We might like to dream of adventure. But the ordinary world is just too safe and familiar to leave, and the adventure is just too scary and unknown to embrace. God responds to Moses’ refusal with a combination of nurture and tough love: he provides Moses with the companionship and help of his brother Aaron, specifically answering his fears of public speaking; and then he effectively says, ‘Too bad! You’re going anyway,’ like a football coach shoving a frightened second string player on to the field. The combination of the two kinds of care does the trick for Moses, giving him both the support and the encouragement necessary to step out.

• ‘He is on his way to meet you now’—sending Aaron was an afterthought or purely a response to Moses. God had already sent Aaron to Moses.

• ‘be sure to take your shepherd's staff along’—over time, the desert has become Moses’ ordinary world; but in some ways, it is actually the special world of adventure. In the hero’s journey, some sort of threat to the ordinary world often motivates the hero to go on his journey. She goes on a search for a magic potion or weapon, and then returns with it to save her community (This element of the hero’s journey is particularly obvious in fairy tales). At this point, Moses is returning to his original ordinary world, Egypt. When Moses left Egypt, he knew the Israelites were in trouble, but he lacked the ability to save them. Although it seemed like he was escaping to the desert in failure, he was actually being sent to the desert to be equipped with the ‘magic potion’ he needed to save the Israelites. The shepherd’s staff is the perfect symbol of what he has gained in the desert. It represents the character he has developed over his time with the Midianites: he arrived as an angry and impulsive vigilante, but he leaves as a shepherd who has spent years faithfully guiding and caring for his flock. The skills and character he has gained by working with the sheep will come in handy when he is leading the people of Israel through the same desert. The shepherd’s staff, with its ability to turn into a snake, is also represents the supernatural power with which God has equipped him for the task of rescuing the people.

Taking it home:
For you: Have you ever said, ‘If only God would speak to me clearly, or send me some sort of sign’? God does these things for Moses, but even a burning bush isn’t quite enough to convince him of God’s presence or his call. If we’re anything like Moses, that fact says two things to us: we’re harder to convince than we think we are; and God is more willing to do the work to convince us than we think he is. God generously enters into a give and take dialogue with Moses, providing him with the proof he needs. Spend a moment thanking God for his patience with you. And, if you need some proof of God’s presence with you, step out boldly in dialogue with him. Is there something you need from him to show you he is with you? Ask God for it, and look for a sign and listen for his answer.

For your six: For some reason, Moses doesn’t tell Jethro the whole story of his encounter with God or his real reasons for going back to Egypt. Maybe Moses still doesn’t quite believe it himself, and he’s taking a ‘let’s see what happens’ attitude. Maybe he’s afraid of sounding crazy. Maybe he doesn’t want to alarm Jethro. Maybe it just feels too vulnerable to share what happened to him quite yet. In any case, there’s more going on for Moses than is apparent on the surface. That’s probably true of your six as well. If you’ve been praying for your six for a while and haven’t seen any visible results, don’t be discouraged. Ask God to relate to your six in quiet, private ways; and ask God to give you patience to give them space.

For our church: When Moses complains of his poor public speaking, God responds, ‘Who makes mouths?’ Moses’ natural inability (if it even truly exists) is no impediment to God. He is perfectly able to equip us to do what he calls us to do—which is a good thing, because he often calls us to do the impossible. For example, one thing Jesus commands his followers to do is heal the sick—something very few of us can accomplish on our own. Ask God to give our church the power we need from him to obey his commands. Pray specifically that God would increase our ability to pray for the sick and see them made well.