When God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go, Moses asked God, “Who am I that you send me that I should go to Pharaoh?” May you please explain what exactly was Moses asking for?
Let’s read Exodus 3:10-11, “’Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’” (NKJV) In verse 7 God told Moses that He had “seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.” He then expressed His desire to deliver His people (verses 8-9). The response by Moses to God’s command to go to Egypt is very sad, for the words “Who am I” reveal that Moses was occupied with himself, instead of being occupied with God, the great “I am” (see verse 14). Those three little words expose Moses’ “lack of faith in God” and “his lack of faith in himself.” He had every right to feel inadequate in himself, but he had no right to question God’s ability to deliver His people. In short, by saying “Who am I” Moses was DISQUALIFYING HIMSELF for the job. As one reads on we see some of the ways in which he felt he was not “up to the job.”
1) His lack of a MESSAGE. Exodus 3:13 says, “Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ WHAT SHALL I SAY to them?’”
2) His lack of AUTHORITY. Exodus 4:1 states, “Then Moses answered and said, ‘But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, The LORD HAS NOT APPEARED TO YOU.’”
3) His lack of ELOQUENCE. Exodus 4:10 reads, “Then Moses said to the LORD, ‘O my Lord, I AM NOT ELOQUENT, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I AM SLOW OF SPEECH and SLOW OF TONGUE.”
Because of these “deficiencies” Moses ends with these words, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of WHOMEVER ELSE You may send” (Exodus 4:13). He pleads with the Lord to SEND SOMEONE ELSE! Again, all of his arguments are based on a complete lack of faith in God and an unwarranted obsession with himself. Had he simply fixed his eye on the Lord he would have realized that 1) God would give him a MESSAGE to speak; 2) God was his AUTHORITY behind his message; and 3) God would give him the ABILITY to speak.
God tried to assure him of these things, for in Exodus 3:12, 14 and 4:11-2 He said, “I will certainly be with you…I AM WHO I AM…Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’…Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.’”
Before we judge Moses too harshly, have we ever responded like Moses when God was commanding us to do something? If we search our hearts, I believe we can all say, “Yes, I too have been guilty of asking the Lord to SEND SOMEONE ELSE.” The next time we get a clear command from the Lord let’s fix our eye of faith on HIM and not on ourselves. Let’s remember the words of the Lord Jesus in John 15:5, “Without Me you can do nothing,” and the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” If we do have Christ before us, we will respond like Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:8, “Here am I! SEND ME.” (299.9) (DO)