Please Send Someone Else
When Moses Crossed the Line from Doubt to Refusal
“But Moses said, ‘Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.’ Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses…” -Exodus 4:13-14 (NIV)
God had big plans for Moses’ life. After hundreds of years of captivity in Egypt, the people of God would be led to freedom. All of God’s incredible promises to Abraham about forming a nation and entering the land were finally going to come true. And Moses would be the one to lead them there.
The only problem was, Moses didn’t think he had what it took to fulfill God’s plan for his life. He didn’t think he was qualified. Instead of responding with a courageous “Here I am! Send me!” ... Moses responded with fears, doubts, and some pointed questions for God.
And God was gracious with him through all of it. God helped Moses work through his fears, he addressed his doubts, and he answered his questions. He even enabled Moses to perform some miraculous signs that would prove he was sent in the power of God. As long as Moses kept engaging with God with honesty and sincerity -- even if it meant expressing his doubts-- God was willing to work with him.
But then Moses did something that caused God to react differently. Moses did something that crossed a line. In Exodus 4:13, Moses wasn’t asking any more questions or sharing any more doubts. He was telling God to find someone else instead. Moses had decided that he wasn’t willing to embrace his role in God’s plan of redemption for Israel. He had heard enough, and he wasn’t interested.
And God burned with anger.
Don’t Let Doubt Cause You To Turn Away from God’s Plan.
God understands that we won’t always understand his plan for our lives. He understands we’ll sometimes be afraid. And he even understands that sometimes our doubts will get the best of us. As long as we are coming to God and expressing all that openly and honestly, God will be patient with us and our imperfect faith. He can handle our tough questions and our doubts, because in those moments we are showing him we aren’t giving up, we are just being honest about our struggle to take the next step of faith.
It’s when our doubt turns into refusal that God gets angry. I think the lesson here is that we need to see our fears and doubts as opportunities to draw closer to God and lay them at his feet... not a justification to distance ourselves from his plan for our lives.
SO good - per usual