One moment you’re kickn’ it with the sheep and the next a burning bush tells you that you’re going to save a nation of several million slaves. Just another ordinary day in Midian. You may have not been asked to do exactly that, but there are things the Lord has tasked you with that seem just as impossible. Being a husband. A father. An employee. Minister. And the list goes on. The burning bush is always exacting what seems to be the one thing we are good at failing at.

This is where Moses is in Exodus 4. Life was going well and then the Lord calls him to something more; to be his mouthpiece in freeing his people from bondage. Like Abraham when he was asked to sacrifice his only son, Moses knows he must obey from the get go but how to make it from point A to B is a stretch of his faith. And, unlike the Christ he was a picture of, Moses was unsure of his ability to be obedient to the point of death.

So, what is Moses to do? What are we to do?

Trust.

But in what? The world tells us to trust in our God-given abilities, just be yourself. Well, Moses is himself and places his trust in his inabilities. It’s the opposite of being overconfident; to believe that you cannot accomplish what you are being asked to do to the point that there’s no room for the Lord to overcome your weakness.

Moses admits, or rather demands, that he’s no orator. Never claimed to be one and certainly ain’t one now by any stretch of one’s vocabulary. He is slow of speech and of tongue. Truly, I believe that Moses is being humble, but to the point of a lack of faith. The courage and passion that had caused a young Hebrew prince in chapter 2:11-15 to confront an Egyptian taskmaster who was beating a Hebrew slave, to speak boldly and act strongly had been tempered by years in the desert sun. Now, to Moses’ defense he may very well of had some concern that those that had sought his life were still awaiting his return some decades later. It wasn’t until verse 19 of chapter 4 that the Lord informs him those men are dead; foresight is 20-10?