Opening Illustration: The struggle I had with my personal calling -
• I knew I had a call upon my life since childhood but was running from it because I saw that there was nothing lucrative in it for me or my family … it meant the cross and suffering … I wasn’t ready
• God cornered me the Middle East and gave Maureena and me a vision and purpose for pioneering and planting underground churches in there.
• Listening to God is the most important element in carrying out your calling. God called us to the USA as missionaries because He already foresaw the problems this nation would get into …
Introduction: This event happened thousands of years ago, so what significance does it have for us today? We see God calling Moses to service. We also see God’s calling was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but something he had been grooming Moses for since the beginning of his life. In the same way, we receive a call from God as a result of lifelong preparation. God has a specific purpose for which he has been grooming each of us, and when the time comes for him to reveal it, each of us will have a burning bush moment in our life.
Nothing is more needed to-day than God's Partnership as a realized fact in Christian experience. Many of us may assent to what is written in these lines, and then put it aside, as a dream which is too ethereal to be of practical service. For every call, we are being partners with God to fulfill what His desire is for us. It is such a privilege. Without that partnership we will not be able to execute it in the way God desires it.
With face covered, but with ears attentive to hear, Moses stands before God to learn his will. And God takes him, as it were, into counsel, not only calling him to a certain work, but revealing to him why he is called, what exactly he is to do, and what will be the issue of his enterprise.
How is the call carried out?
1. VISION/REASON for the call (vs. 7-10) – “Let My people go”
Moses is called because the affliction of Israel—their sufferings—from the constant toil, from the brutal taskmasters, from the cruel Pharaoh, from the apparent hopelessness of their position—had reached to such a point that God could allow it to go on no longer. There is a point at which he will interfere to vindicate the oppressed and punish the wrong-doers, even if the oppressed are too much crushed, too downtrodden, too absolutely in despair, to cry to him. Their case calls to him; their "blood cries from the ground." But in this instance actual despair had not been reached. His people had "cried to him." And here was a second reason why he should interfere. God is never deaf to any prayers addressed to him for succor; he may not always grant them, but he hears them. And if they are sustained, and earnest, and justified by the occasion, he grants them. Such was the case now, and Moses was called because of the extreme affliction of the Israelites, and because of their prolonged and earnest cry to God under it.
God had to fulfill the promise He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He would make them reside in the Promised Land. Presently the Israelites were in Egypt and for God’s vision to be fulfilled in their lives, they had to be moved to the Promised Land. There was only one man who could do it then – Moses!
2. STRUGGLE with the call (vs. 11-14) – “Who am I?”
Self-confidence is not the temper which God uses for His instruments. He works with ‘bruised reeds,’ and breathes His strength into them. It is when a man says ‘I can do nothing,’ that he is fit for God to employ. ‘When I am weak, then I am strong.’ Moses remembered enough of Egypt to know that it was no slight peril to confront Pharaoh, and enough of Israel not to be particularly eager to have the task of leading them. But mark that there is no refusal of the charge, though there is profound consciousness of inadequacy. If we have reason to believe that any duty, great or small, is laid on us by God, it is wholesome that we should drive home to ourselves our own weakness, but not that we should try to shuffle out of the duty because we are weak. Moses’ answer was more of a prayer for help than of a remonstrance, and it was answered accordingly.
Very many break down at this point. There is the greatest possible danger of getting out of the solemnity and calmness of the divine presence, amid the bustle of intercourse with men, and the excitement of active service. This is to be carefully guarded against. If we lose that hallowed tone of spirit which is expressed in "the unshod foot," our service will, very speedily, become vapid and unprofitable. If I allow my work to get between my heart and the Master, it will be little worth. We can only effectually serve Christ as we are enjoying Him. It is while the heart dwells upon His powerful attractions that the hands perform the most acceptable service to His name; nor is there anyone who can minister Christ with unction, freshness, and power to others, if he be not feeding upon Christ, in the secret of his own soul. True, he may preach a sermon, deliver a lecture, utter prayers, write a book, and go through the entire routine of outward service, and yet not minister Christ. The man who will present Christ to others must be occupied with Christ for himself.
God grooms us for his call. In Exodus 3:1, we see that Moses was tending the flocks when he found the burning bush. This indicates he was a shepherd. Tending sheep was preparing Moses for the greater task of shepherding the Israelites. Growing up in Pharaoh’s household gave Moses the opportunity to learn the ways of the Egyptians. It also afforded him access to Pharaoh when the time came to deliver the Israelites. Moses was fully prepared to accomplish that which he was called to do because his life was leading up to the Exodus.
God never calls people to a task and then deserts them. God is always there to make sure his will is carried out; and with Moses, this is evident in Exodus 3:13-15. Moses struggled with the thought of approaching the Israelites, so he asked God to give him something to say to prove the authenticity of his charge.
Moses was reluctant to serve God because he was too self-conscious, and not God-conscious enough. We need to balance the truth of John 15:5 ("Without me you can do nothing.") with that of Philippians 4:13 ("I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.") Our success as God's servants does not depend on our natural abilities, as much as on our trust and obedience. As the sign on the church marquee proclaimed: "God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called." In fact He equips those He calls.
3. EXECUTION of the call (vs. 15-22) – “Heed to God”
He is to "bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt" (Exodus 3:10); and, as a preliminary step, he is to "go to Pharaoh." Thus he is directed to return to Egypt forthwith, and to put himself into communication with the new king who had succeeded the one from whom he had fled. So much is made clear to him. He, an exile for forty years, and a mere hireling shepherd of the desert during that space, is to seek an interview with the great monarch of all Egypt, and to plead the cause of his people before him—to endeavor to induce him to "let them go." A difficult enterprise, to say the least; humanly speaking, a hopeless one. How should a king be induced to allow the departure of 600,000 able-bodied laborers, whose condition was that of state slaves, who could be set to any work which the king had in hand—to keep cattle, or make bricks, or build cities, or erect walls, or excavate canals? What inducement was to be offered to him to make the sacrifice? Such thoughts would naturally occur to Moses under the circumstances, and would naturally have risen to his lips but for the distinct announcement made with regard to the further point.
The Divine declaration, "I am come down to deliver them, and to bring them up out of that land into a good land and a large," was so definite and clear a statement, so positive a promise of success, as to override all objections on the score of the task being an impossible one. God "had come down to deliver" his people, and would undoubtedly do it, whatever opposition was raised. Thus, to counteract the despondency which the consideration of the existing facts and circumstances was calculated to produce, there was held forth before Moses the positive assurance of success; the certainty that God would make good his word; would, however difficult it seemed, lead his people forth, deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptian, and make them the masters of another land, large and good, flowing with milk and honey, into possession of which they would enter through his might and by his irresistible assistance.
Application: Moses accepted God’s call and the Israelites were saved. God was there during the confrontation with Pharaoh, and Moses was fully prepared to act on God’s behalf. This is how it is when God calls us to service. God prepares us for his purpose; he gets our attention and lays out the rules, and he promises to be with us every step of the way.
We also receive our call at just the right time. How often do we rush into something and end up failing because we ran ahead of God? How many times have we decided to go in a different direction because we did not have the patience to wait for him? Timing is important when it comes to the call of God, and this is apparent in the fact that Moses was called to action late in his life.
So what have you been called to do? Think about your path through life, and you will see a pattern forming that could lead to a call of service to God.
