The Story of Moses: Excuses
Exodus 3-4 (Part 2)
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
03-30–2025
In My Mind I’m Going to Carolina
Last week, I began the sermon with a sad story of letting fear keep me from a summer of working with handicapped children in Virginia.
I had never been away from home, I had never worked with handicapped children, I had a car payment. I had excuses galore.
I have always wondered how my life would be different if I had not let my fear win the day that summer.
Fast forward three summers. I had been born again at a fall retreat in Moscow, Tennessee which gave me a whole new perspective about my life and my calling. I wanted to do whatever God called me to do and go wherever God wanted me to go.
After much prayers and searching, I was offered a job at a Christian children’s home / school in the mountains of North Carolina.
I was excited. And then I was terrified. I had started graduate school, had a job, a serious girlfriend, a great church and, for the first time since high school, an amazing group of friends who encouraged me spiritually.
Could I just drive away from everything I knew into the great unknown of the Blue Ridge Mountains? I felt the fear rise and the excuses start.
What happened? You will have to stay to the end to hear the rest of the story.
Review
Last week, Moses was still speaking to a burning bush in the middle of nowhere.
God made it clear that Moses was His first and only choice to be the deliverer of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
Moses heard the call and started his response with the word “but.”
It’s never a good thing when God calls us and our first word in response is “but…”.
“But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Ex 3:11)
Moses’s first excuse? Who I am?
Forty years ago, Moses was arrogant and impetuous. Forty years in the desert had humbled him. But this wasn’t humility. He was questioning his adequacy.
Forty years earlier, he was confident and impulsive. He knew he was the deliverer. He didn’t hesitate to kill the Egyptian taskmaster. But that all blew up in his face. That was a long time ago.
How did God respond?
“And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” (Exodus 3:12)
God promises His presence. He will be with him as he accomplishes this mission. He will not go alone.
More than that, He also promises a sign to support the promise. After Moses leads them out of Egypt, they will end up right back here at Mr Horeb, better known as Mt. Sinai. This is where they will worship God and where Moses will receive the Ten Commandments from the very hand of God.
It is not about who we are. It is about Who goes with us, Who empowers us, Who strengthens us, and Who supports us.
No worries, Moses. I will be with you. That’s all you need.
Some of you know this feeling. God has called you to something and your response has been “God, I’m really a nobody. I can’t do this.”
You need to hear God say, “You are right, you can’t do this. But with me, you can!”
Ian Thomas once prayed, “Lord Jesus, I can’t. But You never said I could. But You can, and You always said You would. That’s all I need to know.”
God doesn’t called the equipped. He equips the called.
Moses reluctantly agrees to entertain the idea of going back to Egypt but now reveals another excuse.
Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13)
Moses’s second excuse? What if they ask me questions I don’t know the answers to? Specifically, what if they ask me what Your name is?
God doesn’t strike Moses dead for offering another lame excuse. He reveals His covenant-keeping name:
But what is God’s name? God told Moses:
“I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)
In the Hebrew, there are no vowels, only consonants. So this is YHWH, where we get the name - Yahweh. Jehovah in Greek. The self-existence one, the Alpha and Omega, with no beginning and no end. The eternal and unchanging One. The personal God who is near to us. The One who is/will be. Nothing about me will ever change.
“I am” will rescue the Israelites. You can trust Him.
God then goes a step further and tells Moses exactly how the elders of Israel and Pharaoh will react to his message:
“The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.” (Exodus 3:18-20)
Moses needn’t worry about how the elders will respond to him. They will listen to him and be all in on the mission. They will even go with Moses to confront Pharaoh. They will test the king of Egypt with a small request.
Pharaoh will not be so receptive. He will have to have a mighty hand against him in order to let the people go.
But God promises his presence and His power in the form of wonders, (plagues) upon the people. Then he will let them go.
Not only will Pharaoh let them go, but they will be compensated for 400 years of slave labor by plundering the Egyptians:
“And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.” (Exodus 3:21-22)
So God tells him exactly what is going to happen, how it is going to happen, and what an amazing success his mission to deliver the Israelites will be.
And Moses says, “Wow! That’s great! I’ll head to Egypt on the next camel.”
Unfortunately, that is not what he said. He actually came up with another excuse.
Please turn with me to Exodus chapter four.
Prayer
Excuse # 3: I’m afraid
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” (Exodus 4:1)
Wait? Hold on! Didn’t God just tell Moses that the elders and the Israelites would believe him and accept his message?
Wouldn’t God be right to strike Moses down with a lightning bolt now? But God, in His grace, spares the “Doubtful Deliverer.”
Moses was afraid. He was scared that they would not accept his credentials. He was afraid of personal rejection.
I’m so glad that Moses said this excuse out loud. Do you know why? Because I feel like this sometimes and I bet you do as well.
God has given us a message of good news! He is clear with His instructions about going into all the world, sharing the Gospel, and making disciples.
We hear that call and say, “Yes, I agree that is what we’re called to do. But…
Who am I? I’m not a very consistent Christian. What if they point out my flaws and some Facebook posts that I regret?
I don’t know enough. I’m not very knowledgable about the Bible. What if they ask me a question that I can’t answer?
Truthfully, I’m afraid. What if I try to share the Gospel with someone and they make fun of me? Reject me?
When that kind of fear haunted Moses, how did God respond??
God responds with three miraculous signs:
* Staff to a Snake
Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.” (Exodus 4:2-5)
God begins with a question. Moses, what’s in your hand? Moses looked at his hand and the staff that he had carried with him as a shepherd for forty years.
God commanded Moses to throw the staff on the ground. When he did, something extraordinary happened.
I’ll let Chuck Swindoll tell it:
“Moses stood before the burning bush. It rumbled, bellowing smoke into the air that looked like gathering thunderclouds. The bramble stood higher than a grown man, and its thick foliage crackled and popped in flames that licked the air. He listened as Yahweh spoke.
When you’ve revealed My plan to My people, they will listen to you and believe that I sent you. Then you and the elders will go to Pharaoh and request permission for a three day journey to sacrifice to Me, but he won’t listen. So I’ll visit Egypt with so much catastrophe that they will not only let you go, they’ll give you everything they own.
When God finished speaking, Moses remembered the time that he tried to keep the two slaves from fighting each other. They clearly didn’t want his help, and their rebuff stills stung.
What a nation of mule-headed beasts the Hebrews were! Yet God spoke as though they’d go right along with everything Moses said.
What will be different this time? Moses thought. It sounds like the exact same thing I tried to do forty years ago.
“What if they don’t listen to me - don’t believe me?” Moses asked. “What if they don’t believe You appeared to me? They might say, God hasn’t appeared to you, old man. Go back to Midian, or better yet, jump in here and help us make some bricks.” Then they’ll laugh at me.”
“What do you have in your hand?” God asked.
“A walking staff.”
“Throw it to the ground.”
Moses threw it down and as soon as it hit the dirt, it coiled into a tight spiral of a long, back adder. Moses looked into the two dark, hollow beads staring back at him. Its eyes were like coal. There was life behind them, but no warmth; just a cold, single-minded evil.
The adder spat and hissed as Moses leapt for a nearby rock and hid in a cleft.
Pick it up,” God said, “by the tail.”
The tail? Moses watched the serpent from behind the rock. It didn’t look like it wanted to be picked up by any part, let alone the most dangerous.
He timidly stretched his hand toward the viper’s tail, clenching his fist around some flesh. If the snake was going to kill him, it would do it now. But instead it fell limp on the ground and straightened back into a staff. Moses fell to his knees, his muscles quivering with the brush with death.”
We need to be reminded that this wasn’t a magic staff. Egyptians were used to magic. This wasn’t Penn and Teller. It was an ordinary staff.
This was a sign with a symbolic meaning. The snake was the symbol of Egyptian power.
Moses had yielded a scepter with a snake on it as the heir to the Pharaoh’s throne. But now, after forty years in the desert being humbled and prepared, the shepherd’s staff would be used by God to show his power through Moses.
It would be a sign to the Israelites that I AM was with him.
This staff would be used to part the Red Sea and bring water from a rock for the thirsty desert-wanderers.
It was ultimately called, “the great staff of God!”
God asked the same question to a teenage shepherd boy who went up against a taunting giant.
“What do you have in your hand, David?”
“Just a sling and five smooth stones, Lord.”
“That will be perfect, David!”
“What’s that in your hand,Wyatt Henderson?”
“A massive body and lightning quick reflexes.”
“Good now go take down a champion that hasn’t lost in three years!”
[Reel of Wyatt Henderson after his upset of Gable Steveson]
“What do you have in your hand, young man?”
“Just five little pieces of bread and two small fish, Lord.”
“That’s perfect. That means food for all the people.”
“What do you have in your hand, C. S. Lewis?”
“Just a pen and some paper, Lord.”
That’s perfect! Now write!”
“What’s in your hand, Billy?"
“A Bible, Lord.”
“Perfect. Preach, Billy!”
Many years ago, Contemporary Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman was backstage at yet another awards show. His pastor, Scottie Smith, found him in tears.
Steven asked him if he was really making a difference with his music and that maybe he and Mary Beth should go on the mission field.
Through Scottie, God asked him what he had in his hand.
“A guitar, Lord.”
“Who who gave you the ability to sing and write music and play the guitar?”
“You did, Lord!”
“Then sing, my child! Sing!”
But, before we move on. What’s in your hand? What’s your staff? What ordinary gift or talent do you have that, in the hand of God, can be used for the Kingdom?
Corporately, what does Chenoa Baptist have in our hands? You may say, “Not much.”
But, as Craig Groeschel, lead pastor of Life.Church, reminds small churches all the time:
“Your church has everything needed to do what God has called you to do.”
The Leprous Hand
Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow. (Exodus 4:6)
God gave Moses a second sign and this one was as scary as the first!
God directed him to put his hand inside his cloak. Moses did this and when he took it out he screamed in shock and fear.
It was white as snow. Leprosy was a dreaded disease that caused fingers, toes, and noses to fall off, leaving the person disfigured.
In Hebrew culture, lepers had to keep their distance from others and shout “unclean” if someone approached them. There was no cure.
“Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.” (Exodus 4:7)
God then directed Moses to put it back in his cloak. He trembled as he put his hand back into the cloak. But when he removed his hand, it was back to normal.
Egyptians were fastidious about cleanliness and scared of disease. This sign would have sent the Egyptians running for the exits.
Water into blood
Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.” (Exodus 4:8-9)
God then gives him another sign. If they blow off the first two signs, then the third will get their attention for sure!
Moses is to take some water from the Nile and pour it out on the ground. When the water hits the dust, it would congeal into dark, red blood.
The Nile was critical to Egypt’s existence. They considered it a divine source of life. They worshiped the god of the Nile. This sign would be directed at the powerlessness of this false god.
The very first plague that God would unleash on Egypt would be this very sign - the waters of the Nile turned to blood.
Davi Guzik points out the progression of these signs.
First, God gives the message and Moses is to believe it and obey it.
Then God gives two signs of transformation - a staff to a snake and a normal hand to a leprous hand.
Guzik writes,
“The first said, “Moses, if you obey Me, your enemies will be made powerless.” The second said “Moses, if you obey Me, your pollution can be made pure.”
If you don’t believe the message, then believe in the transformation.
Instead of arguing with people about theology, I often just share my story. It’s easy to argue theology. It’s much harder to debate with someone whose life has been transformed by the amazing grace of God.
[Reel of gay man who encountered the Holy Spirit].
If you notice, the snake turned back into a staff. The leprous hand became normal again. But the water that was turned into blood stayed that way.
This is a picture of judgement. Believe the message or believe in the transforming power of God. If you reject these, there is nothing left but judgment.
Do you think Moses was ready to obey God and get on the next camel to Egypt? Not so fast. He’s got one more excuse and it’s a doozy.
Excuse # 4: I Don’t Talk so Good
Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” (Exodus 4:10)
This excuse borders on a blatant lie. How do we know? Because Stephen says this in Acts 7:
“Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.” (Acts 7:22)
But let’s give Moses the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he meant that after forty years of talking to sheep, his Egyptian was rusty. Or maybe the social isolation had affected his ability to communicate.
Some commentators believe that Moses had developed a speech impediment while in the desert. The Hebrew word means “heavy of mouth.”
In Mississippi, the youth pastor at our church was named Rich. Rich was in his late 20s and had a profound stutter. You would think that being a pastor, who talks for a living, would be the last thing Rich would become.
But he believed God called him to the ministry and the students absolutely loved him. It was a beautiful sight to watch them be so patient with him as he communicated.
Another example of this is the Contemporary Christian Artist Jason Gray. I’ve seen him a couple of times and he is amazing.
When he talks, he stutters. But when he sings, the stutter disappears. He said that it’s pretty clear to him that God has called him to sing.
Whatever the reason Moses comes up with this excuse, God is having any of it.
The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” (Exodus 4:11-12)
God created Moses. He knew every hair on his head and every atom in his body. He created his abilities and disabilities.
For the fourth time, God says “go!” God will be his supernatural teleprompter and tell him exactly what to say.
Steven Cole writes,
“When God calls you to do something beyond your natural ability, don’t make excuses for why you can’t do it.”
We need to remember:
God doesn’t care so much about your ability. Your availability is the most important thing.
Honesty!
It’s time for Moses to drop the pretense and all the excuses. It’s time for a little honesty.
But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” (Exodus 4:13)
There you have it. This is Moses’s heart exposed.
“I know I began this conversation with ‘Here I am.’ But I didn’t know what You were going to call me to do. It’s too hard. I don’t want to do this. I can’t do this. I’m not the guy for this mission. I’m not knowledgeable enough. I’m not eloquent enough. Truthfully, I’m just not enough. Someone else will be better than me.”
And, at this, finally, God had enough.
“Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you.
You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.” (Exodus 4:14-17)
The Hebrew says, “The nose of the Lord heated up.” We know that God is spirit and he doesn’t have a nose. This is a word picture of God’s anger with Moses.
But He doesn’t strike Moses dead. Again, we see grace in action.
Go will give Moses a tag team partner, his brother Aaron. Aaron was a Levite, which means he was highly educated and spoke very well in front of people.
God says, “I tell you what to tell Aaron and then you tell him. Then he will tell the people.” And don’t forget your staff!
Sounds like a good plan, right? Well, Aaron would be more trouble than help, actually leading the people into dancing and worshiping a golden calf.
Moses Finally Obeys
Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”
Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand. (Exodus 4:18-20)
As the flames of the burning bush die into embers, Moses finally decides to obey God’s call. He loves his father-in-law and asked for his permission to return to Egypt, which meant his daughter and grandchildren would be leaving.
Jethro, probably with tears, bids him peace on his journey.
His adopted grandfather, the Pharaoh, who wanted to kill him ,was dead.
So he loads up the donkeys and heads back to Egypt with the staff of God, the promise of His presence and power, in his hand.
Ray Pritchard writes:
“To obey means you say, “Lord, I’m ready. Now you work out the details.” To negotiate means you say, “Lord, you work out the details and then I’ll obey.” Get it straight. As long as you are negotiating with God, you are not obeying Him. You are just stalling for time.”
Lessons
Henry Blackaby, in his Christian classic, “Experiencing God”, gives seven steps of obeying God’s call:
God is always at work around you
God pursues a continual love relationship with you that is real and personal
God invites you to become involved in his work
God speaks by the Holy Spirit, through the Scriptures, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
God’s invitation to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing
You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and as He accomplishes the work through you.
God will Lead
God called Moses but he couldn’t see how it would work out. He had failed before. He felt like he wasn’t enough.
I know that feeling and I bet you do too. I felt it as I sat in my car in my best friend’s driveway.
My mustang was packed with everything I owned. I had a full tank of gas. I had withdrawn from graduate school, quit my job, and told my friends goodbye.
He and his sister both tried to talk me out of going. They said it was crazy.
Both of them had been instrumental in my salvation and now they were trying to keep me from leaving? I didn’t understand.
I said, “You taught me that once I was born again, God has a call on my life. I prayed and felt confident this is what God wants me to do. You taught me if God says go, I go.”
His sister, two years younger than us, said through tears, “That is what we said. But we didn’t think you would actually do it!”
As I drove away, I looked in the rearview mirror to see him and his sister standing in the middle of the road crying and waving.
I merged on to I-40 east and popped a tape in the tape player. I rolled down the windows and opened the sunroof and sang loudly as Steven Curtis Chapman sang:
“We will abandon it all / for the sake of the call / no other reason at all / but the sake of the call / wholly devoted to live and to die / for the sake of the call.”
I had no idea how this whole adventure would work out. When I arrived, the apartment they had for me fell through and I slept on a guy’s couch for two weeks. I never questioned where I was supposed to be.
Moses couldn’t see the future. He didn’t know how this would all work out. That’s why he was so scared. But, in the end, he trusted the I AM promise -keeping God and lived an amazing adventure!
Because I moved to North Carolina, I met a little redheaded girl that went from being my best friend to my wife. Because I moved to North Carolina, I figured out my spiritual gifts that I would use in multiple settings over the next 35 years. Because I moved to North Carolina, my life changed forever.
We have been in the same position as the Israelites. Crying out to God to save us from our slave masters - death and sin. And what did God do when He heard our cries? The Great I AM came down to us in the incarnation of Jesus to rescue us by His death and resurrection.
Ending Song: Our God Will Go Before Us
