The Reluctant Prophet 1 Of 2

Illus: The commanding officer was furious when nine GIs who had been out on passes failed to show up for morning roll call. Not until 7 p.m. did the first man straggle in. "I’m sorry, sir," the soldier explained, "but I had a date and lost track of time, and I missed the bus back. Being determined to get in on time, I hired a cab. Halfway here, the cab broke down. I went to a farmhouse and persuaded the farmer to sell me a horse. I was riding to camp when the animal fell over dead. I walked the last ten miles, and just got here." Though skeptical, the Colonel let the young man off with a reprimand.

However, after him, seven other stragglers in a row came in with the same story: had a date, missed the bus, hired a cab, bought a horse, etc. By the time the ninth man reported in, the colonel had grown weary of it.

"Okay," he growled, "Now what happened to you?" "Sir, I had this date and missed the bus back, so I hired a cab." "Wait!" the colonel screaming at him. "Don’t tell me the cab broke down." "No, sir," replied the soldier. "The cab didn’t break down. It was just that there were so many dead horses in the road, we had trouble getting here."

When Moses was asked by God to do this great work, he came up with five ridiculous excuses. Two of those excuses can be found in Exodus chapter 3, and the other three are located in Exodus chapter 4.

Let us look at two of the excuses Moses gave to God about going to Egypt and delivering his people from the bondage of Pharaoh.

We see . . .

I. THE “WHO ME?” EXCUSE

Look at verse 11, we read, “And Moses said unto God, WHO AM I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

The first excuse that Moses offers reveals doubt in himself. Moses is saying, “Remember God, forty years ago, the reason I came here to Midian was because I killed an Egyptian man and I had to flee for my life. Now you are asking little old ME to go back and tell Pharaoh to let Your people go.”

But look what God said to Moses, in verse 12, “And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.”

The older I get, the more I realize how weak and frail I am. Also, the older I get, I realize that if we have the Lord with us, we can do anything He asks us to do.

Moses was hiding behind an excuse when he said, “NOT ME!” He was basically saying that God didn’t know what He was doing.

Moses first excuse expressed doubt in himself! His second excuse was worst because He expressed doubt in God.

We see THE “WHO ME?” EXCUSE and . . .

II. THE “BY WHAT AUTHORITY” EXCUSE

Look at verses 13-15, we read, “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.”