Who Am I?
I do not wish to live an easy life, I desire to live a worthwhile life.
I am the son of a pastor. Two of my uncles are also pastors. My grandfather is a retired pastor. I grew up heavily involved in ministry. Service to God and the people around me have been a top priority my whole life. I witnessed it and was involved in it from my earliest memories. I decided to study theology aware of the challenges and frustrations that come with full-time church ministry. I made this decision because I was convinced it was necessary, in other words, there was a need for spiritual leaders. I saw that the church as an organization was not perfect, but I also saw it as necessary because I could not come up with a better alternative. As a high-school student, I decided to be part of the solution. I am not perfect, I do not have all the answers, I recognize I am unable to fix everything. But I decided to make a difference for good.
I am not perfect and I have never led a perfect church. But I honestly believe that every church I have worked with has done well. I have witnessed lives changed, victories over addiction, marriages saved, families restored, and believers coming together to help those who were struggling. Though there are problems and struggles and difficulties, I believe the good outweighs the bad.
I write these blog posts, I preach, and make the recordings available as a podcast. I meet with people and listen to their stories. I encourage and challenge those around me to live a moral life, a life that reflects the values and principles taught in the Bible. I do my best to lead by example. Even when I fail, I am convinced that I am aiming in the right general direction. I am learning as I go along. This post is an invitation for you to join me, a challenge for you to say “yes“ to an adventure of a lifetime!
Suffering, Oppression, Slavery
The book of Genesis ends with the death of Joseph. Joseph and his brothers are literally the children of Israel since God changed Jacob’s name to Israel (Genesis 32:28). Joseph dies and all the children of Israel are in Egypt they are free and live there as welcome guests. If you want to learn more about the story before this point you can read the book of Genesis and I also have notes and audio recordings on the whole book of Genesis.
Time goes by and a new king comes into power, a king who did not know Joseph and realizes that the children of Israel are more numerous and mightier than the Egyptians. The new king decides to oppress the Israelites in an attempt to weaken them. However, adversity only made the Israelites stronger which made the Egyptians even more afraid. The Pharaoh then decides to address the Hebrew midwives, asking them to kill every male child. But the midwives feared God and did not obey the Pharaoh. In a desperate and cruel attempt to weaken the Israelites the Pharaoh addresses all his people to cast every son born to the Israelites into the river and only to let the daughters live. (Exodus 1:8-22)
It is in this context of slavery and oppression that Moses is born. When his mother sees him for the first time she decides she will hide him for as long as she can, which ends up being 3 months. Moses’s mother then decides it’s time to lay her baby boy in the river, but first, she makes him an ark. She weaves a basket and makes it watertight using asphalt and lays her baby in it and places him in the reeds by the river bank. Moses’ sister kept watch from a distance to see what would become of her brother. Imagine her surprise when out of all the times and all the places the daughter of Pharaoh happens to come out to bathe exactly where Moses was placed by his mother. The princess has one of her maids get the ark for her and she opens it discovering a baby boy inside. Pharaoh’s daughter has compassion on the baby and Moses’ sister approaches her and offers to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for her. And this is how Moses’ mother was paid to nurse her own son. Once he was weaned he went to live in the palace with Pharaoh’s daughter. (Exodus 2:1-10)
I imagine Moses received the best education the ancient world had to offer. However, Moses never forgot his heritage. He had a burden to deliver his people from suffering and oppression. Moses longed to do something, he longed to help but did not know the best way to go about it. One day he went to see how his people were living and being treated and he witnessed an Egyptian beating an Israelite. Moses did not know about Zorro or Batman or Spiderman and did not realize that he should probably wear a mask. Moses checked his surroundings and not seeing anyone else killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. I say he should have worn a mask because sure enough the matter became known and the Pharaoh sought to kill Moses, but Moses had fled the country. (Exodus 2:1-15)
Wilderness Experience
Moses had good intentions, but his approach had not worked well. Moses had gained the best education the universities of Egypt had to offer, now he was ready for his residency. For the next part of his education, Moses spends about 40 years tending sheep (Acts 7:31). Moses gets married and has a son and everything seems to indicate that this is all his life will ever be. He was aware of the suffering of his people, but he had tried to help and failed, so he tried to just live his life with his new family.
However, God was aware of the suffering of the children of Israel. Their cry because of their bondage reached the throne of heaven. The God of the Bible is a God who cares, who watches and interacts with us. God was going to do something about the suffering of the Israelites.
The Call to Adventure
Moses was tending his father-in-law’s flocks when he noticed a bush that was burning with fire but was not being consumed. As Moses approached the mysterious bush to examine it more closely “God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ and he said ‘Here I am.’” (Exodus 3:4)
Something out of the ordinary was taking place, and as Moses went to investigate God called him. Something interesting called your attention to read this blog, and I hope that this will be an opportunity for you to hear God calling you to the adventure He has in store for you. Are you willing to say “Here I am?”
Holy Ground
Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
- Exodus 3:5-6 NKJV
God reveals Himself to Moses and helps Moses navigate the interaction. First God instructs Moses to keep a proper distance and secondly to take off his sandals.
Presumably, taking off shoes was done when entering the presence of a superior person, which usually would occur formally when one was at the superior person’s house, palace, or tent. Thus Sinai/Horeb is here implicitly identified as “Yahweh’s place.” Thus the very ground is holy—something said of no other location in the Bible.
- Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), 114–115.
God is relating to Moses in a way that Moses can understand. I notice a fine balance in this interaction. We clearly see that God is the One who seeks out Moses and calls him. Moses was not seeking God, God was seeking Moses. So God is approachable, God is speaking directly to Moses. But Moses is not to get too comfortable with God. Moses needs to keep a certain distance and take off his shoes. Moses needs to understand that God is a powerful and holy God, and this set of behaviors helps clarify this understanding.
I wonder if we can really say we know something unless it impacts our actions. I believe that our behavior is a good indicator of our true values and beliefs. If I truly value my marriage, my kids, my spiritual, mental, and physical health, my actions should testify of that. When I kneel down to pray it teaches me something about my beliefs about the God I worship. When I set aside time to read the Bible it deepens my understanding of the importance of investing in my relationship with God. When I go out of my way to help someone in need it helps me realize I am serious about being a force for good. My behavior will either strengthen my faith or weaken it. If I never make time for God or the mission He has for me, do I really believe in God?
Deliverance comes from God
And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
- Exodus 3:7-10 NKJV (bold mine)
God says I saw, I heard, I know, I will deliver them and bring them to a better place. Then God says “I will send you.”
I often hear people talk about what God should do. Throughout my life, I have heard people talk about what the church should do. What if God is saying “I will send you” to accomplish these things?
It is easy for me to sit behind a screen and attack and list the problems with the church and community and government etc. The question is are you willing to be a part of the solution?
I am currently at about my limit. I am doing just about all that I can. The only way that more will be done is with more help. In other words, your lack of involvement contributes to the problems you are complaining about. I am not saying you have to solve the problem. I am saying you can do something to help. It takes time, effort, and dedication to make a dent in all the suffering that takes place all around us on a regular basis. But life is not meant to be easy, it is meant to be meaningful.
God is calling Moses to an adventure! Moses will partner with God to deliver a people from oppression, from unfair treatment, from slavery. It will not be an easy journey. Actually, it is impossible! That is exactly what God calls us to do, the impossible. But we are not to do it alone. God calls us and equips us. He calls us to do what needs to be done, what He desires to do, but He does not want to do it alone. He wants to teach us and grow us in the process. God wishes to bless us and make us a blessing. (Genesis 12:2b)
Who am I?
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
- Exodus 3:11 NKJV
“Who am I” is the perfect reaction to being called by God. When God calls us to do something meaningful there is a temptation to feel proud that God chose us. Moses has the right approach, humbling himself before God and the great task being asked of him (see David in 1 Samuel 18:18; 2 Samuel 7:18). God calls us to do things we could never properly accomplish on our own strength alone. But God does not abandon us to try to accomplish the task on our own.
I will certainly be with you.
So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
- Exodus 3:12 NKJV
God promises to be with Moses and guarantees success from the beginning. This does not mean that the adventure will be easy or quick, but success is guaranteed.
Given the choice, do you prefer an easy life of comfort where you get to relax in your comfort zone? Or do you prefer an adventure that will push you to your absolute limits and beyond, where you will grow and experience things you never dreamed of while being used by God to bless those around you?
Obstacles?
What is God’s name?
Moses does not seem super eager to go on this adventure. He has had enough experience to have a pretty good idea of how a pharaoh thinks and behaves and how challenging it can be to deal with the Israelites. The first obstacle that Moses mentions to God is the challenge of grasping who God is. We struggle with this to this day. What is the name of God?
God does not give a clear answer, it’s not like God has a proper name like Bob or something like that. Rather God answers with “I AM WHO I AM” and I will not dive into that now because that topic is inexhaustible. I am still learning what that means. But for now, I’ll just say it’s okay for me to say “who am I?” because “I AM” is with me.
Instead of simply giving Moses a name God describes a relationship. God is the God of their fathers, who made promises and keeps His promises. God describes His faithfulness, His desire for a relationship. God describes who He is by talking about what He did in the past and what He will do in the future. That’s our God! We know Him by what He did in the past and by what He promises to do in the future, and within that framework, we interact with God in the present.
What if they don’t believe me?
Moses continues to resist the calling and bring up possible problems.
Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’”
- Exodus 4:1 NKJV
I love God’s response to this. God answers Moses’s question with another question.
“What is that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2)
I see a principle at work here where we come to God trying to help Him understand that we can’t do what He is asking us to do, and He asks us what we have to offer. All Moses has is a stick, hardly a useful tool in proving the existence of God or the presence of God or the promises of God. Yet God uses it.
What do you have in your hand? What do you have that God can use to demonstrate not only that He is real but also that He is with you? It always amazes me to find out that God can use what I have for His honor and glory. I am often surprised by what people thank me for because it is often something I did unintentionally. There are things that I do intentionally as part of ministry, but then there are things I do just as part of life and people often thank me or share with me how they were blessed by something I did not even realize could be considered part of my ministry. Simple interactions and favors. In essence, all that we have, when placed in the hands of God, can be used to minister to someone else.
Moses had a rod in his hand, but that is not all that he had. Moses also had the education he had gained while living in the palace. Moses was an expert in Egyptian culture and sciences. Moses had also experience living in the wilderness, traveling, caring for flocks of animals. Moses was bilingual and bicultural. All of Moses’ life experiences equipped him for what God was calling Him to do.
I am not eloquent.
Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
- Exodus 4:10 NKJV
Apparently, Moses had some form of speech impediment, but we are not given any details. Once again God has an amazing answer to Moses.
So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”
- Exodus 4:11-12 NKJV
When God calls us He can more than make up for whatever deficiencies we have, whether real or perceived. One time I was asked to preach a whole evangelistic series in Spanish and was even angry at God for placing me in that situation you can listen to me telling the story in my post Hablas Español? I found out firsthand that God can handle those challenging situations and bring unexpected blessings from them. The best part is that all the honor and glory go to God.
God essentially calls us to trust Him and show up. He takes care of the rest.
In my previous post, I challenged my readers to fill in the blanks
I believe God is calling me to__________________________________
The first step I will take in that direction this week is _______________
In case you got discouraged along the way because of obstacles, I want you to focus instead on what you have. There will always be challenges, but what do you have and how can God use it to bless those around you?
The challenge
Last time I challenged you to think about what God is calling you to do. Perhaps like Moses, you have been telling God, “Who and I” to do these things?
With all due respect, it does not matter who you are, what matters is that I AM is asking you to do it. I don’t have to be anyone special when I AM is with me. It is all about God, I just have to be willing to show up and experience what God is doing to save His children.
My challenge for you is to write down what do you have in your hand? Experiences, skills, resources, scars?
What are some ways God can use what you have?
Write a list of what God has given you, and pray asking God how He can use it to bless others. Offer what you have to God and watch Him use it for His honor and glory.
What I have at this point in my life is:
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Are you willing to use these resources to bless those around you?