What I’m Thinking: Cloudy Call

Moses’ summons by God had a lot of drama – it would be hard to ignore it – but God left Moses a lot of choices ahead.

Here’s a transcript:

I’m thinking about the third chapter of Exodus (Exodus 3:1-15): the call of Moses.

Moses’ call was certainly very dramatic. I mean, there was the bush that was burning in the middle of the wilderness, and the burning Bush wasn’t actually being consumed by the flames. There was the voice of God that declared this place to be holy ground and instructed Moses to remove the sandals from his feet. There was the announcement of the purpose of this call — to set the people of Israel free from their slavery in Egypt — and of course there was God’s declaration, “I am who I am” (which because of some curious features of Hebrew also means “I am who I will be” and “I will be who I will be” and “I will be who I am”).

It’s all very dramatic but it is lacking in a certain amount of detail. Moses wanted to know why him and the obvious answer should have been: well, you were raised as a Prince of Egypt, you’ve got some training in leadership, you should know very well how bad the situation is, you should be motivated to accomplish it. That ought to have been the answer. it wasn’t.

God simply said, “I will be with you, and the sign of my being with you is that when you have freed the people of Israel from their bondage you will worship me on this mountain.”

It’s a very curious kind of assurance, isn’t it? Because you see the first thing I would be saying back to God would be, “When I free the people of Israel? Shouldn’t that be if? And how is this a sign if the sign only comes after all of this has been accomplished?”

Yeah, I don’t blame Moses for dragging his feet (which he did for quite some time in this story).

It does strike me, however, that at the best of times God’s direction has a certain mistiness, cloudiness, vagueness to it. At the best of times, or in the times when God is most clear, we still have both freedom and responsibility to choose amongst different options, how will we follow the call of God’s will. A lot of that is up to us.

The striking thing for me is not the vagueness of God’s assurances. The striking thing for me is that in the end, God’s prediction turned out to be accurate. They did escape Egypt. They did come to that mountain. They did worship God there.

However misty you may feel God’s relationship is with you, know that there is so much promise in it, a promise that Moses eventually came to recognize, a promise which will grow and blossom and bear fruit in your soul.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.