We are called into the service of the LORD God purposefully. That’s the way it was in the beginning; and it’s no different today. it is helpful to look carefully at the record of Scripture and few places are more revealing than the call of Moses.

We have to go back even before Moses’ time to see what it was that prompted the LORD to call him. We have to turn back to the Book of Exodus, the second chapter, and reading from the 23^rd verse: Years passed, and the King of Egypt died, but the Israelites still groaned in slavery. They cried out, and their appeal for rescue from their slavery rose up to God. God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and with Jacob; so he saw the plight of Israel, and he took heed of it. (Exodus 2: 23-25, NEB)

We soon discover that we are dealing with a God who listens and remembers. We see that God is concerned about the condition of his people and that his response has something to do with a prior relationship established with his servant Abraham and again with his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son, Jacob.

It would be valuable to investigate the nature of the covenant that the LORD God brought to mind. Let us turn back, back to the Book of Genesis and discover there the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the covenant with Abram. Already we have traced the call of Abram and it is in chapter 15 we see the story relating to God’s establishing a covenant with his chosen servant. In the first verse we read: After this, the Word of the LORD came to Abram in a (Genesis 15: 1, NEB)

Let us not be too hasty. Consider for a minute if this is a normative way for us to communicate with words. Usually we would expect to hear words, not to behold them! But our minds rush forward to the familiar prologue of the Gospel of John: So the Word became flesh; he came to dwell among us., and we saw his glory, such glory as befits the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. (John 7: 14, NEB)

We are dealing with the revelation of the LORD himself and we know this to be not simply the baby Jesus born in space and time, in Bethlehem almost twenty centuries ago, but the eternal Son of God who was with the Father when all things began. (John 1: 2, NEB) Jesus himself helps us to grasp this eternal truth in his conversation recorded by Luke. Remember the story of Jesus overtaking two men on the road to Emmaus. It is Easter. "How dull you are!" he answered. How slow to believe all that the prophets said! Was the Messiah not bound to suffer thus before entering upon his glory?" Then he began with Moses and all the prophets, and explained to them the passages which referred to himself in every part of the scripture (Luke 24: 25-27, NEV)

Jesus perceived that his activity was recorded in the Books of Moses and we should have the eyes of faith to see him there as well. Not the Christ incarnate, but the One who became flesh and came to dwell among us.

The revealed Word indicates to Abram that Eliezer of Damascus will not be the heir of the aging old man, but rather a son of his own body. Abram was a man of faith and the LORD God counted that as righteousness. Nevertheless Abram said: "0 LORD God, how can I be sure that I shall occupy it?" (Genesis 15: 8, NEB)

Man needs the guarantee to God’ s promise. Abram requested that the LORD God give him some assurance of his intention to fulfill his promise. The 15^th chapter then outlines the establishment of the covenant and we read: that very day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and he said, "To your descendants I give this land..." (Genesis 15: 18, NEB)

But let us not forget, the LORD God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In Genesis 26: 1-5 we read that the LORD appeared to Isaac where he confirms the Abrahamic covenant to him. The promise of the land to a descendant of promise leads us to Genesis 28 where the covenant is confirmed to Jacob (vv. 10-1.5) and he says: "I will be with you, and I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done all that I have promised." (Genesis 28: 15, NEB)

Such is the recollection of the living LORD God when he heard their groaning and remembered his covenant. The LORD acted out of the responsibility for promises made and assurances given to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and his response.

As God would remember his covenant so would Moses know the covenant and what it signified: the LORD’s faithful intention to fulfill his promise. As much as Moses was objectively conscious of the conditions of the covenant he nonetheless was quick to rehearse before God reasons he thought he could not respond to the LORD’s call to deliver his people.

The words of Moses are not necessarily our words. But the situation provides us with a typology of God’s deliverance we may well identify with at least in part. Objectively, knowing that the LORD had made certain promise that he had established a covenant to indicate his good intention to fulfill his promise, you’d think Moses would have eagerly accepted the call to service, knowing he could not fail. But objective truth has to be weighed in the balance of the subjective reality of what is happening. And in this area, Moses was heavy footed. Reluctance voiced itself not once, but four times…

In Exodus 3: 71 Moses is quick to challenge the LORD on his credentials. "But who am I," Moses said to God, "that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" (v. 11) Moses, who was nurtured as a prince of the Pharaoh’s court, no longer considers his worthiness to approach that court on behalf of the living God who calls him into his service.

A second excuse presses on the heels of the first: "If I go to the Israelites and tell them that the God of their forefathers has sent me to them, and they ask me his name, what shall I say?" (Exodus 3: 13, NEB) Moses, like so many of us, would prefer to have all answers available for any contingency before whole heartedly agreeing to do as he was asked. The implication of his statement is that knowing the LORD’s name would somehow persuade him in going. We learn all too quickly that such information is not enough as he presents yet a third excuse, saying: "But they will never believe me or listen to me; they will say ‘The LORD did not appear to you.‘" (Exodus 4: 1, NEB)

Moses speaks not only for himself but for everyman down through the ages. The sense of diminished self worth… the lack of knowledge about whom we speak... the lack of perceived or expected experiential awareness about which we are dealing. These reflect the condition of the reluctant servant in every age.

Moses concludes his argument with the LORD by saying: "O LORD, I have never been a man of ready speech, never in my life, not even now that thou has spoken to me; I am slow and hesitant of speech." (Exodus 4: 10, NEB)

It hardly seems possible, but the same Moses who grew up in the shadow of the court of the Pharoah, with all of the benefits that would be at hand for a prince of the court can hardly be considered to be slow and hesitant. And the speed of his argument belies his feigned lack of confidence. We simply do not believe him, and neither does the LORD God. And really he doesn’t believe himself — and that perhaps is what is really important.

In spite of all his protestations, the LORD is insistent that it is Moses who will accomplish his purpose. The singleness of purpose of the LORD will not be put off by any fabricated argument or excuse.

And we know that to be true within our own limited experience as well. Moses’ story is not simply speculation and conjecture. No, Moses’ story is our story — yours as well as mine — when we consider that the LORD has called us into the redeeming and reconciling ministry of the Church. We’d just as well not be called. And for those of us who have heard the call, we know what a terrible thing it is, to be sent in the LORD’s Name, in the LORD’s service. Not without our own feeble eloquence have we tried to convince him who called us to call another!

But our LORD is faithful — to his promise in the past and the assurance of his purpose in sending us, we know not where, to bring deliverance to those whose cries for rescue have reached his hearing.