God Does Not Accept Excuses

Scripture

The LORD said...Now I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you can lead My people out of his country.”  But Moses said to God, “I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 

~Exodus 3:10, GNT

Quote

God uses sinners; among men, that is all He has.

~Elisabeth Elliot

The LORD said to and through Isaiah the prophet, “Can an ax claim to be greater than the one who uses it? Is a saw more important than the one who saws with it? A club doesn’t lift up a person; a person lifts up a club.” The ax and the saw are instruments in the hands of a man. You don’t give more glory to the ax than you do to the man who swings it. In the case of today’s lesson, Moses is the ax, the instrument but he is in the hand of God, the user of the instrument. When don’t praise the scaple in the hand of the surgeon, we praise the surgeon who holds the scaple. The human temptation is to make more of the instrument than the hand guiding the instrument. We take ourselves for too seriously. My pastor, Calvin C. Inman said repeatedly, “God can hit a hard lick with a crooked stick.”

To put it all into perspective, let me tell you about a black preachers rendition of the burning bush. Moses saw the burning bush and he said, “Wow, what a bush!” The LORD said, “Moses, Moses Moses, it is not the bush, it is My glory on the bush. Look over there Moses, what do you see?” Moses said, “I see a bush.” God said, “Look in the opposite direction, now what do you see?” Moses said I see another bush. The LORD said, “You see Moses, it is not the bush that should wow you, it is My glory on the bush. I can use any bush I choose.” In todays veneclaer, “Any old bush will do.” This is where the deeper lifer’s and I part ways: they glorify the bush and I keep telling them it is not the bush, it is God’s glory on the bush. God can use whomever whenever however He chooses. When he uses the humble and lowly, which He often does, He gets more glory. God could have chosen a queen to give birth to Jesus but He chose a peasant.

When God called Moses to go back to EgyptEXCUSE, Moses wasn’t interested. He had no interest in returning to the land where he was wanted for murder so he began making excuses:

  1. EXCUSE ONE: [3:11] “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh…to lead Israel?” I am not worthy…I am a nobody…I am not qualified…there is bound to be someone else more qualified. I call this excuse, the restraint of our unworthiness. Actually Moses was not worthy and neither am I but that is no excuse; at least not one God will accept. For this excuse: God gave the promise…“I will be with you.”
  2. EXCUSE TWO: [3:13] I call this one the plea of ignorance...But LORD, they will ask me who sent me and I don’t even know Your name. I can’t say God sent me because they have a bunch of gods and they are sure to ask which one. God said, “I AM WHO I AM…You tell them that I AM sent you.” I AM WHO I AM is one six letter word in Hebrew, “Yahweh,” in the LXX it is translated Jehovah. It is the Hebrew verb for being.
  3. EXCUSE THREE: [4:1] “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, the LORD never appeared to you? The LORD said, “What is that in your hand?” “It’s just a stick LORD,” said Moses. “Throw it on the ground,” the LORD said and Moses obeyed. The stick became a snake. “Now pick it up,” the LORD said, and the snake became a stick.  See Moses, I can work miracles through you and when they see the miracles, they will believe.
  4. EXCUSE FOUR: [4:10] “But LORD, I am not very good with words, I never have been and I am not now, even though I am speaking with You. I get tongue tied and my words get all tangled up.” The LORD said, “Who made your mouth…Who gave you the ability to speak? Is it not I the LORD, now stop making excuses and do what I told you to do.

God had no intention of sending Moses on his own: He promised Moses, I will be with you and I will help you. God calls us to do impossible things but He will equip us, help us, and use us to accomplish those things that apart from Him are not possible. If we can explain what is going on, God didn’t do it. Matter of fact, I pray often for God to do things that we cannot explain. Our part is not to reason why, our part is to trust and obey. God has the abilty to use us just as He used Moses. Our part is to give Him what ever is in our hands and to obey His instructions. He will do the rest.


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