How does God train someone – you or me – to make a real impact for His glory?
We’ve been feeding on Moses’ life-changing encounter with God in Exodus 3. It leaves him readied for all God wants him to achieve. So what does such an encounter involve, what am I looking out for? We saw three aspects last time; what else happens here?
The fourth part of Moses’ training comes when (3:13) he asks God a very necessary question: what is His `name`? To Hebrews this was shorthand for God’s character, for knowing Him as He is; see 34:5-6. It’s the right question: this is what we find in Mark 3 – Christ chooses His disciples first to `be with Him`, to know Him, and only then, to go out to preach. If we truly desire to be used by God, we need to know Him first. Which means, choosing to make time to be soaked in His self-revelation; and protecting that time, guarding it. And then if – as – we’ve glimpsed the glory of God, people will start to listen; they will sense that God is not a stranger to us…
But what do we do with God’s answer here? `I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.` Scholars argue about what this means. Maybe the best thing is simply to meditate on it. I AM: God is — ultimate being. `In the beginning, God…` `He was before all things, and in him all things hold together…` Really grasp that, soak our imagination in that – and it readies us to be prophets in our culture…
But then, fifthly: `What if they don’t believe me?` asks Moses. Sensible question. God’s answer in 4:1-9 is clear: someone He will use must have a firm grip of the reality that God acts supernaturally. Some of this will come again from Scripture; some from what we can say with certainty that God has done in our contemporary world today. (It’s worth storing up a record of such accounts that we hear and know we can trust.) And some more of it will be our records of what we’ve known God do in our own lives: having, as Watchman Nee says, a `history with God`.
And then there’s a final, sixth component of God’s training. But this one comes after the burning bush encounter is over. God expects serious obedience from those He’s really going to use. God is coming to free Israel as His covenant with Abraham promised (2:24) – but the human side of that specific covenant was marked by circumcision (Gen 17:9-14); and Moses, apparently respecting his wife’s distaste for it (Ex 4:25), hadn’t carried that out with his own firstborn. Which was breaking that covenant with God, sin, in short; and the wages of sin is death (Moses nearly dies, 4:24). If we want to be really used by God, obedience or disobedience start to be very serious matters… (Lord, have mercy! Please help me see when I’m slipping into my own versions of disobedience…)
Like we said last time: We want to be used by God, yes, to do things that leave permanent footprints for His glory. Well: here are ways He trains us!
Three more aspects to turn into prayer…!
