Embrace the Challenge: Exodus 3-4

“Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you hesitate between two opinions”? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’ But the people did not answer him a word.” (1 Kings 18:21, NASB).

Life is a challenge. Yes, life is filled with challenges. How do we respond when we are confronted with a challenge? Do we ignore the challenge? Do we resist or try to avoid the challenge? Do we look for someone else to meet the challenge? We cannot escape the challenges that come our way. It is what we do when faced with a challenge that determines outcomes. Instead of trying to escape challenges, we will have a better outcome if we learn to embrace the challenges that come our way. This article is about the challenges that the people of God will face. They are unavoidable. We will use the encounter that Moses had with God on Mount Sinai as a reference for this article. We will see that there are four challenges that we must learn to embrace if we are to live our life in a way that pleases God.

Moses was born the son of Hebrew slaves in Egypt. In order to save his life his mother put him in a basket, and she put the basket in the river. His mother was putting her son’s life into the hands of God. His mother met her challenge. Would she surrender to the edit of the Pharaoh or would she trust the God of her fathers? Moses was found by the daughter of Pharaoh. She adopted Moses and raised him as her own son. When Moses grew up he discovered that he was the son of Hebrew slaves. Would he stay loyal to Egypt or would he take sides with his people? This was a difficult decision for a man that had been raised with royal privileges. You see, Moses had a strong sense of justice. Moses knew that slavery was an injustice that could be remedied by setting the people free.

Moses killed an Egyptian (Exod. 2:11-14). Moses escaped from the hands of Pharaoh by going to the land of Midian. In Midian he met Reuel (also known as Jethro). He agreed to work for Reuel and Reuel gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to be his wife (Exod. 2:15-21). After living in the land of Midian for forty years Moses encountered his first challenge. Moses had to have a personal encounter with God who was calling him to do a work for Him.

The reason for Moses’ challenge is recorded in Exodus 2: 23-25. “And the sons of Israel sighed because of their bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God” (v. 23, NASB). “So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them” (v. 24-25, NASB). The stage was set, and Moses would soon be faced with his first challenge. How would Moses respond to the challenge? Let us continue with the story.

In Exodus 3 Moses meets God. He is attracted to a bush that was burning. This burning bush was different from other burning bushes that Moses had seen. This bush would not burn out. So, Moses climbed the mountain to see why the bush burned continuously. As Moses drew near to the bush God called out to him. He commanded Moses to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground. Now, that’s a sermon in itself, but that is not the purpose of this article. The remainder of Exodus 3-4 gives us a picture of how Moses responded to the challenges set before him.

First, we need to see that Moses was not looking for a challenge. Yet God had determined beforehand that Moses would lead his people out of bondage in Egypt and take them to freedom in the land that God had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would give to their descendants. Christians do not need to look for challenges. God chooses us for the challenges. In John 6 Jesus fed 5,000 people. When the people left Jesus, He did not flinch. Rather He reminded the twelve that He had chosen them to meet a challenge. He gave them an opportunity to walk away from the challenge and an opportunity to embrace the challenge. “So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away also, do you’” (Jn. 6:67, NASB)? Peter, speaking for the twelve, affirmed their faith in Jesus; that He had the words of eternal life, and He was the Holy One of God (v.v.68-69). “Jesus answered them, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil’” (Jn. 6:70, NASB). “Now He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him” (v. 71). Now back to our story.

After God told Moses to pull off his shoes, God introduced Himself to Moses. God told Moses who He was and what His purpose was for getting Moses to the place that he found himself. God had heard the cry of His people in bondage. He had seen their affliction. He was aware of their sufferings. God had come down to deliver His people from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them into the land that He promised by covenant to the descendants of the patriarchs (Exod. 3:5-9). Before Moses could do anything he must know who God is. We must recognize the power and sovereignty of God. “Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (3:6). In Matthew 16 Jesus made sure that the twelve knew who He was, because He had chosen them to meet a challenge—the preaching of the gospel. This leads us to our second challenge.

A second challenge that we must embrace is that of God’s call upon our life. Notice what God said to Moses. “‘Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt’” (3:10). God was calling Moses to do something that Moses could not see himself doing. So, Moses resisted the challenge. He tried to avoid the challenge. In his own mind Moses gave God good reasons for his resistance.

Moses asked God, “‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt” (v. 11)? This is the same Moses that had been adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh. He was groomed in royalty. This is the same Moses that killed the Egyptian because of his concern for his people who were victims of Egypt’s injustices. Now, it was forty years later, and Moses was comfortable tending the sheep of his father-in-law. Egypt was just a memory now. The fire for justice that had burned in his soul was now just hot coals on a fire that the flames had burned out. Who am I Moses asked? Moses must know who God is. Embracing who God is and His sovereign right to call us leads to the third challenge. He must embrace the assignment even though he did not see himself as one who had the ability to do the work that God was calling him to do. “Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel out of Egypt’ (3:11, NASB).

God assured Moses that he could do the job. He would not have to do the work all by himself because God would be with him (v. 12). So, Moses had another question. “Now they may say to me, ‘what is His name” (v. 13). Moses knew that in Egypt there were many gods, and each god had a name. The sons of Israel were familiar with the names of the gods in Egypt. They cried out to the God of their fathers, but they did not know God, and they did not know His name. His name was important because His name would tell them His purpose and His power. Moses was saying that the sons of Israel would want to know who this god is and why they should follow Him. Moses now begins to question how he will be able to carry out the assignment. Moses does not initially embrace the assignment. Instead, his questions show us that he is still resisting God’s challenge.

A third challenge is: We must embrace the situation that we find ourselves in. God gave Moses His plans to deliver the sons of Israel. Moses, however, had personal excuses. The people would not believe him (4; 1-2). Again, God gave him evidence that he could meet the challenge. He would give the people a sign to convince them of the power of the god whose name is “I AM” (4:2-9). So, Moses offered one last reason that he would not be able to meet the challenge. “Then Moses said to the LORD, Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in timed past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant: for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (v. 10, NASB). Let us make a comment here. Traditionally, many scholars have interpreted Moses to mean that he has difficulty talking—he has a speech impediment; and he stutters. However, I find it difficult to believe that a person with a speech impediment would be able to give accurate and concise orders to an army on the battle field. I believe that it is more likely that Moses meant that he had never learned to speak the Hebrew language fluently and eloquently. Regardless, God would speak to Moses. Moses would tell his brother Aaron what the Lord had said. Then, Aaron would tell the sons of Israel what the Lord had said.

The fourth challenge is belief that God had a reward when the challenges had been embraced and the assignment had been successful. God would not only deliver the people out of Egyptian bondage. God would take them to a land that He had promised their forefathers that He was going to give to them. The Hebrew people had never seen this land promised to them. They would have to take God’s word and embrace God’s word as truth. This is a matter of faith. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the belief that God’s words are true and trustworthy. The reality is not in tangible evidence that we can see. Rather, the tangible is real to us because we see it by faith.

Hebrews 11 gives us a list of persons who met challenges. By faith they embraced the challenges given to them. By their faith they were successful in doing what God had called them to do. Faith is not resisting God’s call upon our life. Faith is not avoiding the challenge. It is not making excuses. Rather, faith is hearing God. It is embracing the challenge that God sets before us. Faith is belief that God rewards those that believe in Him and diligently seek Him.