Exodus 4:14-17 – Don’t opt for the second best

We could see that God had patiently interacted with Moses, yet at no point did He lose His focus on the primary purpose of delivering the people of Israel. God kept returning to the main issue to take His people out of bondage. So, none of Moses’ excuses, be it his personal inadequacy, his ignorance, his inability or reluctance was going to dissuade God from what He had set out to do for His people. Running out of excuses, he then pled with God to send another person. There is just one sad conclusion to be made from the long-drawn-out discussion that Moses had with God. He was reluctant to go.  

One truth remains until today. God had not changed. As He wanted the people of Israel free from their bondage to Pharaoh’s oppression, He also wants us to be free from the bondage of sin and the weight of guilt and condemnation that oppress our lives. As He desired the people of Israel to be led to a place to feel His presence and to worship and serve Him, He also wants us to be led to a place where we can experience His presence to worship and serve only Him. Egypt is a type of the world and Satan is like Pharaoh, who wants to keep us in the bondage of the guilt of sin. God will not allow it. He was bent on setting the Israelites free from their bondage. He is also bent on setting us free from the shackle of sin.

God was so focused, though angry, yet He was willing to entertain Moses’ plea to send someone instead of him. Knowing that Aaron his brother was on the way to the wilderness, God graciously granted Moses’ request. He asked him to use Aaron as his spokesman. Moses was to take the lead and play the role of God with Aaron. So, He commissioned him to go with the staff that was in his hand, which he was to use to perform miraculous signs. We can see from all these, that God would rather that we serve Him from a willing heart. For whatever reason Moses had, we know he was kept from obeying God by fear and trepidation. What about us? Can we trust God enough to entrust our life to Him to do His mission? We must seek to hear God’s invitation to be His workmen in whatever setting we are in. When we have ascertained what He wants us to do to alleviate the people shackled by their circumstances, we must answer God and go about doing His bidding.

What's sad about Aaron’s involvement will be revealed in Exodus 32. There we will see that he had irresponsibly led the people astray. He made a golden calf for them to worship instead of encouraging them to wait for the accomplishment of the plan of God. What we can see in these verses is that in his reluctance, Moses had created a weak situation for himself. He now had to share the honor that God would have bestowed on him alone had he obeyed unhesitatingly. But we can also see that with God no man is indispensable, not even Moses. God can always resort to using someone else to accomplish His will. But the full blessing that was intended, if we have obeyed God, will be missed.  Thus, do not allow our reluctance to keep us from the full blessing of God.