In ‘Failure and Disappointment: Moses I’ we looked at how much of a failure Moses’ early life was. But things turned around when God called him.

So far, Moses life has been a failure and a disappointment, BUT GOD…

But God… came to him

It’s an odd way to get someone’s attention, set a bush on fire, but it seemed to work. God was about to confront Moses.

Here’s something interesting: In verse 3:4 God’s first words to him are: “Moses, Moses”.
And after telling him to take his shoes off, he says, “I am the God of your fathers.”

God is polite! And he is personal! Starting the conversation like that would have showed Moses a few things straight away. God was present, he was concerned, he was interested in Moses as a person. And he was about to talk to him.

But God… listened to him

God starts the conversation by setting out the problem – he has seen the misery and the evil inflicted on the Israelites. He’s going to do something about it and set them up well. He’s going to get Moses to go and do it. Good. Done and dusted, right?

Hang on, there’s a small problem! Moses isn’t really keen. After all, he tried to do this before, and it all ended in calamity. It’s not really a very good idea from Moses’ point of view and he starts to tell God why he can’t do it.

What are Moses’ reasons for not going? They are the same reasons we give all the time for not doing things. And when we say them, they sound perfectly reasonable.

"I can’t do it"
"I don’t know enough"
"They won’t take me seriously"
"I’m not suited to the task"
"I just don’t want to!"

All of Moses reasons come from his beliefs about himself. Where did his beliefs come from? They were birthed out of his disappointments and failures. He took the experiences of failure he had had, translated them into beliefs and used them to limit himself.

What I really like about this exchange is the fact that God listened to the reasons Moses gave. Even at the end, when Moses was just clearly wimping out, and God got mad, he didn’t zap him dead and move on to someone else. He still was willing to talk.

So far we’ve seen
But God… came to Moses
But God… listened to him

What comes next is another ‘but God’. This time, it is: But God… offered a solution

Check out my next entry for the end of the story.