Overcoming Excuses
Last summer at Polishing The Pulpit, I heard a preacher with decades of wisdom make a poignant remark. Although I don’t have a direct quote, the speaker said that as preachers, we should feel like the biggest hypocrites because we commit sin but have to preach against it weekly. Personally, I did not choose preaching because I felt holier than most, but because of an awareness of sin that I too suffered from. A good friend of mine who passed away last year, Mike Elledge, was one of the finest preachers I knew. He once told me that he didn’t really feel like a preacher. I knew what he meant—that he didn’t feel like the prototypical minister. I remember during our conversation that I told him what he felt was a shortcoming was actually a quality he possessed.
In considering Moses, I’m reminded of some of the excuses we make to ourselves, in preaching or in just daily living. Moses’ early life reflects a God who was willing to care for him providentially as a baby in a basket. He put him in Pharaoh’s court, as an adopted child of Pharaoh’s daughter when Pharaoh demanded to cull the population of Israel by killing all their male infants (Ex. 1:15-16). When the Hebrew midwives disobeyed him, Pharaoh sought to throw all the males into the river (Ex. 1:22). Yet God works things out so much in Moses’ favor that he ends up being brought up by his mother Jochebed (Ex. 2:9), whom his sister Miriam suggested to Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses had a stand-in Egyptian mother as well as one from his own tribe.
When Moses comes to sense justice, he kills an Egyptian whom he witnesses mistreating a Hebrew (Ex. 2:11-12). When he sees two Hebrew men quarreling, he tries to be a peacemaker, but when he realizes one of the men knows about his killing an Egyptian, he flees to Midian (Ex. 2:13-15). After his marriage to Zipporah, we see God appearing to him at the burning bush (Ex. 3:1-6). During this encounter, God reassures Moses that He would be with him, saying He had “seen the oppression,” “heard their cry,” knows “their sorrows,” and had “come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians” (Ex. 3:7-10, NKJV).
Despite these reassurances, Moses begins a series of excuses to God. His first excuse is, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt” (v. 11)? According to Acts 7:22, Moses would have been the perfect ambassador, being “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and…mighty in words and deeds.” Even with experience as Egyptian royalty, Moses felt like he was a nobody. Moses then asks God which name He should call Him before the children of Israel, to which God responds, “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex. 3:14). Moses was more focused on his own personal reputation and feared the reproach of two nations. By this simple answer, God informs Him that the solutions to fear and pride are the same: promote God’s name first and foremost and He will take care of the rest.
In Chapter 4, Moses asks, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you’” (v. 1). Here, Moses felt like he was unconvincing. God then shows Moses three signs to give Moses reassurance in every setting (Ex. 4:2-9). He would be able to turn his staff into a snake (v. 2-5), thus holding power over a wild animal. He would be able to make his hand leprous and then heal it (v. 6-8), showing power through God to heal himself. Finally, he would be able to change nature itself by turning the water from the Nile into blood (v. 9).
Did this put an end to the excuses? No. Moses complained that he lacked eloquence of speech, being “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Ex. 4:10). He is not the only Biblical figure to mention this problem (1 Cor. 2:1, 4), but God is angry with him over the excuse. God answers, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD” (Ex. 4:11)? By finding fault with himself, Moses implicated God in wrongdoing! We should be wary of highlighting our faults as skills we will never possess when we do nothing to improve upon them. Yet how many times have we given up before we’ve attempted to start (Mt. 25:24-30)?
When Moses requests that God send anyone else besides him, God obliges. His older brother Aaron is put to the task and becomes God’s “spokesman” (Ex. 4:16). The patience God extended to Moses is remarkable, and shows God loved him even though he disappointed Him.
As a preacher, I have returned to this text often after hearing those words last summer. Yes, preachers have to guard against making excuses, too. In doing so, I ask myself some questions. Am I promoting Christ’s name, first and foremost, which I put on in baptism (Gal. 3:27)? Do I show others that I am concerned most with “the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9), Jesus Christ? Do I firmly believe Jesus when He said that we are blessed for our persecution and have a great reward in heaven (Mt. 5:11-12; cf. Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17-18 )? If so, the eternal acknowledgment of hearing Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” awaits (Mt. 25:33).