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On the fourth week of this Lenten season, our attention shift to Moses, the wandering Hebrew. We are familiar with his story and the impact he had on the history of Israel, especially in the Exodus event. Moses was born in Egypt and raised in the house of the king, the Pharaoh. When he grew up as a young man, he decided to take matters in his own hands to deliver his people from oppression. But in doing this in his own way, in his own strength, by his own hand he messes things up. By accident he kills one of the Egyptians and word gets out and he has to flee for his life.
So Moses leaves Egypt, suddenly and quickly, heading into the middle of nowhere, into the desert that’s sometimes called Horeb, and sometimes Sinai (they are in the same place). There he becomes a shepherd, marries, raises a family, in the middle of nowhere until God spoke to him and calls him to return to Egypt and liberate the Israelites forty years later.
From being a failure, from being a farmer, from being a family man, God calls Moses to become a liberator, a general, and a nation builder. His life is changed completely.
As we know from reading the book of Exodus, Moses’ impact on human history has been enormous; he is a towering figure of history. But what many people do not know is that Moses was actually a cowering figure when God called him in the midst of nowhere and in his wandering. Moses is simply a man filled with fear and with apprehension. When he prays to God, Moses’ prayer is nothing other than a protracted series of doubts and questions and excuses all blended into a fairly chaotic conversation with God.
Moses’ prayer is not much different from our own. In fact, it is exactly what prayer is. Sometimes it’s formal, sometimes it’s neat, sometimes it’s tidy; but sometimes it’s just a chaotic conversation with God. But God will take whatever discombobulated prayer we offer and use it as part of an ongoing conversation so that through us, people like you and me, we can know God more intimately and also God’s perfect will can be fulfilled on this earth.
Over the next five days, we will examine Moses’ chaotic prayer in Exodus 3 and 4 as paraphrased in the following manner: “Here I am, who am I? What shall I say? Suppose they say. I cannot speak. Send someone else!” Through Moses’ prayer, we will examine our relationship with God and how He prepares and calls each one of us to courageously go forth in faith and obedience, being empowered by the Holy Spirit.