Exodus 1:1 – 4:31
Unlikely Heroes
Read Dr. Spina’s commentary at www.spu.edu/lectio
Moses, Part 1
Just in time for the December 12th premier of the movie Exodus: Gods & Kings. Click here to see the trailer on YouTube.
Summary
Moses is perhaps the best biblical example of someone who
both walked faithfully with God and stumbled in his faithfulness. For all the veneration of Moses as a bible
character, in the text he’s actually revealed to be the most normal of human
beings, full of faults and flaws…yes, some of them tragic. Moses knows this, admitting to God and people
alike that he doesn’t have it all together – if anything, he’s one of the more
self-aware characters in God’s story.
God surprises us throughout the Moses story in how God responds to Moses’
flaws. In a phrase - God never gives up on Moses.
Moses’ Tragic Flaw
Hamartia – “the flaw in character which leads to the
downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy” from the Greek “to miss the mark”
(Dictionary.com)
Fearfulness
Seems kind of strange to say this of the leader of the
great Exodus from Egypt. But Moses
repeatedly expresses the insecurity of fear…sometimes to the point of making
God angry! Follow the sequence of the encounter
between God and Moses in the first four chapters of Exodus, noting Moses’
shortcomings and God’s response.
Exodus 2:11-15, 3:1-6
-
Moses: Kills an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, and hides his body in the sand. Not long after “Moses was afraid and thought, ‘what I did must have become known’” and then he fled the scene.
- God's Response: The Lord appears to Moses, calling him by name from within a burning bush.
-
Moses: After God reveals that God is sending Moses to bring the people out of Egypt, Moses questions God in fear… “Who am I to do this?”
- God's Response: To Moses in reply: “I will be with you.”
-
Moses: Questions God in fear…“What if I go to the Israelites and they ask me what your name is?”
- God's Response: Answers… “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
-
Moses: Questions God in fear… “What if they don’t believe me or listen to me?”
- God's Response: Answers by giving him miraculous signs as demonstrative proof that God is with him.
-
Moses: Defies God out of fear… “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent”
- God's Response: “Now go: I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
-
Moses: Defies God out of fear… “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else”
- God's Response: Burning with anger against Moses, yet offers to line up his brother Aaron as a partner.
Moses repeatedly stumbles and bumbles in his conversation
with God. And yet God continues to call
Moses and reveal himself to him intimately.
God is gracious to Moses even when his tragic flaw “pushes God’s buttons”
of anger.
Personal Identification Questions
- Where might this tragic flaw show up in your story?
- How do you experience fearfulness in your human relationships? How do you experience fear in your relationship with God? How might you drag your feet in responding when God calls you?
- What causes you to “give up on yourself” when facing a challenge? How might you struggle with feelings that God has given up on you? How meaningful is it to you that God being “fed up” with us doesn’t mean that he’s going to give up on us?
Prayer of Confession
LORD, why is it so easy for me to fall into fear?I’m sorry…
For being content with fearfulness in responding to your call;
For how my fears lead me to negatively influence others;
For assuming that your frustration with me means that you will give up on me;
Lead me not into temptation, and deliver me from evil.
Amen.
Encouragement
Psalm 103:8 (NIV)The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not
given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and
self-discipline.
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