Why did you ever send me?

If you’ve ever acted on something that you believed God told you to do then there’s a good chance you might have asked yourself this question at some point. At such a time you probably questioned your ability to hear God, and maybe even your calling. It might surprise you, however, to know that you’re not the only one who has been there. Not only are there other people in our time who have felt this way before, there is a great example of someone in scripture who asked this very question – Moses.

In Exodus 3& 4 God called Moses and told him to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let God’s people go. Though he was reluctant at first, and tried to get out of this calling altogether, Moses eventually obeyed, and went to Pharaoh and told him what God had said. Upon hearing this message, Pharaoh not only did not agree to let God’s people go, he increased their labors in an attempt to get them to stop thinking about such foolish notions. Instead of giving them straw to make bricks, Pharaoh commanded that they were to gather the straw themselves, and still make the same number of bricks. When they were unable to make the same number of bricks as before, the Israelite foremen were beaten.

To make matters still worse, Moses was the one who got them blame for the entire turn of events, since it was he who instigated the meeting with Pharaoh in the first place. As a result, the people of Israel hated Moses and Aaron, telling them, “May the Lord look on you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (Exodus 5:21)

At this point in the story, I don’t think it is too much to assume that Moses was most likely confused, upset, hurt, and probably at least a little angry. He had done exactly what God had told him to do, even though he didn’t want to. I think its safe to say that the reaction Moses received to his “message from God” was not exactly the one he was expecting! Consider what he got for his obedience – he managed to make a bad situation worse for the people of God, anger the king of Egypt, and estrange both himself and his brother from the very people he was supposed to deliver!

No doubt still hot from these events, Moses went back to God and said the following,

“O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.” Can we really blame Moses for feeling this way? It is hard to imagine that if any of us were in this situation we would not have said the same thing to God! The fact is, some of us probably have been in this situation and have said the same or worse to God!

But it is at this point that this story reveals something very powerful to us about God. Upon hearing Moses’ complaint, God made no attempt to explain Himself or his lack of action. What he did do is tell Moses, “Now you will see what I will do…” He then went on to tell Moses that while the patriarchs had know God as “El Shaddai” – the almighty God, they had not known him as “YHWH” – the great “I AM.” And it was as “YHWH” that God was now going to reveal himself to both Moses and his people.

If you have acted in obedience to something God called you to do only to be rewarded with a frustration like the one Moses felt in this story, take courage! Like he did with Moses, God is probably just preparing you for an entirely new revelation of himself – one that will both bring you closer to him and bring more glory to his name in the process. Step outside your own expectations of how he should act, and let him be the Great I AM!