Exo 3:11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?
This is the most famous narration in the Old Testament, where in Moses was tending the flock of his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. On seeing the burning bush which is not consumed by the fire, Moses out of curiosity, goes up to Horeb, mountain of God.
Moses has an encounter with God and God gives him a mandate (v7-10), to set Israel, God’s people, free from years of bondage. Moses responds, “Who am I?” Moses has lost his confidence that he once had while he was in the palace, past 40 years he has been shepherding sheep in the desert, which certainly is not a qualification for such a great task.
Moses may have suddenly got excited assuming, oh God of this universe probably has seen something in me, that He chooses me, he was self –focused. But God ignored his query and responded “I will certainly be with you”. Moses never ever dreamt that instead of sheep he would be leading three million Israelites to this same Mount Horeb. He also had to shift his reliance on his ability to God’s ability. He should have asked, “Who is God?” In Exo3:1-14 God introduces Himself as “I Am, Who I AM!” We know the rest of the story, Moses led the “Exodus” of the Israelites out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and did great miracles, and Moses received the Ten Commandments, he is known to be a great leader and prophet.
Now let us go to Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon is “threshing wheat in the winepress”. Wheat in winepress, isn’t the winepress for crushing grapes and threshing done in an open field? The children of Israel on being prosperous and complacent did evil in the sight of God and He handed them in to the hands of Midianites, and they end up in oppression. The Midianites, Amalekites and the people of the East would come up, whenever it was harvest time, they would encamp around and destroy everything they had, as far as Gaza which left nothing for Israel. The children of Israel cried unto God and God showed up and appointed Gideon to liberate Israel from the hands of the Midianites.
Judges 6:15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. Once again we observe, like Moses, Gideon was self-focused and elaborated his weaknesses and qualifications which were meaningless in the eyes of God. God chose to ignore his question and instead responded, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
This is the, “I AM” who spoke, this is not about Moses or Gideon or any of us. The one who is the God of all the earth, mighty in battle, the Lord of Hosts, the Great I Am, Yahweh, Elshaddai, Ebenezer, the Alpha and Omega who knows the end from the beginning, Jesus Christ the Lion of Judah, our Redeemer, He alone does great wonders, there’s none beside Him, none to compare.
He is sufficient to win every battle. Has he called you and appointed you to do something? Are you relying on your strength, ability, intellect, expertise, experience, bank account, influence, and people? Then chuck it all, I encourage you to focus on the, “Great, I AM!” You can never ever comprehend what He can do with you and your life!
Sol.Lalitha Menon
