"Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3:11)
Here is Moses full of self-doubt. So what does Moses need? Ask anyone today and they’ll tell you: the solution to self-doubt is self-confidence. That’s the modern cure-all for whatever ails you. Have more confidence in yourself.
That’s what the world says. What does the LORD say?
Verse 12: I will be with you
Do you see what the LORD is doing? Not trying to instill self-confidence, but God-confidence. “I will be with you.” The LORD doesn’t say “Moses, don’t do yourself down. You were such a beautiful baby, and a powerful prince, and you’re in my top three all-time shepherds. I think you’ve got what it takes.”
The LORD doesn’t turn Moses’ eyes back on himself.
Do you ever do that when someone’s full of self-doubt? We often say, “Have more confidence in yourself, you’re so talented, you’re brilliant…” But if someone’s fishing for compliments, how many compliments are enough? The WORLD is not enough to fill our need for affirmation. Just speaking for myself: the WORLD could not satisfy my black hole of self-obsession. If you get me started, I’ll never be satisfied.
Which is why God does something very different. He fights self-doubt with GOD-confidence. Essentially the LORD says, “Who are you?? Who are you?? That’s not the point Moses. I will be with you.”
There used to be a saying in tennis that the greatest doubles team imaginable was John McEnroe and anyone. John McEnroe and anyone could win Wimbledon.
Well imagine if you were that anyone. Imagine if you were John McEnroe’s partner going into the Wimbledon final and you spent the whole pre-match press-conference saying “Who am I to win a tennis match? Who am I to win Wimbledon? I am not a brilliant tennis player!!”
What would John McEnroe say? Apart from ‘You cannot be serious?’ He’d say, “I will be with you. I will be with you. Enough about yourself, really it’s irrelevant.”...
...In a deep sense Moses is going to be just like that staff in his hand. The staff by itself is nothing. We call it a staff, that’s just fancy name for a stick. But through that stick, miracles would be wrought. Through that stick the plagues would fall. Through that stick the Red Sea would be divided. By that stick the Rock would be struck and the waters would come out. Why, because it’s such a great stick? Because the qualities inherent in the stick can call forth the powers of heaven?? No it’s nothing to do with the stick and everything to do with the eternal I AM who uses the stick.
He can use a stick to unleash the powers of heaven, He can use an octogenarian shepherd to defeat the most powerful man in the world. Later in the bible He uses a bunch of fishermen to turn the world upside down. Because where does the great I AM really show His power? On the cross. (John 8:28) The great I AM bleeds and dies on a rugged wooden cross, and that’s the power that saves the world. Can He deal with weakness? Can He use weakness? That’s His speciality. 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9, the Lord says to a weakened Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness."
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