Impossibilities

The Old Testament reading in my Treasury of Daily Prayer for Tuesday of Lent 5 is Exodus 2.23-3.22. It had been a while since I read this account; in particular, I had forgotten the “end” of this reading.

This particular section finds Moses in Midian, tending his father-in-law’s flocks. Once the “prince of Egypt,” now he is a lowly shepherd in the middle of nowhere. His ancestral people are 400-plus years into slavery.

Yet, here comes the God of the Universe (speaking from a bush that is afire and yet not consumed) and says, “I have heard the cries of my people. You go, Moses, and lead them out.”

Moses, of course, is a taken aback by this, and asks some questions, yet God (of course) does not waiver. In fact—and this is what I forgot about the whole account—God even promises Moses that the enslaved people will end up “plundering” the Egyptians. So, a large nation of slaves will be delivered miraculously from this condition. Pharaoh will, God told Moses, eventually let the people go. Furthermore, when all is said and done they will leave with flocks and herds and gold and silver—some of the great treasure of Egypt…

What is striking me about this on this particular morning is that this must have seemed impossible, if not to Moses then certainly to the “elders of Israel” to whom Moses was sent to tell this story. I can only imagine that conversation! “Hello, Gentlemen. We Hebrews are poor, pitiful slaves. The greatness of our forefathers is talked about, but we are the laughing stock of the nations. We have no power, no wealth. We are in chains. Our people cannot imagine another life. YET, in short order we will plunder Egypt and head back to the land of our ancestors wealthier than our father Jacob could possibly have imagined.”

Impossible.

Yet that is exactly what happened.

Sometimes (in fact, often) God calls us to the seemingly impossible. In the face of this “leaders” need simply to faithfully do the work to which God has called them; that is, “get out of the way” and let God “do his thing.”

I suspect that many pastors, like me, have trouble with this. Like Moses, we are called "out of Midian” to people who don’t know us or even fully trust us. And because most of us are eminently qualified for the task, again in an analogous way to Moses (“Hey, folks, I left everything to go to the seminary. It was impossible, but God made it happen somehow. We can do this!”) we can easily lose our bearings. We know that the calling is of God, but once in the office we are tempted to trust too much in our abilities (“Hey God, you were pretty smart to pick me for this post.”). 

To be sure, the gifts and abilities and even the personal history of Moses were a part of the picture in Israel’s deliverance, but—ultimately—it was not Moses who led the people out of Egypt, it was The LORD, the One who said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”

I am being caused to remember that this morning, and that is a good thing for a pastor, no?