Exodus 4:1
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
Does God—the Great I AM, YHWH—take questions?
In the classic 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy and the band of misfits that she had collected along the yellow brick road finally come into the throne room of “Oz the Great and Powerful,” she begins to ask him basic questions. The first questions are met with anger, fury and indignation, and the group runs in fear. Later, when they again approach the throne room of Oz, their questions express their doubt of his real power and motives. It is then that Dorothy’s little dog, Toto, first reveals the mortality of Oz by pulling away the curtain behind which the little man hides.
This Sunday, we will focus our attention on Exodus 4. In this story (continued from chapter 3), we find that Moses had two important questions for God. In chapter 3 he asked, “What is your name?” In chapter 4 we see that he asked, “What if the people you’re sending me to don’t believe me?”
In preparation for Sunday, I ask you to not only read that chapter, but go back and read chapters 1-4. Here’s a simple overview:
- Chapter 1: The Hebrews are now slaves in Egypt
- Chapter 2: Moses’ early story
- Chapter 3: The Great I AM reveals himself
- Chapter 4: The Great I AM answers the “what if” questions
Sunday’s teaching will be wrapped around the storyline of Exodus 4 and God’s miracles corresponding to Moses’ doubts. Moses was building his own trust in I AM—YHWH. We have learned recently that our Sovereign God is unknowable and even unapproachable because of his awesome holiness, but at the same time he answers our doubts, fears, and questions.
Sunday brings the third lesson in our year-long series, Knowing God, and this week’s teaching will set the foundation for the many chapters of our study in the weeks ahead. We are on a journey to know God. The “I AM” God whom we can know is a patient God, willing to walk with us through many doubts, fears, and uncertainties. I think the challenge for me is trusting this Sovereign God with his eternal plan in the middle of the uncertainties in front of me.
See you Sunday morning at 10 a.m.
