How do you react when you sense God wants you to do something, or say something, or go somewhere, and so on? Do you argue with him? Do you make excuses to him? Do you plead to God that someone else does it? There are obviously right ways and wrong ways to respond to the call of God.
One of the worst responses recorded in the Old Testament of course comes from Jonah. God had to use more than a little persuasion to get him to reconsider his initial bad choice! Christians today might want to rethink going down the path that Jonah did.
Other biblical responses to the call of God come to mind. Consider these two remarks made to God by two famous OT characters:
“Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
“Here I am, Lord, send me.”
You would likely be quite aware of both, but to refresh your memory, the first was made by Moses in Exodus 4:13, while the second was made by Isaiah in Isaiah 6:8. Let me speak to each in turn, offering a bit of commentary along the way.
Moses
The context for what Moses said is found in Ex. 4:10-17:
But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
How many of us have tried to offer similar sorts of excuses to the Lord when we hear his call? ‘But God, I am not a great speaker. I am afraid of crowds. What will people think? Why not send someone else? I am too busy.’ While most of us might look down on Moses and condemn him, Christopher Wright offers a more nuanced assessment of him.
Exodus (2) (The Story of God Bible Commentary)by Wright, Christopher J. H. (Author)
We know that Moses did in the end heed the call, and he did not need the same sort of divine prodding that Jonah got from God. But Wright does note how the response of Moses was quite different from that of Mary (“I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled” – Luke 1:38) and Jesus (‘yet not my will, but yours be done” – Luke 22;42). Says Wright:
So the story reveals not only Moses’s frailty—or at least his own perception of his frailty, depending on whether his speech deficiency was a real physical defect or simply public shyness—but also his flaws, as one who struggled to accept all God’s provision and just get on with the job God gave him. Surely we can recognize the sheer humanity of that picture—one we can easily identify with. Moses had weaknesses that carried no blame (lack of speaking ability) and weaknesses that did (procrastinating submission).
But would we have wished the story otherwise? Supposing Moses had interrupted God at the end of 3:9 with an enthusiastic volunteer speech, offering himself and all his credentials for the job? “That’s wonderful to hear, Lord! If that’s your plan, I’m your man. I know the Egyptian court. I still speak Egyptian. I have all that education at pharaoh’s expense. I’m passionate to see justice done at last. Here am I, send me!”
Now those credentials were true (and are often also preached on), but they do not enter the mind of either Moses or God at this point. They might well get used again in the rest of Moses’s career, but they are irrelevant in the matter of God’s call and Moses’s response. God called into one of the greatest leadership tasks in history a man who did not want to be a leader at all, who resisted it as long as he safely could, and who continued to feel inadequate to the task for a long time (Num 11:10-15). That is God’s preferred way. People who want to be leaders and yearn for the status, symbols, and power of leadership usually make very bad and dangerous leaders.
Wise words indeed from Wright. So maybe Moses was a bit smarter and humbler than we might have suspected.
Isaiah
The context for what Isaiah said is Isaiah 6:6-9:
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people:
“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’…
This response by Isaiah stands in marked contrast to that of Moses. No excuses. No complaints. No delays. Just, ‘Here I am’! The opening verses of Isaiah 6 speak of the prophet’s encounter with the living God. Tim Chester comments:
The holiness of God is a threat to sinful people, and Isaiah finds himself immersed in a full-on sensory experience of God’s holiness. We’re told in 6:1 that the train of God’s robe fills the temple. Isaiah is standing in the temple, and all around him is God’s robe. It’s in front of him, behind him, and on either side. If someone steps into your personal space, you sidle away; you retreat. But there’s nowhere for Isaiah to go. God’s holiness surrounds him.
He goes on to say this:
Isaiah then hears God saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” and Isaiah responds, “Here I am. Send me!” (6:8) He’s not saying, I’ll do you a favour or I’m the ideal man for the job. He’s just said, “I am a man of unclean lips”! But when you’ve seen the majesty of God and when you’ve experienced his grace, you cannot but serve God.
The job that Isaiah gets is not a great one: he’s to speak to people who will refuse to listen! In fact, he’s going to make the situation worse. The more Isaiah speaks, the more opposed to God people will become. God is going to use Isaiah to harden their hearts, confirm their blindness and prepare them for judgement (6:9-10). Nor is this unique to Isaiah. Jesus quoted Isaiah 6 to explain why he spoke in parables (Matthew 13:10-17). God uses us in the same way. To some our words bring life. But other people reject our words, and, in doing so, they are confirmed in their judgement – both their judgement against Christ and God’s judgement against them. Paul says, “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one, we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).
Yes, often the call of God on our lives will not be easy or pleasing either. Often it will incur anger, resentment and persecution. But ‘ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die’ as Tennyson put it in The Charge of the Light Brigade.
Our divine calling may well result in death. Millions of Christians have given their lives for God and Christ over the centuries. Just think of all the Iranian people being slaughtered right now by the evil Islamist theocrats. Many of them have recently become Christians.
Of course not all believers will be martyred, but all will experience some rejection, abuse and contempt. Our Lord experienced this in full, and the servant is not above the master.
So how are you responding to the call of God on your life?
