We left Moses having just arrived in Midian after failing miserably to make any difference for his countrymen in Egypt. He tried and failed at age 40, and now he’s 80 (see Exodus 7.7). God appears to him in the famous burning bush event (more about the burning bush later):

So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite…So now, come and I will send you to Pharaoh, and so you shall bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. (Exodus 3.8, 10, LSB)

Two sides of the same coin. God says:

• I have come down to deliver them…
• I am sending you to deliver them

Moses’ call takes two full chapters because Moses does NOT respond with an immediate “Be it unto me according to your word,” like Mary did. (See Luke 1.38) Moses asks four questions, and we’ll look at the first one today.

1. Who am I?

But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God at this mountain.” (Exodus 3.11, 12, LSB)

God’s answer: who you are is irrelevant. “I will be with you.”

This ties back to the famous burning bush.

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. (Exodus 3.1, 2, ESV)

Why is the bush not burned up? Because the fire was independent of the bush! The LORD appeared in a blazing fire that he put in a bush, but it wasn’t using the bush for fuel. Duh. Why have I not thought of that before? As Ian Thomas said in his classic book The Saving Life of Christ, “Any old bush will do.” It’s not the bush.

Again, who Moses was was irrelevant. Who you are is irrelevant. Billy Graham? Bill Bright? Think of any “great” Christian leader. “Any old bush will do.” The Apostle Paul wrote:

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent… (1 Timothy 1.12, 13, ESV)

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ… (Ephesians 3.7, 8, ESV)