286. Wednesday after Fifth Sunday after Trinity.
Grant, O Lord, that we
hear thy word. Amen.
Exodus 4, 10-15. And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses; and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee; and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.
❦
God will, in the first place, have you to know of a certainty that he has appointed you to your work. In the next place he will have you to know your own utter inability. And, lastly, he will have you to feel full confidence in him.
1) Who can doubt that God appointed Moses to be the liberator of Israel, David to be king and psalmist, Peter and Paul to be apostles, John the Baptist and Elijah to be voices calling people to repentance, Mary to be the mother of Jesus, Eunice to be the teacher of Timothy, Mark to be an evangelist, Luther to be the reformer? But do you think that the great are the only ones of whom the Lord has had foreknowledge? What is great, and what is little to him? Every good and useful work on earth is the Lord’s; and when he has disposed your life in such a way that you have by fair means become a master, or a servant, or a magistrate, or a farmer, or whatever you may be, assuming that you have a useful and honest vocation; do not doubt that the Lord prepared your work for you, and you for the work. Confess the sins of your youth, which have influenced your life, and they are forgiven. Moses also sinned, at this time in awakening the Lord’s anger, and previously, when he took upon himself to slay the Egyptian; but notice how the Lord even then directed the course of his life. There is glorious comfort in the conviction that the Lord has appointed me to my work, and led me to the place where he would have me.
2) Here Moses has an entirely different opinion of himself from that which he had forty years earlier when he assumed to himself the office of being his brother’s savior. How widely different from the ambitious men, who insist on being leaders! He who prides himself on his ability is of no account. That everything depends on the Lord is a truth which is spoken with ease and learned with difficulty; but which it is necessary to learn nevertheless. Moses was educated as an Israelite and in all the learning of Egypt; yet he must take a course of forty years’ training in the wilderness. David was a pious and splendidly equipped young man; and still he was compelled to undergo a long term of hard discipline; and Peter had learned but little of the great lesson when he had toiled all night in vain. O, that we might have a living knowledge of the truth that of ourselves we are fit only to disturb and tear down; and that we might thus learn not to shut out the Lord’s power by confidence in our own strength!
3) Moses, however, does wrong to decline, because of his own weakness and the magnitude of the work, that to which the Lord called him. Should he not have been ready at once when the Lord spoke to him? However, the charge was so stupendous that hardly any other man than Moses would have dared, with humble heart and for God’s sake only, to undertake it. Who has been about the Lord’s business, and has not felt that it is the nature of the flesh to make a man timid when he should have his strength in the Lord only? In this way God teaches us this spiritual law, 2 Corinthians 12, 10: “For when I am weak, then am I strong.” It is really true that you yourself are utterly incapable; but it is also true that in Christ you are able to do all things to which the Lord calls you. “Who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? have not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”
Lord, keep us from going when thou dost not send us; but give us grace to go willingly when thou dost call us. Teach us that thy strength is made perfect in weakness. Amen.*
God calling yet! — shall I not rise?
Can I his loving voice despise,
And basely his kind care repay?
He calls me still: can I delay?
God calling yet! — and shall he knock,
And I my heart the closer lock?
He still is waiting to receive,
And shall I dare his Spirit grieve?
[suggested tune: Federal Street, TLH 346; listen here]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.