Exodus 3:11 "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

Comment:

Dear Valerie,   Sometimes a Bible passage pretty much means what it says, and I think that's the case with Exodus 3:11. Moses is standing before the bush that burns but is not consumed, called suddenly out of his routine life of tending the flocks of his father-in-law with an unexpected and unimaginable spiritual assignment: Return to Egypt and tell the Pharaoh that the Israelites are to be freed. Moses' reaction is pretty much what ours would be: You must have the wrong person! "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3:11 NRSV).   My friend Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey often says that if you have a dream, and you can imagine just how you're going to bring it about, your dream isn't big enough! It's when we feel called to a thing so apparently beyond our reach that our human mind cannot even conceive of a way to accomplish it that we know the calling is truly from God, and it is our divine nature—the Christ—that will show us the way.   The passage in Jeremiah you ask about is this: "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart I will let you find me, says the Lord …  and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile" (Jeremiah 29:11-14 NRSV).   Jeremiah is, of course, speaking first to the Israelites who have been led into captivity by the Babylonian Empire, assuring them that this apparent tragedy is not the end of the story, but that greater possibilities lie ahead. As a prophet, however, Jeremiah's words resonate in our own lives as well. If we know always that “God means it for good,” and if we are willing to seek out the Presence of God within, then even negative experiences can be way stations to a greater possibility for spiritual expression and discovery. And we can't sit disconsolately by the road waiting for deliverance. As Jesus teaches hundreds of years later, we must “ask, seek and knock.” When we do, a loving answer and positive outcome are guaranteed.   Blessings!

Rev. Ed