Fear Of God // Stand In AweSample

Moses & the Fear of God

Moses is one of the biggest heroes of the Bible. He’s famous for releasing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, taking them through the Red Sea with amazing faith and leading them with confidence on the other side. He was a man of great faith, a leader of leaders and a man of miracles.

Yet, no matter how good a leader Moses ended up being, his story didn’t start there. In fact, when you read about Moses’ life earlier on, it seems like he’s an entirely different person! 

An example of this is found in today’s Scripture, in which we read about Moses responding to God’s appearance in the burning bush. When God appeared to Moses, He asked Moses to go to Pharaoh to ask him to release the Israelites from captivity, so that they could go and worship their God.

In response to this calling that God puts on his life, Moses disqualifies himself, by saying, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words.” He even goes on to ask God to send someone else instead of him! Rather than trusting in God’s wisdom and promise, Moses focussed on his own inability. Moses did end up with a fear of God that caused him to follow through on God’s call, but he started off by falling back on human excuses. 

When God calls us to things we’re unqualified for, excuses will always be there. The challenge is to look at everything through a divine filter rather than a human one. Jesus rebukes Peter in Mark 8 by saying to him “you are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” What Moses shows is that with whatever obstacles come our way, we have a chance to either see things from a human or a divine perspective. 

God will always work through people to achieve his purposes, yet we can too easily disqualify ourselves from God’s purpose for our lives. The great thing about the story of Moses is that it shows God’s grace; even though Moses tried to back out of God’s purposes, God worked it for good and ended up using him in a mighty way. So, it’s never too late to come back to God and commit yourself to doing what he has called you to do.