ICS Daily Devotions
God Can Use You
Exodus 4: 12-15 Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” But he (Moses) said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.” So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.
God saw His people being oppressed by the Egyptians, heard their cries and knew their sorrows. This was the greatness and the love of our God who wanted to deliver them out of the oppression. God remembered His covenant with Abraham and longed to fulfill it by delivering the people.
Egypt was a symbol of the world, where the Israelites were in slavery, being tormented in their mind and body. They were emotionally oppressed and there was no way they were able to break free from this slavery. They probably experienced hunger, exhaustion due to lack of sleep, accommodation, and food; and concerned about their family. The men were driven to hard labor, the women were vulnerable, and the children didn’t have proper education. In short, they were miserable. Therefore, they cried out to their God to set them free. They aired their sadness to God. They had been in captivity because of their rebellion and sinned against God, yet when they cried out to God in the midst of their oppression, God reached out to them because of His love.
God is proactive in His love and deliverance but He needs people on this earth to carry out His work. God was looking for Moses to help Him fulfill His covenant in delivering the people. In all that God does in this world, He needs the service of His people to accomplish it.
God wanted to do something for His people but Moses was hung up with his personal problem. This is a typical response whenever it comes to spiritual things. Moses gave many excuses, such as that he was not eloquent, slow of speech and tongue. He tried reasoning with God by telling Him “I can’t do it!” and to send someone else instead. Moses gave excuses more than once to God even though He gave him the assurance that He would be with him to teach and instruct him as to what to say and do.
Moses was raised in the palace, a prince of high status, but committed a grave mistake of killing an Egyptian when he saw him beating up his fellow Hebrew people. Moses was not perfect in his ways. He had made mistakes in his life because of his personality but God still used him.
He was probably concerned about the mistakes that he had committed when he killed an Egyptian. After that, he tended to sheep in the desert; a far cry from what God was calling and appointing him to do. God preserved him from being killed as an infant for such a time as this: to deliver his people from Egypt so that they would not be oppressed again.
As Moses submitted to God’s calling, he went forth to serve Him by delivering the people out of Egypt. Moses witnessed the faithfulness and the presence of God throughout the whole process of negotiating with Pharaoh and the journey out of Egypt. The deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt was made possible because of the obedience of Moses and Aaron. The Israelites were able to cross into the Promised Land, a good and generous land flowing with milk and honey.
Ephesians 1:22-23 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
In the New Testament, we have been told that Christ is the head of the Church and we are His body. All that God intends to do will be accomplished through His body. He will never do anything without the Body of Christ. When God uses the body of Christ, it is every part of the body, which includes all of us regardless what kind of gifts we possess. We may feel imperfect like Moses, but it is God who gives us the mandate and He will accomplish His plan with us if we let Him use us!
Sermon Series: The Person that God Uses
