Whose Idea Was This Anyway?

“Talk to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do. Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say. And take your shepherd’s staff with you, and use it to perform the miraculous signs I have shown you.” Exodus‬ ‭4:15-17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

http://bible.com/116/exo.4.15-17.nlt

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In this amazing story we find in Exodus, there is one main thing Moses and Aaron had to remember. They weren't the ones with the plan nor the power. They were not the ones that initiated it. It was God. It was God who drew Moses in with a burning bush. It was God who laid out the plans to Moses. It was God who hired Aaron as Moses' sidekick. They weren't sending themselves. They were simply responding to God's commission. They didn't say, "No!" when God said "Go!" (OK...weelll...Moses did say no to speaking [yikes!], but thank goodness for the grace of God and for Aaron, his brother, who agreed to step in as Moses' mouthpiece!) Together, they set out to accomplish a task no one on earth could ever do with human strength - set the children of Israel free from bondage! Talk about amazing superhero kind of stuff here, people!

And the same God that commissioned Moses and Aaron is the same God that commissions us as New Testament believers. We, too, serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And we too, are sent out. And just like Moses and Aaron, we, too, are not asked to come up with the plan, ourselves. (Thank goodness!)

But here is the difference and the advantage we have as New Testament believers. God is not on a mountain top or burning in a bush like in the Old Testament. For us, God is in us! Christ is in us - the hope of glory! (Colossians 1:27). And just like He was able to take an ordinary thing like a staff in Moses' hand and do miraculous wonders with it, so He is able to do with us! We become the staff in His hand, the ordinary turned extraordinary. 

And so we fearlessly say, "YES!" to God's commission, resting in the fact that He's the One that's sending us. This is His idea. His plan. And it is His power that will make it happen! 

"Go! I am sending you..."

Luke 10:3