Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday we ended our reading halfway through God's conversation with Moses and Moses

had given two reasons why God shouldn't or couldn't use him to rescue the Israelites

from slavery in Egypt. Today we pick up the back half of that

conversation. God gives Moses some signs to use to prove himself and Moses gives

God three more excuses or rebuttals to his call. Honestly, Moses seems kind of right, but God is unmoved. God

patiently responds to each of his concerns, never hedging on his plan, despite the fact that

Moses is completely ill-fitted for this calling.

I mean even in verse 3, Moses throws the staff on the ground and when it becomes a snake,

he runs from it. The guy who's afraid of a snake probably shouldn't go toe to toe with a dictator. But God

reassures him, not with a promise that everything will go perfectly, but with

words like these. I will be with your mouth and teach you what to speak. I will send a helper.

Moses doubts himself, but God, his maker, reminds him who he's talking to.

Questioning God's identity issues. At this point it doesn't seem like he really knows or believes God,

which means he can't really know who he is either. At the last excuse, God gets angry.

It seems like Moses hesitation was an affront to God's wisdom in calling him, as though Moses believed God wouldn't be sufficient.

Moses fears and insecurities are an attack on God's character, but God does not lean into this offense. He leans into patience and

compassion. He provides Aaron Moses's older brother to go with him, so Moses gets

permission from his father Jethro, packs up the family, and heads to Egypt.

But God does not promise an easy journey.

He basically tells Moses, you're going to ask Pharaoh for something and I'm going to harden

his heart so that he says no to you.

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