Moses the Unqualified

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Did you know Moses argued with God about his calling? As my friend Alyce pointed out, "That wasn't in the movie!"

But the real Moses protested mightily when confronted with the burning bush and God's command to free the Hebrew people from slavery.

Moses insisted on bringing his brother Aaron with him as kind of a crutch. And God allowed him to do so, even though He knew Moses was perfectly capable of doing the task on his own.

(See Exodus 3 and 4 for Moses' long argument with God.)

Here's the thing I take away from that: God doesn't force us to do anything.

We have all heard this: If He calls us, He will equip us to do what He has called us for. (See Eph 4:11)

Moses was already equipped to accomplish the task that God had set before him. But Moses wasn't so sure about it, and came up with all kinds of reasons why he thought the Lord should really send someone else.

Finally God said, "FINE!! Aaron can go with you! OKAY?!?!" Even though Aaron didn't really do anything, (and by the time of the exodus, he had nearly faded into the background while Moses did everything himself the way he had been called to) God allowed Aaron to accompany Moses just to make Moses feel better.

What this shows me is: God will do whatever it takes to assure us that He has equipped us. Including something like send a brother to tag along and hold the stick for us, if we need it.

Romans 2:4a "Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? "

What can we learn from the calling of the disciples?

"Come and See"  by Liz Lemon Swindle

 (image from lizlemonswindle)

 

When reading about the calling of the dicisples in the gospel of John, I noticed that John's account was different from the other gospel writers.

 

Which is not unusual for our boy John. He certainly had his own perspective.

 

 Anyways it led me off on a chase through the other Gospels to see how the same subject was presented there, and to ask myself what we can learn from this.

First, let's read: John 1: 35-50

 

The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples.

³⁶ As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared,

“Look! There is the Lamb of God!”

³⁷ When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.

 ³⁸ Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?”

He asked them. They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”),

“where are you staying?” ³⁹ “Come and see,” He said.

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went

with Him to the place where He was staying, a

nd they remained with Him the rest of the day.

 ⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men

who heard what John said and then followed Jesus.

⁴¹ Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, “

We have found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”).

 ⁴² Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon,

Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas”

(which means “Peter”). ⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.

He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.”

⁴⁴ Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.

 ⁴⁵ Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him,

“We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about!

His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

 ⁴⁶ “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.

 ⁴⁷ As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—

a man of complete integrity.” ⁴⁸ “How do You know about me?”

 Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “I could see you

under the fig tree before Philip found you.” ⁴⁹ Then Nathanael exclaimed,

“Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

 ⁵⁰ Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because

I told you I had seen you under the fig tree?

You will see greater things than this.”

Okay, two things: First of all, even though it was a big tangent to research all the disciples and what order they were called in, I think it is important. The three synoptic gospels list the two sets of brothers as called at the same time, from their boats. But John tells it a little differently, and he’s the one who was there, after all!

It’s a seemingly unimportant distinction, who was first and who brought whom, but to the people involved it is incredibly important. So…

If Andrew and John had not been hanging around listening to John the Baptist (I’m assuming the “other disciple” referred to is John himself, as that’s the way he usually tells things) they would not have gone after Jesus and then subsequently brought their brothers Peter and James respectively.

I think the application here is to share Jesus with those closet to you, and indeed with everyone. You never know who could be really crucial to the Kingdom, as we know Simon Peter was.

The second thing: Both Andrew and Nathaniel (sometimes called Bartholomew) confess Jesus as the Christ immediately.

Indeed, everyone who meets Him either embraces and follows, or else turns and rejects. Jesus inspires action!

But these same men who believed so readily and followed so quickly were not able to sustain that faith at the same level throughout the Gospels.

After all, there are many accounts of Jesus shaking his head over “ye of little faith.” And at the foot of the cross, how many of the twelve were there with the women? Only one.

The fact is, they believed and doubted by turns, just as we do. This is part of being human, I think.

Jesus accepted both their faith and their moments of unbelief, and He redeemed their works, good and bad. We do not have to have perfect faith to follow Christ; we only need wiling hearts.

We trust Him to do the rest.