“And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.” (Ex 3:12 AV)
This is very interesting. Moses is known for doubting his ability to do as God called him to do. We will read in the next few chapters how Moses wanted to pick God’s man because he thought he could do a better job. Moses had a confidence issue. He didn’t think he was necessarily a good speaker. He did not have a command presence. He eschewed doubt and insecurity in his ability to lead. In our passage, the previous verse was Moses' question of what type of indication God might give that God has sent him to Pharaoh. God’s answer was to give him a token or sign after the fact and not beforehand. This doesn’t necessarily make sense, at least from our point of view. We would think Moses needed a confidence booster before he returned to Egypt. One would think if Moses had much self-doubt, the LORD would have given him a token before he left for Egypt. No so. The right thing to do is delay the token until after the job is down. Otherwise, Moses would need constant affirmation along the way. This way, he would have to complete what he started and in the process, get over his self-doubt, self-loathing, and general feeling of inadequacy.
Moses was God’s man. Of that, there is no doubt. Feeding a self-abasing personality with more affirmation than they need only makes it worse. Someone who needs constant affirmation will never be convinced of their worth to their LORD. What God did here was brilliant. He did not feed Moses’ insecurity. Instead, He told him affirmation will come after the job is done. If Moses wanted to know if God was with him and if God could use him, the only way that was going to happen was to dive right in and make it happen. This is absolutely perfect! God is far wiser than we realize. He knows exactly what we need and it is often different than what we think we need. Someone who struggles with self-confidence, or better yet, faith in God for Him to use them, does not need to be coddled. They need to be thrown in the deep and and made to swim. This reminds me of my youth!
My father required that we learn to swim. As soon as we were three feet tall (that was the requirement) we enrolled in Red Cross swimming lessons at the local school, YMCA, or public pool. I know I often regale this story but bear with me. The first thing they do is have you stand up against the wall and verify your height. Then they have you go to the edge of the shallow end and read the depth painted on the edge. Using your small little brain, one can deduce all one had to do is stand on the bottom and your head would be above water. However, there was a day when the deep end would be your challenge. The deep end was anywhere from nine feet to twelve feet deep. Even a third-grader could do that math. The instructor had a reach pool. The first thing he had us do was to slip into the water and reach for the pole. He would pull us to the side where we could climb out. A couple of times doing that, and we knew we were safe. Then came the big challenge. We were made to jump off the low diving board and swim to the nearest side. What that instructor did was rather cruel! He led us with the pole, but would never allow us to grab it. It was always out of reach. He was trying to show us we had abilities of which we were as yet aware. We could do this. We just didn’t know we could.
This was Moses’ situation. Gideon’s as well. If God calls us, He will also enable us. We don’t need affirmation as much as we need faith. This is what Moses had to exercise. This is what Moses had to learn. The delayed token was meant to strengthen him and not weaken him. So, when we seek affirmation from God before we attempt anything, maybe what we should do is seek faith instead.
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