“Great” Excuses Of The Bible: Moses
The following is a guest post from my friend Ryan Lintelman. In addition to being one of the smartest people I know, Ryan has been faithfully serving the Lord for many years as a husband, father, and pastor. You can (and should) check out some of his messages on the youtube channel of his church: First Baptist Church West Columbia. You will be blessed by his preaching of God’s Word!
The Lie of An Excuse
Excuses, excuses, excuses. Excuses are as old as sin, literally. From the moment sin entered the world, man has created ways to shift the blame for his actions. Adam blamed Eve, thus blaming God. Eve blamed snakes. Excuses come in all shapes and sizes.
Children display great creativity in excuse making. We use excuses to avoid, manipulate, distract, disarm, etc., etc. There seems to be an excuse for every situation. Excuses are normally based on facts (such as Adam’s excuse in the garden), but the facts are distorted or manipulated in order to avoid responsibility. Excuses, then, use facts to tell a lie.
The lie of an excuse is subversive and destructive because it sounds and feels like the truth. The more that excuses are repeated, the more we believe them as the truth. Before long, the truth is replaced with a lie. However, when a person is confronted with the truth of the gospel there is no room for excuses.
Moses And Gaga
One of the greatest examples of excuse making in Scripture is Moses at the burning bush. In Exodus 3:10 God says, “Come I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Moses replies, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
When Moses meets God at the burning bush he is replete with excuses. God tells Moses that he has a mission for him. Moses tells God that he can’t do it because the mission doesn’t fit his personality and gifting. God says, “I have something for you to do.” Moses says, “That’s not who I am.” Like Adam in the garden, Moses uses God as an excuse. “I can’t do that, because of how you made me.”
“I was born this way.” This seems to be the most popular excuse in our contemporary culture. This lie can be used as an excuse for any behavior. This is clearly articulated in Lady Gaga’s song “Born this Way.”
“There’s nothing wrong with loving who you are”
She said, “‘Cause he made you perfect, babe”
“So hold your head up girl and you’ll go far,
Listen to me when I say”
I’m beautiful in my way
‘Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby I was born this way
Don’t hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you’re set
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born this way (Born this way)
Oh there ain’t no other way
Baby I was born this way
Baby I was born this way
Oh there ain’t no other way
Baby I was born this way
Right track baby I was born this way
While it is true that God is the creator of heaven and earth, and that God does not make mistakes; the artist manipulates these facts to create a subversive and destructive lie. Notice how Lady Gaga, like Adam and Moses before her, ultimately blames God for her choices because of her inborn nature. Behaviors, fears, and weaknesses inherent in a person from birth become the determining factor of truth, rather than the actual truth of God’s word. The Scriptures, however, clearly teach that our inborn nature is unreliable when it comes to determining what is true and untrue. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, who can understand it?” Lady Gaga admits the creative purpose of God, but ignores the destructiveness of the sinful nature of man.
At the burning bush, Moses also chooses to be identified by his behaviors, fears, and weaknesses rather than according to the Word of God. Moses’s focus is on who he is and what he has done, rather than on who God would have him to be. Had Moses stayed “right on track” because “baby he was born this way,” he would have been long forgotten. He would have been the story of a privileged birth gone to waste because of violence and cowardice.
The Divine Answers
However, God answers Moses’s excuse in Exodus 3:12 by saying, “But I will be with you.” God tells Moses, “I know who you are, but it’s not about who you are, it’s about who I am.” The gospel answers the excuse saying, “your in born nature does not have to determine your destiny.”
The gospel, properly understood, answers every excuse that would keep us from following Christ.
The excuse says, “I’m a sinner. I was born in sin and have sinful desires.” The gospel says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The excuse says, “I can’t. I’m weak.” The gospel says, “For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power, and love, and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7).
The excuse says, “I don’t have enough resources.” The gospel says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3).
I want to encourage you, when excuses begin to creep into your life, to preach the gospel to yourself again. When you feel like you are not, remember that He is. When you feel like you can’t, remember that He can. When you feel like you don’t have enough, remember that He is more than enough.
Walking towards the Light from the cross of a King 