I am Moses, and for forty years I tended sheep in the wilderness of Midian, far from the courts of Egypt where I was once a prince. I had fled there as a fugitive, having killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. I thought my life's purpose had ended in failure. I could not have been more wrong.
One day, I led my father-in-law's flock to the far side of the wilderness, to Horeb, the mountain of God. There I saw a sight that defied all reason - a bush burning with fire, yet not consumed. The flames danced among the branches, but the leaves remained green. I turned aside to investigate this wonder.
'Moses! Moses!' a voice called from within the fire.
'Here I am,' I answered, my heart pounding.
'Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'
I hid my face, terrified to look upon God. But He continued speaking, and His words changed everything.
'I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. I have come down to rescue them and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'
Me? The failed prince? The fugitive shepherd? I could not believe what I was hearing. 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'
God's answer was not about my qualifications but about His presence: 'I will be with you.'
Still I resisted. 'What if they ask your name? What shall I tell them?'
'I AM WHO I AM. Tell them I AM has sent you.' The very name of God - the self-existent one, the eternal, the unchanging - was being entrusted to me.
I made excuse after excuse. I was not eloquent. I had a slow tongue. Surely someone else would be better. But God answered each objection. He gave me signs - my staff becoming a serpent, my hand becoming leprous and then clean. He appointed my brother Aaron to speak for me.
Finally, I could resist no longer. I set my face toward Egypt, toward Pharaoh, toward the impossible task of freeing a nation of slaves. What I learned at that burning bush has guided me ever since: God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called. And when He says 'I AM with you,' that is enough.