Insufficiency.
A very different Moses this from the hero who was formerly so ready, even without a call, to undertake the work of Israel's deliverance. Probably failure in that first attempt led him to doubt whether he was the instrument ordained for so great a task. He may have concluded he was not, and learned his first lesson of acquiescence in the Divine will, by surrendering the hope. Or, he may have thought himself rejected for his fault. In any case, Moses had now much juster views of the magnitude of the work, and of his natural unfitness to undertake it. Who was he—a man of lonely, self-retired spirit—that he should brave the power of the Pharaohs, or think of bringing Israel out of Egypt?
Learn—
1. Conscious unfitness for our work is one of the best preparations for it, The greatest of God's servants have had this feeling in a remarkable degree. They needed to be "thrust forth" to the harvest (Matthew 10:38, Or.).
2. Conscious unfitness for work grows with the clearness of our apprehensions of the Divine call to it. The nearer we are brought to God, the less we feel fit to serve him (Isaiah 6:5).
3. God's call and promise are sufficient reasons for undertaking any work, however deep our consciousness of personal unfitness. "Our sufficiency is of God" (2 Corinthians 3:6). The sign in Exodus 3:12 was a pledge to Moses that God would "make all grace to abound toward" him (2 Corinthians 9:8).—J.O.