Housegroups 

Series: Moses: Adventuring with God

Hearing and responding to God’s Call
Exodus 3 v.1 to 4 v.20

January 26th 

Phil Marlow


The passage tells of how God got Moses’ attention, God’s conversation with Moses about the plans he had for him, the signs which He gave to Moses and Moses’ faith in taking the first step towards fulfilling God’s instructions. The questions aim to help us consider how Moses’ experience may be relevant to us in hearing and responding to God’s calling in our lives. Pick the questions which are helpful but make sure you get to the “application” and “prayer”!

Icebreaker
Spend some time in silence and close your eyes. Let your mind run back over your life and identify one time when God spoke to you particularly clearly or in an unusual or unique way (think burning bush!).  Be prepared to share with the group if you feel able. Some ideas:

  • How did God speak to you (when, where, how did you know it was God)?
  • What were God’s promptings or instructions?
  • What did you do and how did the thing come to fulfilment
Are there any themes emerging from peoples’ experience of hearing God speak to them?
Think back to last 2 week’s studies.
 
Q1: It is maybe interesting that God is not mentioned in the first 2 chapters of Exodus until the very last 2 verses of chapter 2. Why do you think that might be?
It may help to imagine how it would have been for the people if Israel living under an oppressive and totalitarian foreign power.
 
Read Exodus 3
Our passage starts with Moses tending the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro.

Q2: Briefly review Moses life to date and recall how he ended up tending the flocks of Jethro. Given his history, how ready and/or enthusiastic do you think he might have been to go on a journey back into hazardous Egypt?
 
Remember he was a murderer being asked to go back to the scene of the crime – a far cry to living in peace with his new wife tending his father-in-law’s flocks. It is a real reminder that God can use any of us regardless of our past and how we feel about ourselves.
 
God resolves to get Moses’ attention………3: 4-6
 
Q3: How does He do this? What was Moses response and why might God have used such a dramatic method? Does he use dramatic methods now in our present time?
God piques Moses inquisitiveness and draws him in before starting the dialogue. He ignites the burning bush, reminds Moses that he is on holy ground and that he needs to behave accordingly and he establishes His credentials in 3:6 “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Moses did not necessarily know a lot about God – the evidence is that he asks in 3:13 what His name is (“What is his name?”). That made his encounter with God an especially high risk one.

Q4: In your group, imagine how Moses actually heard God speaking to Him. Was it a voice audible to all; was it an internal voice in Moses’ head…or something else?  With the ice-breaker in mind – how should we expect to hear God speak into our lives?
We cannot know but it is perhaps interesting to reflect how he might have encountered God and to reflect on our own experience of hearing God’s voice; maybe words from others, scripture, a response to prayer, signs, circumstances etc.
 
 God explains His plans for the people of Israel in 3:7-9 and, in 3:10, instructs Moses to go to see Pharaoh and get the people released. The great Moses starts off in 3: 11 by protesting that he is inadequate to the task.
 
Q5: How does God respond to Moses? Is it significant that Moses expressed his inadequacy for the task?
God is patient with Moses and reassures him and repeats His promise that the people of Israel will one day worship the Lord on Mount Horeb. He goes on to give Moses further details of his mission in 3: 15-22. We can be reassured that it is OK to question, investigate and to seek assurance – indeed, it is wise to do so. As we wrestle with God to determine His plans for us, that He will be with us and will reveal what we need to know. Whatever our motive, it is good to understand and acknowledge our own inadequacy so we allow God to work in and through us, doing things we could never do alone.

Read Exodus 4: 1-20
God gives Moses some signs he can use to help him in his mission to establish that he is truly sent by God. But Moses is not entirely convinced he is God’s man and has another crack at getting out of the mission in 4: 10.

Q6: In response to his reluctance to get on with the job, God reminds Moses of a few facts in 4: 11-12. How might we respond to such a reminder from God?
 
Moses is not convinced and has another whine….. God “burns with anger” in 4: 14-17. But He still provides yet more help for Moses in the shape of Aaron. At this point Moses got the message and sought release from his father-in-law and set off for Egypt 4: 18-20.
 
Q7: How do we know how much to wrestle with a calling and when to stop questioning God and just jump? What experiences have we had of taking risks with God?
 
Application
  • What can we learn from Moses’s response to God and from God’s response to him?
  • God calls Moses even though he could have delivered the Israelites himself.  Why is it significant that God chooses to work through His people then and today?
  • (How) do we hear God directing us in our lives? How can we put ourselves in a place where we hear God more often and more clearly and test what we hear?
  • How will we respond when God’s call involves risk and upsets our status quo?
 
Prayer
Pray as you feel led from your discussion in the group, but here are some prayer suggestions to help you:
 
  • That we may personally be attuned to God’s voice and have the courage to listen, wrestle with His calling and respond. Pray for those in the group facing any big decisions.
  • God’s calling is corporate as well as individual: ask for God’s help in seeking God’s will for our church community as we enter the new decade.
  • For Richard Jones as he takes a sabbatical until mid-March and seeks to learn from other churches and seek God’s direction for him at St Giles and St. George’s.

 
 
Phil Marlow Jan 2020
 


Phil Marlow, 07/01/2020