But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you’, and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
Exodus 3:11-14
It is impressive to see the strange and unaccountable unwillingness that came upon Moses at this point, and it is something that merits examination. We have already seen how he had genuinely consecrated himself to the service of God when he 'went out' to his brethren (2:11), but that was forty years previously, and it is possible, even in the context of preparation for the work of the Lord, for the call to service to assume a theoretical, if not unreal, character. It is still there, but the passage of time seems to blunt its urgent and compelling summons. And when it comes to the point of irrevocable commitment to action, the battle of consecration has to be fought all over again. The dedication of former years cannot do duty for the present. That is the first possibility we must consider here. The second is this: to put the best construction upon Moses' attitude, it may be that when faced with the prospect of fulfilling his consecration to the service of the Lord, he was appalled at the thought of all that would be involved in it. There may be something here akin to Paul's experience at Corinth when he said, 'I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling'. How wonderful, in face of such a dread, to have the assurance given in 12, 'Certainly I will be with thee', especially when that 'I' is the great 'I AM', the eternal, unchanging One, the same yesterday, today and forever. This is the ultimate confidence of the servant of God, and the source of his authority, that it is 'I AM' Who sends him.