Exodus 4:10
Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. ”

Someone has said, “An excuse is the skin of a truth stuffed with a lie.” In other words, an excuse has all the outward appearance of truth, but inside it quickly loses that ring of authenticity. When you begin to probe beneath the surface—to explore the motives and purpose—it becomes obvious that the outer resem blance of an excuse is inconsistent with the inner reason.

Moses responded to God’s call by posing a number of questions: Who shall I say sent me? What if they don’t listen to me? How can I persuade them to believe me? These were legitimate concerns, of course, and they needed to be answered in order to get the job done.

But then Moses stooped to making excuses. In essence he said, “God, You can’t use me. You need someone with greater abilities.” On the surface this had the appearance of truth. Moses may really have had a speech impediment that made him difficult to understand, although that didn’t appear to be the case when he stood before Pharaoh. But underneath this truth lay the real reason, the hidden reason— Moses simply didn’t want to go. His wife and children were in Midian. Forty years had gone by and perhaps his interests in Egypt may have lessened. To top it off, he was 80 years old—not the time of life when you want to start such an undertaking. So he tried to excuse himself and angered God (Exodus 4:14).

As Moses learned, it’s impossible to deceive God. He knows our thoughts and reads our motives. He sees through our excuses and exposes the true reasons for our actions or inactions. Ask God to search your heart and make your real reasons obvious to you. If you’ve been making excuses, it’s time to ask His forgiveness and pray for strength to be obedient instead.

AN EXCUSE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR OBEDIENCE.

WOODROW KROLL
www.backtothebible.in