We will all be sent... who's waiting for you?

"Moses said to the LORD,

"O Lord, I have never been eloquent,

neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant

I am slow of speech and tongue."

The LORD said to him,

"Who gave man his mouth?

Who makes him deaf or mute?

Who gives him sight or makes him blind?

Is it not I, the LORD?

Now go;

I will help you to speak and will teach you what to say."

But Moses said,

"O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

Exodus 4:10-13
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"The word of the LORD came to me saying,

"Before I formed you in the womb

I knew you,

before you were born

I set you apart;

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

"Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said,

"I do not know how to speak;

I am only a child."

But the LORD said to me,

"Do not say, 'I am only a child.'

You must go to everyone that I send you to

and say whatever I command you.

Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD."

Jeremiah 1:4-8
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"The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah...

When the LORD appeared to Gideon, He said,

"The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."...

The LORD turned to him and said,

"Go in the strength you have

and save Israel out of Midian's hand.

Am I not sending you?"

"But, Lord," Gideon asked,

"how can I save Israel?

My clan is the weakest in Manasseh,

and I am the least in my family."

Judges 6:11-16
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"In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias.

The Lord called to him in a vision,

"Ananias!"

"Yes, Lord," he answered.

The Lord told him,

"Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street

and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul,

for he is praying.

In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come

and place his hands on him

to restore his sight."

"Lord," Ananias answered,

"I have heard many reports about this man

and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.

And he has come here with authority from the chief priests

to arrest all who call on Your name."

(Acts 9:10-15a.)
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"The word of the LORD came to Jonah...

"Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach..."

But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish."

(Jonah 1)

So often when God calls for us to do something we feel ill equipped, unable, and inadequate to do and to perform the thing that He has called us for and given to us to do. Or perhaps sometimes we simply just don't want to do it. In just the few examples we used here we see that:

Moses - said he'd never been good with words and asked God to please send somebody else!;

Jeremiah -said, I don't know how! I'm only a kid!

Gideon - asked, "How can I?" and called himself the runt of the litter from the weakest clan;

Ananias - felt that surely God didn't realize who it was that He was sending him to and felt the need to tell Him what "he'd heard";

and Jonah - ran away from God by taking off in the opposed direction.

Yet let's back up a minute to look to see why God even bothered to call each these five guys to do the jobs that He called them to do in order to see why He bothers to call us to give us what He wants us to. For we're all called to something. It may be something far different from these guys, but make no mistake, we're all called for something. Read carefully through these Scriptures though, for you might find them most interesting:

~ Moses ~

"During that long period, the king of Egypt died.

The Israelites groaned in their slavery

and cried out,

and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.

God heard their groaning...

So God looked on the Israelites

and was concerned about them.

Now Moses was tending the flock.. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him...

The LORD said,

"I have indeed seen the misery of My people in Egypt.

I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers,

and I am concerned about their suffering.

So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians

and to bring them up out of that land...

So now, go.

I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people.. out..."

(Exodus 2:23-3:1-10)


~ Jeremiah ~

"I will pronouce My judgments on My people

because of their wickness in forsaking Me,

in burning incense to other gods

and in worshiping what their hands have made."

(Jeremiah 1:16)


~ Gideon ~

"Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD,

and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

Because the power of Midian was so oppressive,

the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves

in mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds.

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops,

the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country.

They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza

and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.

They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts.

It was impossible to count the men and their camels;

they invaded the land to ravage it.

Midian was so impoverished that they cried out to the LORD for help.

When the Israelites cried to the Lord

because of Midian,

He sent them a prophet..."

(Judges 6:1-7a.)

~ Ananias ~

"In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias.

The Lord called to him in a vision,

"Ananias!"

"Yes, Lord," he answered.

The Lord told him,

"Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street

and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul,

for he is praying.

In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come

and place his hands on him

to restore his sight."

"Lord," Ananias answered,

"I have heard many reports about this man

and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.

And he has come here with authority from the chief priests

to arrest all who call on Your name."

But the Lord said to Ananias,

"Go!

This man is My chosen instrument

to carry My name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel."

(Acts 9:10-15.)


~ Jonah ~

"The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:

"Go to the great city of Nineveh

and preach against it,

because its wickedness has come up before Me."

(By the 3rd chapter God had helped to change Jonah's mind and so Jonah went:)

"Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh....

On the first day, Jonah started into the city.

He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned."

The Ninevites believed God.

They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh,

he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.

Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:

"By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything;

do not let them eat or drink.

But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth.

Let everyone call urgently on God.

Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

Who knows? God may yet relent

and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.""

(And God did!)

"When God saw what they did

and how they turned from their evil ways,

He had compassion

and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened."

(Jonah 1:1-2, 3:1-10)

Did you see it? Did you catch the"why?" behind God's call and see why He called to send the ones He sent? Let's look at the five one more time real quickly:

~ Moses ~
God had heard the cries and groaning of the Israelites, He'd seen their misery, He was concerned for the suffering, He had decided to come to rescue them, and needed a man to go do it.

~ Jeremiah ~

God's people had turned to other gods and were worshiping things that their own hands had made, it was time to pronounce judgment on them. He sent Jeremiah to warn them.

~ Gideon ~

The people did evil again, so God gave them over to their enemies for seven years. BECAUSE OF the oppression from their enemies and because they became so impoverished they CRIED OUT to the Lord for help... and WHEN THEY cried He began to move to help them. He went to find Gideon to begin His rescue.

~ Ananias ~

Saul had been on the way to Damascus to help persecute and imprison Christians. On his way, God blinded him with a great light and asked him what in the world he was doing. God helped change his heart and his mind and Saul began praying. So the Lord told Ananias to, "Go!" even in his fear and his want not to. He told him to go: "for (Saul) was praying!"

~ Jonah ~

The Lord sent Jonah to warn a wicked city, to tell them that in forty days that God was going to destroy them... The people believed the words that Jonah told them, and they grieved and then turned from their ways and cried out to God to relent; and when God saw what they had done He had compassion on them and didn't destroy them. Which is what He wanted (no doubt) for His people to do at Jeremiah's warning.

It is doubtful that we'll be called in any of the same ways that any of these guys were or to the same exact places; but it is also most doubtful that any of our callings will be less important or significant than theirs were. Ananias was sent to go to a specific house, on a specific street, asking for a specific man, because God told Him, "for he (Saul) is praying!" (The King James Version words what God says here: "For, behold, he prayeth!"). God sent Moses to Egypt because the Israelites were crying out. God stopped His plan to destroy the Ninevites at their urgent cry upon Him. And He moved to help His people oppressed and improverished in the hands of the Midianites WHEN they cried for Help!

My favorite wording of all of these is the simple form at Ananias' sending, "Go!" God told him, "for he is praying!" "Go! For, behold, he prayeth!" GO!.... for someone is praying! God seems to have a pattern of sending when the cries for help has reached Him... "GO," He says to someone, "for he is praying!" "Go! For, behold, he prayeth!"

Who might be the one that is praying for you?

Who might be praying to God that God is trying to send you to?

Who is the one that is so oppressed and impoverished and is tired from their slavedrivers and their misery that has God concerned for their suffering because of their cries and He is trying to send you to?

Who pleads for a rescue and a deliverer and God has decided to use you to do it, but you're feeling inadequate and unworthy and as if you're insufficient for the job or too young or the least one that should be chosen so you give God all of the reasons why it shouldn't be you - and in reality, He just needs a body and wants to use yours to do it through?

WHO is waiting for you?

Even one maybe that you don't particularly like and don't want to go to anyway (like Jonah)?

Perhaps God wants to send you to the multitudes that wail in their wait in their misery as it was in Moses' and Gideon's case?

Perhaps it is like Jeremiah & Jonah and God wants to warn of His judgment that's fated to come unless those in the path of destuction turn from their wicked ways and relent to God's word and His teaching?

Or perhaps you'll be sent to just "one" like Ananias... but "one" that will be used in the mightiest of ways for God's Kingdom, "one" that is "a chosen instrument to carry (God's) name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel"?

Who might you be called to?

Who might be waiting on you?

And how many await their rescue and deliverance upon your obedience?

So many people are impoverished. So many people are enslaved to their sin. So many people are miserable and cry for the Lord to save them while still in it. So many people need warning as they bow down to their worthless gods that aren't able to save them oblivious to the wrath of the Almighty God and need to be sent a warning. So many 'ones' need some'one' to go to help them where they are in order to help their blind eyes to see in order to then be sent to save many. Again, who is it that waits on you? Who is it that God wants to send you to? And let me ask you this, who was it that God sent to you? And now who will you turn and go to?

We're all in this together... being given the Word, and taking in it, and then in turn giving it to another. How else has the Word survived this long? One man at a time. Someone carried and gave it to me. I carry it and pass it on to another. Yes, we let it embed and grow inside us.. but never to hoard to keep for ourselves, our fruit is to be shared with others.

Who cries.... and you are their answer?

I could give you so many modern day examples. I can see so many of the ones that cry and then see the ones that run to answer. And I can't help but wonder what the 'one' will become that the one has run to...and how many they themselves will be used to rescue? Might you be an "Ananias" that is sent to a "Saul" (after you'd "heard" what they were doing) that God plans to make into a "Paul" to teach and to tell and to touch and to be used to rescue many?

Just wondering: Who did God use to answer your prayers? And who's been praying and is now waiting on you?