Society is geared towards the idea that a person is valued and loved according to what they can do, and that is seen as what a person is worth. However, there is a big difference between the worth of a person and being worthy, in the spiritual sense of the word. When we look at the life of Moses, when God commissioned him to go and deliver Israel, the real reason (despite his many excuses) for not wanting to obey, was that he was scared that, in returning to Egypt where he had killed a person, he would be executed. When God assured him that everyone who wanted to do so had died, he was finally willing to go. God regarded Israel as his son, his family. Moses had been in exile and to become God’s avenger of blood on Israel’s behalf, he had to become part of the covenant or family of God again. Circumcision was required to become part of the covenant and Moses had failed to circumcise his son, making Moses unworthy. God then tried to kill him. God’s hand was averted when Moses’ son was circumcised, thus fulfilling the terms and conditions of the Law, making Moses worthy of his calling. It is clear according to various scriptures, that mankind is only worthy of death. In the book of Revelation we see that Jesus was the only one who was found worthy. There are times when we, as Christians, are commissioned to do something, like Moses was, but we fail to walk according to God’s principles, we fail to obey his instructions, and we have all kinds of excuses because we are careful to protect our ego. Jesus paid the price to redeem us from our sins on the cross, not to make us worthy. The only thing that makes us worthy is being led by the Spirit and obeying, picking up our cross and dying to ourselves. We should stop being disobedient and thereby keeping the self alive (self-preservation), so that the purposes of God for all of creation can come to fruition through us. Christ is formed in us through the killing of the unworthy Moses. Let us embrace the dying to self in the fire that never stops burning.
