Moses, a hero of the faith who boldly stood up to the most powerful man on the planet, started out as an anxious, hesitant defeatist.
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If the thought of public speaking makes you weak in the knees, you are far from alone. It’s regularly rated as one of Americans’ top fears, and it’s where one of the Bible’s bravest men started out. Moses, a hero of the faith who was the conduit for the earliest foundations of Scripture — a man who boldly stood up to the most powerful man on the planet — started out as an anxious, hesitant defeatist who wanted nothing to do with the task God had assigned him.
Remember, Moses had been uniquely equipped to lead the Hebrew people. His mother spared his life by setting him adrift in the Nile River in a basket at a time when all male Hebrew babies were given a death sentence by Pharaoh. Instead, it was Pharaoh’s own daughter who discovered baby Moses and eventually decided to raise him in the palace. There he was equipped with all the knowledge he needed to succeed in the highest echelons of Egyptian society — education, royal traditions, and political savvy.
But none of that could save his life when Moses killed an Egyptian he saw abusing a Hebrew slave. Moses would spend decades running from his murderous sin, with a death sentence hanging over his own head. Long before the Israelites spent 40 years lost and wandering, Moses would have his own period of isolation and drifting. He worked quietly and faithfully as a shepherd. That seemingly unrelated detour was preparing him for a life spent leading a different kind of flock.
Moses Was Blinded by Anxiety
When God showed up in a burning bush to call him into service, Moses did not jump into action. The Lord didn’t ask — He told.
“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
— Exodus 3:10 (NIV)
The last time we saw anything about a pharaoh and Moses, it was because Egypt’s top leader wanted to kill him. And though the pharaoh God was calling Moses to confront was not the same man, Moses had to wonder whether the story of what he’d done still lingered in Egyptian folklore. Moses’ reply to the LORD makes perfect sense by our human standards — at least by mine!
“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’”
— Exodus 3:11 (NIV)
Probably the same question I would have asked. LORD, are you kidding me? I’m a shepherd, gone from that life for decades. And my life may be over if I go back!
“And God said, ‘I will be with you…’”
— Exodus 3:12 (NIV)
Moses was ready with his list of excuses as to why he couldn’t possibly do what God was asking. He was anxious and apprehensive, feeling ill-equipped to step up to the challenge.
Moses’ timid human heart didn’t seem to believe God could achieve the unthinkable — especially through him. He was understandably worried, but it wasn’t just about confronting Pharaoh. It was also about what he believed was his inability to articulate his calling to the very people he was supposed to lead.
Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.”
— Exodus 3:13–15 (NIV)
I AM. Period. God instructed Moses to gather the elders of Israel and tell them who’d sent him. “They will listen to what you say,” God promised. (Exodus 3:18).
God Reassured and Equipped His Servant
What if they don’t believe you sent me? God had Moses drop his staff and it turned into a snake, then back into a staff when Moses picked it up. Then he had Moses put his hand into his cloak, only to pull it out covered in disease. Another tuck back into the cloak and it was healed. If those two miracles didn’t work, God told Moses to throw water from the Nile (the river where he was sentenced to death) onto the flood and watch it turn to blood.
Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, 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 human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
— Exodus 4:10–13 (NIV)
Have you ever argued with God? Have you ever told Him He’s wrong about you? How our distrust and frail hearts must sometimes frustrate Him, but He never gives up on us.
God agreed to bring Moses’ brother Aaron onto the team. Moses was instructed to give Aaron the words to say, and the LORD would speak through them. Moses went to get Jethro’s blessing to go after his people and eventually met up with Aaron. Together they gathered the elders and did as God had said, telling them what the LORD had said and performing the signs he’d enabled them to do. The elders were so grateful God had considered their suffering that they bowed down and worshipped.
What came next was a miraculous series of increasingly brutal plagues from the hand of God Himself. Moses grew in spiritual maturity and bravery, repeatedly confronting Pharaoh until his grip on the millions of Hebrew slaves powering Egypt was loosened and they were finally released to go free … until they weren’t.
Just when the freed Hebrew people began to breathe a sigh of relief, Pharaoh changed his mind. Despite the absolute devastation of the plagues, the disappearance of more than a million members of his work force was a jolt to Pharaoh and the Egyptian economy. As the Israelites camped by the Red Sea, Pharaoh and his army showed up in force. Gripped with fear they unleashed their complaints on Moses. Why did you bring us out here to die? Why didn’t you just let us stay and serve the Egyptians?
Moses Matured From Anxious to Authoritative
It’s at this point that we see the full transformation of Moses. Once consumed by self-doubt and terror, he boldly stood and spoke.
“Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.’”
— Exodus 14:13–14 (NIV)
The man who tried to talk God out of using him refused to cower before a swarm of chariots and soldiers headed right at him. And the mini-sermon he gave is the very formula we can apply to our 2026 anxieties too.
- Don’t be afraid. What God has promised you is true. He has no doubts about your future.
- Stand firm. In moments of trepidation — and they will come — don’t waiver. Remember, the enemy is constantly seeking to intimidate you out of believing what you know to be truth.
- See His deliverance. Open your eyes. Don’t miss it. Sometimes God chooses a different path than the one we would choose. What the Israelites were about to witness would blow their minds, but they had to be watching.
- He will fight for you. So many powerful verses come to mind:
- “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” (Psalm 118:6 NIV).
- “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31 NIV)
- Be still.You know those Israelites wanted to panic, to gather their little ones and try to make a run for it. They could see nothing but a watery grave in front of them and sure death behind them. Moses, the one-time stuttering coward, confidently told them everything was going to be OK. And it was.
God sent a strong wind to blast back the sea waters and allow the Israelites to travel to safety on dry land. Those same waters flooded over the Egyptians who chased them. According to Exodus 14:28, “not one of them survived”.
The people trusted Moses — a man who trusted neither himself nor the Lord when he was sent on this momentous assignment. It’s neat to remember that Moses wrote this account of what happened. He repeatedly tells on himself, transparently sharing the doubt and defiance he had when talking with the very God of the Universe. After 430 years of captivity, the people of Israel were delivered under the leadership of a man who would rather have hidden out with the sheep.
We get not only encouragement from watching Moses’ story unfold, but also the equipment we need to confront our own anxieties — one faithful step at a time.
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