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Day Four: Character and Calling Always Go Together

Why did Moses resist the call of God (Exodus 4:1–17)? Strangely, it had to do with his character. Moses' humility endeared him to God and made him a great man and leader. This one trait also explains why Moses resisted the Lord's call to become Israel's redeemer, even though it was a tremendous honor.

Moses embodied the trait of humility more than any other prophet or leader in the Hebrew Bible. In today's verse from the book of Numbers, God Himself testified to Moses' humility. He named it as the primary reason He spoke to and through Moses, unlike any other prophet.

But what is humility? The book of Leviticus provides some insight into this question and shows the depth of Moses' humility. Leviticus is the name of the third book of the Bible in English. In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Leviticus is called Vayyiqra, which is also the book's opening word, which means "and [God] called [Moses]." In the Torah, the last letter of this word is written with a small aleph. Tradition tells us that Moses did not want to begin the Torah's third book with the word vayyiqra because he felt it afforded him too much honor and distinction. He was reluctant to have it recorded for all time that God directly called him alone to be the first person to enter the newly completed tabernacle, which contained the glory of God. As a testimony to Moses' humility, God allowed him to write the letter aleph in a smaller case.

Why is this significant? Moses was one of Israel's greatest leaders and regularly spoke with God face-to-face. He never thought of himself as greater than any of the other children of Israel, despite numerous suggestions to the contrary. His request to reduce the aleph demonstrates that Moses made himself small in the sight of both God and Israel.

Moses' action is the essence and definition of what humanity is. Humility is making yourself small in the sight of God, smaller in the sight of others, and smaller in your sight. Another way to understand it is humility is about occupying the right amount of space. When you occupy too much space, more than what God has allotted to you, that is pride. When you occupy too little space that is false humility, both pride and false humility are unsuitable for us. Many of us struggle with false humility. God gave His Son's life to purchase promise and potential for you. You have to occupy the fullness of your promise and not shrink into false humility.

And there's more! Friends, humility is the way to greatness in the Kingdom. Humility is the foundation of spiritual service. Genuine humility is making yourself small so that God can be great. Why? Because you can't be full of yourself and have room for the Lord in your life. And you can't be full of yourself and have room for relationships and serving others.

If you want to be an outstanding leader, if you're going to be like Messiah and Moses who embodied humility, you have to "humble yourselves in the sight of Adonai [the Lord], and He shall lift you up (James 4:10). As Jesus Messiah said, "God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth (Matthew 5:5 nlt)."