“‘Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go from his land.’ But Moses said in the Lord’s presence, ‘If they Israelites will not listen to me, then how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I am such a poor speaker?’ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them commands concerning both the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Doubt is scary stuff. It’s especially scary when it comes to the journey of faith. We’re not really sure what to do with doubt when thinking about faith. The two seem like opposites to us. Occasionally we treat them like they are oil and water and in ways that can actually be pretty harmful to people striving for one yet experiencing the other. Moses’ journey was in many ways a study in doubt and faith. We see it twice in this chapter alone. Let’s reflect together on it here and what it may have to do with our own stories.

Doubt can be infectious. A little doubt in a person’s heart can take root like kudzu and start to spread. Once it does, completely eliminating it from your life can be quite a challenge. Just when you think you’ve gotten rid of it, something will happen to trigger its growth again, and you’ll suddenly find it everywhere you look.

Doubt was one of Moses’ major struggles for a long time. From the very first time God called him to action, he doubted that God could really use him effectively. He doubted his ability to accomplish anything meaningful. He struggled mightily with the notion that he could speak powerfully and well into the kinds of situations God was sending him. And just when he had started to get his feet under him a bit, something like this happened.

What’s “this”? Failure. He spoke to Pharaoh and everything got worse. Now the people didn’t trust him at all. Let alone God. They didn’t want to follow him. They didn’t want to listen to him. Even when he gave them the reassurance God told him to set before them, they still didn’t want to hear it. If he couldn’t convince the Israelites to follow him, how on earth was he supposed to convince the most powerful ruler in the world to do what he wanted him to do? Especially when Pharaoh had already told him no in rather emphatic terms.

Israel’s doubts would prove infectious yet many more times in their story. Perhaps the most significant moment would come just before they were set to enter the Promised Land just as God had told them He was going to lead them. They sent a group of spies into the land to scope it out and get a sense of what God was preparing to give them. Ten of the spies came back doubting God’s ability to help them overcome the people already living in the land. Their doubts spread like wildfire through the people, and they refused to enter and receive what God was prepared to give them.

Moses doubted. Israel doubted. We have doubts. How is God able to do anything with us? Aren’t doubts like this disqualifying for a God who calls and even demands that we live by faith? Well, the truth about faith and doubt is that their relationship is more complicated than we generally understand it to be. Now, before you go thinking it, I’m not taking this post in the direction of somehow sanctifying doubt to suggest it is a good thing. Doubt in general is not a good thing. It is the opposite of faith just as so many imagine it to be. And yet doubt persists even in the hearts and minds of those who look to live by faith. Again, then, how is this not disqualifying for those who want to serve God?

The answer is that even though faith and doubt may be opposites, the presence of one doesn’t necessarily negate the effectiveness or existence of the other. This is because faith and doubt are inherently directional in nature. That is, they always exist with an object. Because of this, faith and doubt can coexist. The goal is not necessarily to completely eliminate the one in favor of the other, but rather to identify the correct object of each.

Moses here had significant doubts about his own abilities. They were lingering and persistent. Every time something happened that didn’t go the way he hoped or planned, he ran straight back into his doubts and complained to God that he wasn’t the kind of person He should be trying to use to accomplish His plans. In spite of that, Moses was growing to have more and more faith in God’s abilities to keep His promises. Thus, even when His doubts reared their ugly head, he moved forward in obedience to God’s command anyway. To put this more plainly: Moses’ doubts were in himself, but his faith was in God. This is a state of affairs with which God can work and accomplish much good.

Today, our culture’s answer to doubts about God is that we need to put more faith in ourselves. This is precisely the wrong thing to do. When our doubt is of God and His ability to do what He has said, but our faith is in ourselves, we are setting our lives on a course for disaster in one form or another. When our faith is in ourselves, we will lean on our power and understanding which will fail us every single time. The more faith we place in ourselves, the more the disaster will spread and grow. And, when this misplaced faith is paired with doubts about God, we will lean away from Him and His help. This is both ironic and tragic as His help is the one thing that can enter into the unfolding disaster of our lives and make a meaningful improvement.

Faith and doubt are indeed opposites, but when we have them aimed in the right directions, they can coexist in a way that enables us to rely ever more fully on the God who will one day wash away all our doubts when our faith is made sight. Even in spite of self-doubt that borders on crippling – like Moses had here – God can still work in and through us to accomplish incredible things if we will only lean into our faith in Him. The words of the great, old hymn ring true after all. “Trust and obey. For there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.”