Shrinking from Duty

Notes

When Moses said to the Lord, "Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou shouldst send," he indirectly charged God with not knowing whom he ought to send. If the Lord had not seen that Moses was the best man for the place, he would not have selected him. While God does not want a man to run when he has not been sent (see Jer. 23:21), he does want a man to go when he sends him. If God indicates that he wants a man to do a certain work, that is sufficient evidence that he will sustain him in that work. It is a terrible thing to refuse to obey the Lord. To beg off from labor to which one has been appointed, is not always humility. It may be an evidence of pride or stubbornness. This case under consideration may naturally call to the minds of many the case of Jonah, although Jonah was not like Moses except in that he did not want to do what the Lord wanted him to do. The motives of the two men were different. The teacher, however, who exhausts the lesson before the allotted time has expired, will do well to call attention to the case of Jonah, and of others that come to his mind, as different phases of this shrinking from duty.

Very often people who plead inability to do a certain work in the church or Sabbath-school, to which they are called, think that their refusal is an evidence of their humility, when, in fact, it is an evidence of nothing but pride. They fear that if they should take hold of it, they might make mistakes; and that people might not think so much of them in consequence. And so, in order to avoid possible criticism by men, they are content to be drones, and to risk the displeasure of God. That is one of the worst kinds of pride