Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt? The time for Moses to assume the responsibility for which God had been preparing him had finally arrived. Without him being aware of it, God had chosen him for this special purpose, and all the happenings in his life that might have come across as mere coincidences had been carefully orchestrated for this particular moment. This is essentially what God is telling him in response to his reaction.
Moses’ reaction is not unique to him. It is a reaction that is typical of those that God elects for special missions. We encounter the same reaction in the call of the prophets. Prophets Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 6:50, Jeremiah (cf. Jeremiah 1:4-6), and Amos (cf. Amos 7:14). As a response to their ‘protest’ of unworthiness/innocence, God reminds them that he is the owner of the mission and that he will make them worthy of that mission.
Moses was within his rights to be scared of the mission on which God was sending him for it was no small task. It involved going to face the revered, almost dreaded Pharaoh. And with his recent crime of murdering an Egyptian, how could he risk presenting himself to Pharaoh let alone leading the Israelites out of Egypt? “I will be with you,” God tells Moses, “for it is me who will be fighting those battles” (cf. Exodus 14:14).
The call of Moses, as would be the call of the many prophets that would come after him, was a difficult one. It was a call to do what appeared impossible. It was a call that demanded trust from him. It was the first time he was encountering God. It was too much to ask on a first encounter. God assured him of being present to him and to help him succeed. But the first move had to be from him (Moses): he had to trust God.