Read with Me
Exodus 4:10-12 (HCSB)
But Moses replied to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent—either in the past or recently or since You have been speaking to Your servant—because I am slow and hesitant in speech.”
Yahweh said to him, “Who made the human mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.”
Listen with Me
Even though God had provided Moses with three signs that would persuade the Israelite elders that He had truly spoken to him, he knew that once he convinced them, he had to convince Pharaoh. Having grown up in the family of “The Great House” (the literal meaning of the word “Pharaoh”), Moses knew that polished rhetoric and persuasive speech played a huge role in moving Pharaoh to act on one’s behalf. Mere demands and loudness of voice would do nothing on their own.
Even though Moses had learned diplomacy and how to speak in several languages when he had been a member of Pharaoh’s household, that had been 40 years or more in the past. Since then, he had adopted the far less formal, and far more solitary, life as a shepherd. Not only had he not spoken Egyptian for literally half his lifetime, but he had primarily spoken the Midian version of Hebrew, and he had spoken that principally to his sheep! He simply did not feel that he had the verbal ability to face Pharaoh and his nobles.
But despite the power God had demonstrated to him already, Moses was still thinking primarily from a human perspective. Sure, God could do some nifty tricks. But he was talking about human abilities. Surely God couldn’t infuse in him in a moment something that would normally take literally years of school and practice to achieve.
God’s argument in opposition was based purely on the fact that He is the Almighty Creator God. He created the first human beings from nothing more than raw earth. That included not only creating Adam’s and Eve’s mouths, but their initial language as well – not a language of mere grunts and groans, but a fully developed language, capable of discussing issues of everyday life, as well as complex theological issues. God pointed out that he was not only able to give speech, but to take it away as well; to give hearing, and to make a person deaf; to give sight, or to plunge someone into blindness. To enable Moses to speak persuasively to Pharaoh would be no challenge at all.
God finished this answer with a direct commandment and a promise. Moses must go to Pharaoh. This was not a proposal or a suggestion. It was a direct commandment. But as he went, God would go with him, and He would provide him with all the words he would need to speak, as well as with the ability to speak them well enough to accomplish what He was sending him to do.
Pray with Me
Father, I can see in myself today the same reluctance and the same tendency toward excuses rather than obedience. Help me to trust you more, Lord, so that I can do all You have called on me to do, all You have commanded me to do, instead of looking for the perfect excuse that will remove my obligation to obey completely. Amen.