Exodus 4:10-17 comments: Moses' excuses

Exodus 4:10 ¶  And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. 11  And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? 12  Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. 13  And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. 14  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. 15  And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. 16  And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. 17  And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.

In spite of the miraculous signs Moses continues to make excuses for himself as to why he is not up to the task God has assigned. God counters with the fact that He made Moses mouth and not only that he made those who can’t speak, hear, or see. So, either way, whether you can do something or not do something it is of God. God tells Moses to go do what he has been told and God will provide the means and the ability. Notice here what Christ’s disciples are told.

Luke 12:11  And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: 12  For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

The heathen prophet, Balaam told King Balak;

Numbers 22:38  And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to say any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.

But, as inspiration given by God comes typically in the form of wisdom and understanding (Job 32:8; 2Peter 3:15) rather than word for word dictation, we can get rather disturbed when we find that people don’t often repeat exactly what God tells them word for word. Still, as it is said in Jeremiah;

Jeremiah 1:9  Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

This is the way the Bible comes down to those who believe it, not as the manual to your automobile or computer, but as God’s intention and design for you to speak, representing Him as His mouthpiece. But, this will become more clear later.

This is a difficult verse, verse 11, for most modern Christians. We have been taught that defects in our normal abilities including speech and sight are the consequence of genetics or disease. These are purely mechanistic causes. In other words, we were lucky or unlucky. Our handicap or our challenge is a negative thing that we are either ashamed of, perplexed by, or angry at or even all of the above. We are not taught to consider a specific purpose for our individual lives given by God. There is a norm and any deviation from the norm is considered an unhappy condition in which we find ourselves. In a particular instance in the New Testament Jesus was asked why a man was born blind.

John 9:2  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

This particular man was made and made a certain way so that he would be there when God wanted to perform what is a miracle to us, revealing Himself in a special way. This is much like how God prepared the Pharaoh of Moses’ confrontations to set the stage for His power to be revealed. We are so vain and egotistical that we consider our lives to be for ourselves and our things to be purely for our enjoyment. We find it hard to imagine that God made us just so tall, just so heavy, just so handsome, just so pretty, just so athletic, just so intelligent, and just so clever for a reason. Most of humanity has no interest in finding out that reason or even questioning God about it. They just either lament their bad luck or glory in themselves.

Moses still objects, kindling God’s anger which will be the cause of a scene in a short while that is very perplexing to Bible students, the scene at the inn. Moses is not trusting God in accepting God’s power and control. He has to be shown. Moses is on a bit of a learning curve here. Imagine how he himself will be in wonder at the things God will do. We often ignore that in our understanding, that Moses, as well, was seeing things for the first time, things he could not have imagined. God promises to let Aaron, Moses’ brother, speak for Moses. Moses will tell him what to say as God tells Moses what to say. Aaron will be the spokesman with the words provided by Moses and God. Moses will do signs with the rod in his hand.

God’s foreknowledge allows Him to take into account Moses’ free will so Aaron has been prepared to assist a Moses who is not acting in complete faith. This weakness in his faith will be Moses’ undoing in the end when he is denied entry into the Promised Land. But, God uses weak vessels of clay to accomplish great purposes as Moses has been prepared to deal with the Pharaoh as almost a peer by his upbringing in the court. All the characters have been prepared by God for what is to come.