I believe the Lord has convinced Moses that He is powerful enough to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, but Moses thinks he himself is not the best choice to lead the people when the Lord brings them out. Today Moses points out the fact that he is not gifted in speaking to groups. Making speeches is not something that comes natural to him. Some scholars believe he actually had a speech impediment but other scholars reject this theory by quoting Acts 7:22 in which it is said that Moses "was powerful in speech and in action". I don't know whether he just wasn't a good conversationalist or whether he had a stutter. It doesn't matter because the real problem is that he doesn't think the issue can be overcome. This means that he thinks it depends on his own ability to overcome the issue when it actually depends on the Lord's ability.
The Lord has just finished demonstrating miraculous signs Moses is to use to convince the Israelites that God has truly sent him to them. When the Lord concludes His demonstration, Moses brings up one more objection against going back to Egypt and announcing that he is the man to deliver the Israelites from slavery. "But Moses said, 'Pardon Your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.'" (Exodus 4:10)
He says, "Excuse me, Lord, but You know I've never had the gift of gab. Up until this day I've never had a way with words and since You and I have been standing here conversing with each other I've not suddenly been blessed with persuasive oratory powers. I'm not the guy anybody calls on to make toasts at weddings. I'm no politician either; I don't enjoy getting up on a soapbox and rallying the crowd. I'm a man of few words. I'm not quick to think of a witty comeback. I have to mull things over in my mind before anything comes out of my mouth. Back in the day when I visited my people in the land of Goshen and saw their misery, I didn't intend to get myself elected as their leader by spouting pretty words. I was going to get their attention by being a man of action. I was rough and tough and youthful, a general in Pharaoh's army, and I intended to lead my people to victory through physical might, not by the power of the spoken word. I'm sorry, Lord. I've listened to and respected everything You've had to say. I believe You are powerful enough to rescue my people. I believe You are going to do everything You say You are going to do. I just think You need to choose somebody else to be Your spokesperson. I don't have what it takes. You need somebody who can use grand figures of speech to stir up a crowd. You need somebody who can debate with Pharaoh and get the best of him. I'm not Your guy. I wish I was, but I'm not."
A new song came out not long ago called "Nobody" and it's by one of my favorite contemporary Christian music groups, Casting Crowns. In the lyrics it says, "Moses had stage fright." We can see that he does, and his stage fright is brought on by focusing on his own abilities (or lack thereof) and by not focusing on the Lord's abilities. Is Moses anybody without the Lord? Is anyone? The power comes from the Lord, not from ourselves. As the saying goes, "God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called." Moses is worrying about letting the Lord down, as if the mighty work of the Lord depends upon the talent of Moses. It doesn't. Moses is the Lord's chosen vessel through which to display His mighty power in the land of Egypt. All of us who belong to the Lord are His chosen vessels through which He will show His love and power and saving grace to the world around us, as the Apostle Paul pointed out when speaking of his own weaknesses and of the other apostles' human frailties: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." (2 Corinthians 4:7) So we see that perhaps the Lord chose Moses because of his lack of eloquence and not in spite of it. What can a common clay jar do? Not much, except contain and pour out whatever is stored within it. That's all it's designed to do. That's all it needs to do. We are the Lord's jars of clay and the ministry we are called to perform is simply to let Him fill us up (with His Spirit, with love, with grace, with mercy, with the gospel message) and let Him pour us out on a thirsty world that desperately needs Christ.
The Lord hears Moses' objections and reminds him of His promise to be with him. Moses isn't going to Egypt in his own power. He's going in the Lord's power. "The Lord said to him, 'Who gave human beings their mouths? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.'" (Exodus 4:11-12) The Lord says, "I know what I'm doing. I didn't make a mistake when I called you for this mission. It doesn't matter whether or not public speaking comes naturally to you. Can the One who created your mouth not tell it what to say?"
Moses is still struggling. His faith in the Lord isn't yet strong enough to overcome his lack of faith in himself. He can't see that he doesn't need faith in himself as long as he has faith in the Lord. In fact, faith in oneself is usually an impediment to doing anything great for the Lord, for self-reliance tends to make us prideful and overconfident. Pride and overconfidence makes us lazy in our relationship with the Lord because we fail to lean on Him in everything we do, instead counting on ourselves to get the job done through our own human ingenuity and strength. The Lord can't use someone who is puffed up with pride but instead prefers to work with those who are humble, as He says time and time again in the Scriptures. There's nothing wrong with knowing it's going to take more than our own strength and smarts to get a job done, as long as we count on the Lord to make up for what we lack. Moses is so afraid of messing up and thinks of himself as such a "nobody" that he doesn't yet have the faith to believe God can make him into a "somebody". He thinks not even the Lord can make him a success. Moses doesn't want to accept this calling on his life. He tries his best to politely and respectfully turn down the Lord's invitation to be a part of the mighty work He plans to perform for the Israelites. "But Moses said, 'Pardon Your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.'" (Exodus 4:13)
There have been times in my life when I've pleaded with the Lord, "Don't ask me to do this! I don't want to. I'm not willing. I'm not cut out for it." The things the Lord calls us to do may not include speaking to large crowds or doing things where we're in the eyes of the public. I recall a time in my life when it seemed like almost everything was going wrong. And those things went wrong for a long time. I sensed the Lord intended to use my difficulties to do something new and big in my life but I wasn't willing to endure the difficulties to get to whatever He had in store with me. I said to Him, "Lord, I don't know where this is going, but I don't want to go there. I've never asked You for anything special. I've never wanted anything more than an ordinary life. You gave me pretty much all I ever asked for and I was content with it. Why are You disturbing me? What are You training me for through these unpleasant circumstances? I don't want to do whatever it is. Call someone else. I just want my ordinary life back." And you know what He said to me? "An ordinary life isn't good enough for a child of Mine. I want to give you an extraordinary life! And I can't give you an extraordinary life by leaving you in your comfort zone." How does the Lord plan to use those experiences I endured? Well, He certainly may never call me to speak in front of crowds like Moses or the apostles. He may never ask me to do anything that much of anyone ever notices. But He's done something in my heart. He taught me I can trust Him to make up for what I lack. He's taught me that the power to accomplish anything worthwhile comes from Him and not from myself. And as I've said before, I wouldn't be studying the Bible with you right now if I hadn't endured those dark years. I wouldn't love the Lord as much as I do, and I wouldn't have so much passion for His holy word, and I wouldn't be able to tell you that when He says, "My grace is sufficient," His grace really is sufficient. Because of those long dark years of difficulty I can say what Jeremiah said, "His word is in my heart like a fire." (Jeremiah 20:9)
The Lord didn't let me get away with saying, "Go to someone else with whatever it is You're doing. Leave me to my comfortable, ordinary life." I'm glad He didn't. He's not going to let Moses get away with it either, but because Moses can't find it within himself to fully surrender his will to the Lord's he is going to miss out on some of the blessings and honor and authority that could have been his alone as he leads the people out of Egypt and across the wilderness. He's going to keep on making excuses and wasting time until the Lord grants him a helper in order to get him moving. Comforting as the thought of a helper may be in this moment, Moses is going to have moments over the next forty years when he'll see he'd have been better off accepting the commission of being the sole human leader of the children of Israel. Instead he'll share that authority and it won't always be the best situation for him, for his helper, or for the Israelites.
"Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and He said, 'What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.'" (Exodus 4:14-17) The Lord knew all along that Moses would object to becoming His spokesperson. That's why He arranged to speak to Moses at the very time when He also arranged for Aaron to be on his way to visit Moses. But knowing that Moses would refuse to fully accept his calling doesn't make the Lord any less angry that Moses is missing out on the fullness of the blessings that could have been his. I don't think the Lord is so much angry at Moses as He is angry for Moses. It upsets the Lord when He can't give us all the blessings He wants to give us, but so often in life we deflect His blessings by not being willing and obedient.
I'll give you a little example from my childhood to illustrate my point. I've always been like a Chatty Cathy doll. I love everything about language, whether it's spoken or written. I like to roll the sound of words around in my head and I delight in the way words look when written on a page. As a child I loved talking so much that I could never shut up even when it was in my best interests. So when my parents or a teacher asked me to be quiet for a while in exchange for a special treat, I couldn't do it. I'd miss out on the special treat because I wasn't willing and obedient. I frequently missed out on special blessings because I couldn't do what I was asked and that's Moses' problem in our study today. He'll receive some of the blessings the Lord wants to give him because he does believe in the Lord and is going to obey a lot of the instructions he'll be given during the rest of his life. But he's not going to receive all of the blessings the Lord wanted to give him. He'll have to share them with his brother Aaron. The Lord would have called Aaron to be the chief speaker if He'd wanted Aaron to be the chief speaker, but instead He called Moses. But since Moses isn't willing to be the chief speaker he won't receive all the blessings that could have been his if he'd simply said, "Yes, Lord. I'll do whatever you say."
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