Exodus 4:10-13 "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. 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? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send."
Excuses, excuses! How often have we heard (or spoken) this phrase over the course of our lives? When we, for whatever reason, do not want to do a thing, we can invent any number of arguments why we should not. This is seldom wise and is most certainly unwise when it comes to obeying God.
Moses spent a good deal of time listening to God’s voice. He heard and understood God’s command. God plainly showed Moses what He would have him do. He had even given Moses abilities that were beyond ordinary men to both encourage Moses and to assure him that the Israelites would believe him when he told them I AM had sent him.
Surely, after all this, Moses should be filled with thanksgiving and ready to do God’s will. Instead, we find him making yet another excuse. “LORD, I do not speak well. I cannot order my thoughts properly. You really do not want to send me.”
Before we talk too much about Moses’ lack of trust after all that God had shown him, we need to consider how many times in our lives He has been just as gracious to us. And yet, like Moses, we offered excuse after excuse why we were not a good choice to preach the gospel, lead the singing, offer prayer, visit the sick, or whatever else the Holy Spirit had bidden us to do. We need to be reminded Who it is that has given us our “voice.” This is true whether we are speaking in word or in deed.
God assured Moses that He had a purpose in everything He did. He can cause us to speak or to be silent. He can give us ears to hear or stop our ears that we cannot hear. This is true both physically and spiritually. We may not always understand why He is doing things the way He does, but our lack of understanding does not change God’s authority to do so.
If God sends us, He will be with us. He told Moses that He had made His mouth. Now, Moses needed to be about the calling God had made in His life. God promised that as surely as He had called him, He would teach him what to say and, by implication, when to say it. Like Moses, we come to the place to say, “Thy will be done (send whom Thou wilt send).” May we go today in absolute trust that God is with us to do His will!