FROM BONDAGE TO
FREEDOM: A Study of the Book of Exodus
Don’t let Your
Inadequacy Get in the Way
Exodus 4:1-17 SCC
7/1/12
On the one hand we are supposed to feel
inadequate. Our sense of inadequacy can increase our dependence upon God. On
the other hand, feeling inadequate can also make us hesitant and unbelieving.
In response to
Moses’ hesitancy to obey the call of God, the Lord overcame his contention (1) about
the unbelief of the people by the
demonstration of signs, (2) about his inability to speak well by the reminder that God gave him his
ability to speak, and (3) about his pretentious humility by providing Aaron to assist him. With chapter four of Exodus the
tone of the discussion changes rather distinctly. True, the discourse
continues, but the inquisitive response of Moses over the nature of God changes
to the protesting of his inadequacies in view of the nature of the task. “Who is
sufficient for these things?” The passage provides a good message on the idea
of God’s solutions for our inadequacies.
God’s power is sufficient for our inadequacies (1-9)
In order for people to believe the
messenger, they have to be convinced that the power of God is there. This will
be demonstrated in a number of ways from time to time; in Exodus it was
miraculous signs because it was in a foreign country and God wanted to show he
was going to undermine their whole belief system. But Deuteronomy 13 makes it
clear that signs and wonders by themselves cannot be taken to authenticate a
person as a prophet–the message must be recognizably God’s. Moses knows that he is going to tell these people some striking things
about himself and about what they are to do. What if they do not believe him?
He has a feeling of inadequacy that
people won't believe he has any authority, or that what he says should be
followed. So God gives him signs to perform v 2. God's servants must display
his miraculous power. When Paul wished to prove he was
authentic (i.e., called of God and doing the work of God), he had no letters of
commendation other than the believers he led to the Lord (2 Cor. 3:2).
The power of God seen in answers to prayer, spiritual growth, and conversions,
is miraculous evidences of God's power.
The signs that God gives to Moses are
pointed. Why these signs--snakes, disease, water to
blood? First, to the people living in Egypt this reveals that control over the
serpent by the hand of Moses signified that the servant of God had the spiritual
power of Egypt in his control; that the disease
signified God's ability to bring all kinds of hated diseases in the plagues as well as his power over human life; and that the
blood signified a destruction of the life of Egypt, water.
Second each sign revealed something about
the nature of God. They show power over the forces of Egypt, power over the
physical body, and power over nature. In fact, power over several gods of Egypt
that these things represented. There was
no area of existence that the Lord did not have under his sovereign control. These
signs would then authenticate the ministry of Moses to the people. But in doing
so they would also reveal the nature of the Lord. If the people did not believe
the evidences of their powerful creator and sovereign Lord, there was nothing
Moses could do in his own power to convince them. Jesus himself did several
signs but not everyone he went to believed him. In fact, when they clamored for
a sign, he gave none but what was in the Scripture. If they do not believe
Moses and the Prophets, he said on another occasion, they will not believe if
one comes back from the dead. So the only recourse for the servant of God is to
demonstrate clear proof of the power of God as he delivers the message of God.
The rest is up to God--it is his work anyway.
God’s servants are inadequate so they would depend upon the Lord
(10-12)
Moses line of protestation being shut
down, he takes another. Here records the debate over the ability to speak
effectively (4:10-12). God's servant must present himself as an instrument of
the creator. It makes absolutely no difference what character traits and
physical abilities the servant has--if God is sovereign. If God is sovereign,
then the man or woman he chooses to serve him has everything that he intended
them to have. In fact, one gets the impression that God would rather have a
frail and seemingly ineffective person through whom he could display his
sovereign power.
These
ideas are developed through Moses' claims of inadequacy v 10. He claims his
problem is speech (he now knows that he can do the signs, but he also knows he
has to explain things to the people). The uses, “heavy of mouth” and “heavy of
tongue,” heavy meaning slow and ineffective, provide a repetitious emphasis
that he is making. He is not an eloquent man. Perhaps Moses has been too long
at the back of the desert, or perhaps he is being slightly dishonest here
though subsequent passages show that he rose admirably to the occasion, and
indeed, the text of the Pentateuch shows tremendous facility with language. At
any rate, he still has not captured the point of the presence of the Lord, the
“I AM.”
Moses’ feeble argumentation is met with
rhetorical questioning: “Who made man’s mouth?” v 11. The implication is twofold.
First, the Lord is able to overcome all Moses' deficiencies. Second, Moses is
exactly the way the sovereign Lord intended him to be. So the rhetorical
question is a call for faith from Moses. God is the one who made the deaf, the
dumb.
The final rhetorical question is
designed to return to the theme of “I AM. So Moses protests, “I am not an effective
speaker.” But the LORD answers, “I AM” (not only “I am the LORD,” but “I am a
powerful speaker”). Again the promise of presence is seen as the divine
enablement, but here it is centered on the organ of speech. It explains what
the effect of this will be, “I will instruct you with that which you must say”
is used here for the idea of showing or instructing. God is therefore promising
that he will not only enable Moses to speak, but will give him the message as
well.
True eloquence in speaking is a
combination of divine empowerment and divine inspiration (as the content).
David also knew that the Spirit of God spoke by his voice. And Paul notes that
he did not come with eloquent speech such as the Greek orators had, but with
the divine message and the power of God. God expects his servants to try to be
effective, we would all admit, but not to assume that the success is based on
their effectiveness in speech.
When our inadequacy gets in the way God may use others to do what
He wanted us to do 13-17
Here records how the Lord, frustrated
with Moses' attitude (anthropomorphically speaking again), adds Aaron to the
work. On the one hand it appears that because Moses would not trust the Lord
totally for the success of the mission, he is forced to share the mission with
another. On the other hand, it may be observed that Moses still will do what
God told him to do: you (and he) will do the signs (v. 17) and you (and he)
will speak these words because I will be with your mouth and his mouth (v. 15).
It could be said, then, that the servant of God who lacks confidence may be
provided support through others; but of course it is not quite the same as it
might have been if God had displayed his power through Moses alone.
Nevertheless, the inadequacies of Moses do not in any way hinder the work of
the Lord from progressing as planned.
The Lord became angry with Moses v 14.
This is obviously not the wrath of God being poured out on Moses. Rather, Moses
is reporting for his readers the (human) kind of response the Lord had for his
silly arguments. Unbelief is the one sin characteristic of Israel--and
Moses--with which the Lord was “angry. Here it is followed up with the
selection of Aaron, the Levite. It is worth noting too that the Lord said,
"I know that he speaks eloquently” v 14. ‘Now the Lord selects something
that he did not really need for the work as condescension to Moses. It is as if
he is saying, "If Moses feels speaking ability is so necessary (rather
than divine presence), then that is what he shall have." Of course, the
golden-tongued Aaron had some smooth words about the golden calf! But Aaron
will be "for a mouth" for Moses, but Moses will be for God for him v
17. Here, what has happened is that the whole work of God has been removed one
step. Instead of God himself being with Moses' mouth, now Moses will be for God
to Aaron who will be for the mouth. Moses will be the intermediate agent of the
message rather than the spokesman.
CONCLUSION
Here are God’s solutions for the
inadequate feelings of his servants. The servant of God who recognizes his
inadequacy must demonstrate the power of God as his sufficiency.
Moses is a negative
example of faith response to what God is saying should be done. The idea of the
power of God is derived from the signs as well as the presence with the mouth,
both of which are repeated in the last section when Aaron is provided. Aaron's “help” in no way changes what
demonstrations of power God planned to convince the people--it simply diluted
the privilege of Moses. God
seeks instruments through whom he can display his
power. All they need supply is faith in him and a willingness to serve as he
directs. Paul’s discussions of sufficiency for ministry should be at the center
of the application.
God’s servants, who rightly recognize their insufficiency for ministry, must appropriate the power and provision of God as their sufficiency. By faith they must rely on his power, his strength, his enablement, his gifts, so that they can do his work. They must recognize that God made them the way they are and they must dedicate themselves to using what he gave them to do his work. If they will not do it, if they will not have God’s best for them they may find God using others to do what he wanted them to do.