Moses
The Second in the Series on Old
Testament Heroes
By Ed Winkler
Text: Exodus
3:7-12;
[7] Then the LORD said, "I have
seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry
because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, [8] and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the
Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a
land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,
and the Jebusites. [9] And now, behold, the cry of the people of
[10] But Moses said to the LORD,
"Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either heretofore or since thou hast
spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of tongue." [11] Then the LORD said to him,
"Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or
blind? Is it not I, the LORD? [12]
Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and
teach you what you shall speak." [13]
But he said, "Oh, my Lord, send, I pray, some other person." [14] Then the anger of the LORD was
kindled against Moses and he said, "Is there not Aaron, your brother, the
Levite? I know that he can speak well; and behold, he is coming out to meet
you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart. [15] And you shall speak to him and put
the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and
will teach you what you shall do. [16]
He shall speak for you to the people; and he shall be a mouth for you, and you
shall be to him as God. [17] And
you shall take in your hand this rod, with which you shall do the signs."
(Revised Standard Version)
Last week we talked about the Old Testament hero, Abraham.
We left Abraham in
Not everyone was willing to be part of such horrendous
behavior. When Moses’ mother gave birth to him, she put him in a little boat
and put the little boat in the
Even though he was raised as a prince in Pharaoh’s
household, he was still in touch with his ancestry. One day, he saw an Egyptian
overseer beating an Israelite slave. Moses stepped into the fight and killed
the overseer. The next day, Moses came upon two Israelites fighting. Moses
stepped in to stop the altercation. One of the Israelites asked, “Are you going
to kill me like you did that Egyptian?” Moses knew instantly that the word was out
and that he was in danger.
So Moses fled to Midian, which is
in current day
One day Moses was out with the sheep when he noticed a bush
that on fire. Those sorts of things can happen in the wilderness. What was
different was that the fire never went out. The bush just kept burning. Some of
us would probably have run away. Moses was a little more courageous or curious.
He approached the bush. Then he got a real surprise: the bush spoke to him.
God, speaking through the burning bush, told Moses that he
had seen how his people were oppressed. God told Moses to speak to Pharaoh and
tell him to release the Israelites. That must have sounded really crazy to
Moses. It was bad enough that a bush was talking to him, but the bush wanted
him to tell Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery.
Moses immediately tried to get out of the deal: “Hey, who am
I to speak to Pharaoh? He wouldn’t give me the time of day.”
God had an answer for that: “I’ll be with you. What more
could you want?”
So Moses tried a different tactic: “I’m not eloquent. I am slow
of speech and of tongue. You can’t send me. I don’t speak well. You need a
preacher for this job.”
The Lord wasn’t going to let Moses off the hook: “Fine. I’ll
send your brother, Aaron, with you. Now get going.”
So Moses went to Pharaoh and asked him to set God’s people
free. Pharaoh must have thought that it was some kind of practical joke. He
wasn’t going to free the slaves. Who would make the bricks and do the dirty
work if there weren’t any slaves?
What followed was one of the strangest episodes in the
Bible. Ten times, Moses went to Pharaoh and said, “Let my people go or bad
things are going to happen.” Ten times Pharaoh ignored what Moses said. Ten
times God turned loose plagues on
Finally, God, through Moses, led the Israelites out of
The Israelites were safe on the other side of the sea. The
Egyptians were a distant memory. Everything was fine, right? Actually, there
was just more trouble awaiting the Israelites. There were shortages of food and
water, snakes attacked them, and so did other tribes. And the Israelites were
rebellious. They sometimes resisted Moses’ leadership. Yet the Lord always had
an answer. When the Israelites needed food, it appeared. When the Israelites
needed water, Moses struck a rock and water gushed from it. God, through Moses,
healed them of snake bites and defeated their enemies.
Through it all, God and Moses kept talking. Finally, God
called Moses to the mountain top and gave him the Ten Commandments and a lot of
other rules for life. What more could anyone want? Apparently, the Israelites
weren't satisfied because while Moses was on the mountaintop, the Israelites
made a golden calf and had a big party dancing around the calf. God was so mad
that he was going to destroy the Israelites, but Moses talked God out of
eliminating his people.
Moses led the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years.
During that time, he talked to God and pleaded with God on behalf of his people.
One of the most heartbreaking ironies in the Bible is that Moses never got to
enter the Promised Land. Moses died before he could cross over to
Moses wanted a peaceful life as a shepherd, but God had
other things in mind and Moses lived anything but a peaceful life. Moses is
mentioned more often in the New Testament than any other Old Testament
character. He is a prophet in Islam. He was committed to justice. He was deeply
committed to God. He was deeply committed to his people. Moses never abandoned
the Israelites even when it looked like God was through with them.
I learned as a child in Sunday school that Moses had a
speech impediment and that’s why he didn’t want to speak to Pharaoh. I don’t
believe that anymore. I think that Moses’ “I’m slow of speech” was a sham.
Moses didn’t want to talk to Pharaoh, so he made up an excuse. Everywhere else
in the first five books of the Bible, Moses was eloquent and convincing.
One of my favorite writers, Eugene Peterson, points out that
Moses was a man of action. He was a bold, courageous leader, but he was also a
man of words. Moses shows us the power of words human speech. One expert on
language said: “speech is the life-blood of society.” Words are certainly the
lifeblood of Christianity. The Bible tells us what God said. The Bible tells us
what Jesus said. And the Bible tells us what Biblical heroes like Moses, Peter,
and Paul said. God, Jesus, and Biblical characters all spoke. We sometimes
criticize people for being “all talk and no action.” Sometimes, that criticism
is valid, but we should never downplay the important of words. The Bible is
full of words—it’s full of God and people talking.
In the Bible, words start with God. God spoke the world into
creation. At the very beginning, God said, “let there be light,” and there was
light. Creation continued from that point through words. God also speaks to
people. God speaks and invites us to speak. In the book of Exodus, God is
downright chatty with Moses. We can’t turn a page without God speaking to
Moses. God continued to speak to people. God spoke to special people called
prophets. We often mistakenly think that prophets only predict the future.
That’s about ten percent of what a Biblical prophet did. A prophet was someone
who spoke for God. God spoke to prophets and prophets spoke to the people for
God. God speaks to us. Our problem is more one of hearing than God speaking.
We can use words to help or to harm others. Our words of
encouragement can make all the difference in the world. We have all had our
lives enriched because someone gave us a word of encouragement. Words of
discouragement, on the other had, can be like turning off the electricity while
we’re watching TV. Everything goes blank. One of the biggest lies that we tell
children is, “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt
me.” Baloney. Words can hurt us a lot. One of the
greatest Christian saints of the 20th century, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, said that when Christians speak about each
other, they ought to do so truthfully, out in the open, and in the hearing of
the person being talked about. Can you imagine how different—and better—the
world would be if we followed that rule?
Words are also how we help form disciples of Jesus Christ.
The best way to help people in their Christian journey is to talk to them about
what God, Christ, and church mean to us. We don’t have to be experts in
theology or the Bible. We have a story to tell, and telling our story is the
witness to what faith means to us.
Telling our story is also our best witness to ourselves. One Christian writer says that we talk ourselves
into being Christians. In telling our story, we make it real for ourselves as
well as for others. We need to say out loud that we believe and what God,
Christ, and the church mean to us.
Before we take up Moses’ tactic and say, “I’m slow of
speech. I can’t talk to others,” we need to remember what God said to Moses:
“I’m here with you. I’ll help.” A district superintendent once told a story
that almost every preacher has experienced in one way or another. He was just
out of seminary and appointed to his first church, a church out in the country.
The day after he moved into the parsonage, he got a call that the leader of the
church, a well-loved and respected man, had suddenly died. The new preacher
jumped into his car and took off to meet the family. As he was driving to their
home, he panicked: “What on earth am I going to say?” Panic led to prayer:
“Lord, help me out.” He got to the home and found that being there with the grieving
family, listening, and saying a few words of comfort helped the family. The
Lord answered his prayer. He found words to bring comfort to
a grieving family—words that he didn’t even know that he had in him.
We humans are story-telling people, and the world is full of
stories. We Christians have the best story of all: the birth, life, teaching,
death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We don’t have to be eloquent or
complicated to tell that story or our personal story. Simple words are fine.
Sometimes, words can change a life. Sometimes, words can change the world.
© 2008 by Ed Winkler