And Moses said to Jehovah, Ah Lord! I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant, for I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.
Moses has raised objections before, and God has answered each one. He holds back again — this time over what his own mouth can do. Does God's call depend on the gifts of the person He calls?
One writer notes the odd timing and points to what lies underneath.
Then Moses finds another difficulty. He says, "I am not eloquent" — one wonders that he took so long to find it out... If God sent him, what had that to do with the matter? The real difficulty is always this — one thinks about oneself, instead of the Lord. It is astonishing what a difference it makes when one can afford, and has made up one's mind, to drop self. It is clear that God must be the best judge. If He chooses a man who is slow of speech, who can say No? Still, no one should think this is said with the least disrespect for Moses. It is said for our profit and instruction, to guard us from acting the same part with even less excuse. God has set the wavering of so faithful a servant before us for that very purpose.
Commentators take this claim in two directions. One reads it as not matching the facts:
He protested that he was not eloquent, but was slow of speech (v. 10). This does not sound convincing. Acts 7:22 tells us Moses "was mighty in his words and deeds." God's answer to him was sharp and penetrating... God had made Moses just as he was, and had made him for the specific purpose of delivering Israel. Did God not know what He was doing?
Another reads it as the honest result of his years away from Pharaoh's court:
Earlier, when he left Pharaoh's court, Moses had been mighty in words. But the years in the wilderness taught him how little that natural ease of speech was worth.
God had already said, "I will be with you." Placed beside that promise, a missing gift is not a shortage at all.
God Himself had said, "I will be with you." Surely that was a guarantee that could not fail, and it covered every need Moses could have. If an eloquent tongue were necessary, what had Moses to do but to set it over against "I AM"? That inexhaustible treasury held everything: eloquence, wisdom, might, energy.
Moses assumed the rescue of Israel would turn on persuasive words.
He speaks as if everything depended on the persuasive words of human wisdom. He speaks as if he had to make his appeal to the natural man by human skill. How common the mistake, even in the Church of God!... This is why God often uses the "slow of speech" far more than those who are eloquent. In such cases there is no temptation to lean on the wisdom of men. Everyone sees that it is the power of God.
Whatever we secretly trust in for results does not stay secret; it prints itself on the work.
How hard it is, in the middle of what we call "second causes," to trust simply in God alone! All God's power, even for a Moses, is not enough without an eloquent tongue! Paul was wiser when he came to the Corinthians "not with lofty speech or wisdom," so that their "faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." Our idolatry of means shapes and marks our work.
The words sound humble. But leaving a post God has given is not the same as lowliness.
It is never the fruit of humility to leave a post God has appointed. The deepest humility does the opposite: it stays at that post in simple dependence on God. When we shrink from service because we feel unable, we show for certain that self is occupying us. God does not call us to service on the ground of our ability, but of His own.
The trap is that self-belittling can be as self-centred as boasting.
Many have finished with boasting and thinking they are great, and are now occupied with their littleness. But little I is as great a hindrance as great I. It looks very humble to run yourself down and stay in the background. Yet a very subtle pride often wears this dress of humility.
The excuse implies that God's own dealings with Moses had achieved nothing. No rebuke follows.
Can Moses still hold back? Yes. Unbelief has resources still. He hints that all his present communion with the Lord had not helped him, but left him exactly the man it found him... Can the Lord still refrain from reproach? Yes. This personal slight, as we may call it, draws out no rebuke. "I will be with your mouth" is the divine answer.
- Self — The real obstacle is not a slow tongue but a mind turned inward; the cure is to drop self and look at the One who sends.
- Sender — God does not call on the basis of our ability but His own. He made Moses exactly as he was, and for this very task.
- Sufficiency — Hold any missing gift up against "I AM." The shortage vanishes, because that treasury holds it all.
- Strategy — God often prefers the slow speaker, so that no one mistakes human skill for divine power.
- Patience — The excuse insults God's dealings, yet He answers without a word of reproach: "I will be with your mouth."
And Jehovah said to him, Who gave man a mouth? or who maketh dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? [have] not I, Jehovah?
Moses has just told God that he is not a good speaker. God answers with a question about who made the mouth in the first place, which turns the issue from what Moses lacks to who made him.
Moses kept looking for a way out. One writer notes that his plea does not square with what Scripture says about him elsewhere:
Despite the miraculous signs God gave Moses, he tried hard to excuse himself from a task he did not feel qualified for. He protested that he was not eloquent, but was slow of speech (v. 10). This does not sound convincing in view of Acts 7:22, which tells us Moses "was mighty in his words and deeds."
Forty years in the desert had changed Moses, but not only for the better:
We think he had not really lost his powers of mighty speech. The forty years of discipline in the desert had completely broken his self-confidence. But he had also become self-occupied, and so unwilling to answer to the call and commission of God.
God's reply claims that He Himself forms each person, including those who cannot speak or hear. If the mouth is His work, then a slow tongue is not an accident He failed to notice:
God had made Moses just as he was, and had made him for the specific purpose of delivering Israel. Did God not know what He was doing? Were the thoughts of Moses more correct than God's thoughts? God allowed Moses no excuse.
One writer traces the objection to a simpler root, and turns it back on the reader:
The real difficulty is always this — one thinks about oneself instead of the Lord. It is astonishing what a difference it makes when one can afford, and has made up one's mind, to drop self. It is clear that God must be the best judge. If He chooses a man who is slow of speech, who can say No? Still, no one should suppose that this is said with the smallest disrespect for Moses. It is said for our own profit and instruction, to guard us in case we act the same part with even less excuse.
Moses spoke as if the rescue of Israel depended on persuasive speech. One writer answers it, and finds the same mistake far beyond Moses:
He speaks as if everything depended on the persuasive words of human wisdom. He speaks as if he had to win over the natural man by human skill. How common the mistake, even in the Church of God! So eloquence is what even Christians desire — giving it a place beyond the power of God... This is why God often uses the "slow of speech" far more than the eloquent. In such cases there is no temptation to lean on the wisdom of men. Everyone sees that it is the power of God.
Trusting God alone is harder when we can see the means in front of us. One writer answers Moses' logic with irony:
How hard it is, among what we call "second causes," to trust simply in God alone! All God's power, even for a Moses, is not enough without an eloquent tongue!... Our idolatry of means shapes and marks our work. The work will show the workman.
God's question does more than silence Moses. It opens a door he never walked through:
It is worth remembering. When we have the Lord with us, our very deficiencies and weaknesses become an occasion to display His all-sufficient grace and perfect patience. Had Moses remembered this, his lack of eloquence need not have troubled him. The Apostle Paul learned to say, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me... For when I am weak, then I am strong." ... The Maker of man's mouth could fill that mouth with the most commanding eloquence, if such were needed. But the doubting heart would place far more confidence in an eloquent tongue than in the One who created it.
God's question did not end the argument. Moses pressed on, and the objection cost him:
At last the Lord is really displeased with His servant's readiness to object. "Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, 'Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite?'" Great humiliation! He might have been the simple and happy instrument of God in the mighty work. Instead God brings Aaron forward to share it.
- Maker. God answers a complaint about ability by naming Himself the Maker. He made the mouth, and every limit on it.
- Made for it. God made Moses just as he was, for the very job he was refusing. His weakness was not a mistake.
- Means. Trusting God alone is hard when we can see the means. Prize eloquence, and you give it a place beyond the power of God. The work will show the workman.
- Made strong. With the Lord present, our weak points become an occasion for His all-sufficient grace. Paul boasted in his weakness for that reason.
- Missed. Moses could have been the simple and happy instrument of God. He pressed his objection, and God brought Aaron in to share the honour.
And now go, and I will be with thy mouth, and will teach thee what thou shalt say.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he said, Ah Lord! send, I pray thee, by the hand [of him whom] thou wilt send.
Moses stands at the burning bush. God has answered every objection and given every sign, and still Moses asks Him to send somebody else. The Lord's anger answers him. Why did words that sound so modest provoke God, and what did they cost the man who spoke them?
Moses does not name a replacement. He simply asks that the mission go to any hand other than his own, and one commentator strips the polite wording down to its blunt sense.
That is, "Send anyone, but not me." Five times he raised objections to the Lord's commands, presuming on His forbearance and patience.
Each earlier objection had some argument behind it. Here the arguments run out.
But now unbelief has no more arguments. Its weapons have been beaten back and the arrows in its quiver are all spent. Now it stands exposed in its shame — naked, undisguised, with nowhere to hide and no excuse. It is the deep departure of the heart from the service of God.
Refusing a high place can look like modesty. Here it was not, and God's own reaction proves it.
We cannot call it humility to refuse the place God assigns us, or to refuse the path His hand marks out for us. Moses was not showing true humility, and we know it because "the anger of the Lord was kindled against him." This had gone past mere weakness. As long as it only looked like extreme timidity — blameworthy as that was — God's boundless grace bore with it and gave him fresh assurances. But when it took on the character of unbelief and slowness of heart, it drew down the Lord's just displeasure.
Shrinking back can even be a disguised form of its opposite.
The man who once ran unsent now shrinks from running at the command of God, and with the promise of His power going with him! Such shrinking back may look like humility, but it springs from being taken up with self. In the end we find that this self-occupation comes not from humility but from pride. Of all things pride is most distasteful to God, so "the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses."
God met him by giving his brother Aaron as spokesman. What followed shows where Moses' confidence lay.
Nothing was gained here in the way of real power. One mouth had no more virtue or effect than another, and it was Moses after all who was to speak to Aaron. Yet Moses was quite ready to go once he had the presence and help of a poor feeble mortal like himself. He could not go when the Lord assured him again and again that He would be with him.
God did not excuse him. Moses went — but not as the man he might have been.
Great humiliation! He might have been the simple and happy instrument of God in the mighty work; but Aaron is brought forward to share it.
The cost ran further than that day. The helper Moses gained here turns up again at Israel's worst hour.
It is very solemn to think about this same Aaron. He was given to Moses on the day Moses craved something outward and visible. And he was the very man who served the people in their idolatrous craving after the visible, when they saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain (Ex. 32:1). He is the same Aaron who made the molten calf and built an altar in front of it.
God's displeasure did not cancel His call. The new arrangement still guarded Moses' place with Him.
So the hesitation of Moses was overcome. But first the anger of the Lord was kindled against him, because he was unwilling to obey His word; and he lost much… In tender grace, however, the Lord keeps the chief place before Him for His servant Moses. He gives him the honour and privilege of being the channel of communication between Himself and Aaron… God's purposes cannot be frustrated, but we may suffer from our own stubbornness and disobedience.
Set beside Isaiah's response to a similar call, this verse becomes a warning about what we say when God asks.
Isaiah said, "Here I am! Send me." When God was about to commission Moses, the answer He got was, in effect, "Here I am; send somebody else," as Exodus 4:13 shows — though He overruled it and sent Moses anyway. Let us all, and the young Christian above all, give Isaiah's answer and not that of Moses.
- The words: "Send anyone, but not me" — the fifth objection, and the first one with no argument left underneath it.
- The root: not humility. God's anger answered it. This shrinking back comes from being taken up with self, and under that lies pride.
- The exposure: Moses moved for the promise of a feeble man at his side. He would not move for the promise of God Himself.
- The price: he lost the honour of being God's sole instrument, and the brother he gained was the man who later made the calf.
- The grace: God's purpose could not be frustrated — Moses still went, and still stood as God's voice to Aaron. We may lose much by hesitating; God loses nothing.
Then the anger of Jehovah 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 goeth out to meet thee; and when he seeth thee he will be glad in his heart.
The Lord had answered every objection Moses raised. Moses still asked Him to send someone else. Now the Lord's anger burns against him. The verse holds two things at once: real displeasure, and a brother already on the road to meet him.
Refusing a task can look like modesty. Commentators read God's anger as proof that it was not. God bears with weakness. He rebukes unbelief.
It is not humility to refuse the place God assigns, or to refuse the path His hand marks out for us. That it was not true humility in Moses is clear from this: "the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses." It was not humility at all. It had gone past the limit of mere weakness. While it looked like excessive timidity — blameworthy as that was — God's boundless grace bore with it and met it with fresh assurances. But when it took on the character of unbelief and a slow heart, it drew down the Lord's just displeasure.
If the shrinking back was not humility, what was it? One writer digs under it and finds pride. He also notes an irony: this man once acted when God had not sent him.
Once more, and for the fifth time, Moses wished to decline the honour of this commission from the Lord, as we see in verse 13. The man who once ran unsent now shrinks from running at God's command — and with the promise of His power going with him! But this is just how the flesh acts in every one of us... Such shrinking back may look like humility, but it really springs from self-occupation. And in the end, what produces that self-occupation is not humility but pride.
God names Aaron as His answer, but the answer carries a cost. The work goes ahead — now through two men instead of one.
At last the Lord is truly displeased with His servant's readiness to object. "Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, 'Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite?'" What a humiliation! Moses might have been the simple and happy instrument of God in this mighty work. Instead, God brings Aaron forward to share it.
Yet the loss came with an honour. The people would see and hear Aaron. Moses kept a place before God that no one could see.
So Moses stopped holding back — but only after the anger of the Lord burned against him for his unwillingness to obey His word. And he lost much. From then on Aaron would share the work with him. Aaron would even hold the most prominent place before the people, since he was to be his brother's spokesman. In tender grace, though, the Lord keeps for His servant Moses the chief place before Himself. Moses has the honour and privilege of being the channel of communication between God and Aaron.
The anger does not cancel the kindness. God had been at work while Moses was still arguing.
The Lord answered all of Moses' objections, and Moses still resisted. He does not want to obey, and pleads with the Lord to send someone else instead of him (v. 13). Here he went too far, and stirred the anger of the Lord against him. Could He excuse Moses? Not at all: Moses must go. Yet the Lord shows His compassion again. He tells Moses that his brother Aaron is already on his way to meet him, and will be glad at their reunion.
The strangest part of the exchange is what finally moved Moses.
Nothing was gained in the way of real power. One mouth had no more virtue or effect in it than another. It was Moses, after all, who was to speak to Aaron. Yet Moses was quite ready to go once he heard that a poor feeble mortal like himself would go with him — while he could not go when God told him, again and again, that He would be with him.
Company is a real help. Leaning on it instead of on God is another matter.
No doubt the fellowship of a brother is most valuable — "Two are better than one" — whether in work, rest, or conflict... Still, we need to know God ourselves, and to know His presence well enough to walk alone if we must. Without that, we will find a brother's presence of very little use. It is striking that Aaron — the companion who seemed to satisfy Moses — was the man who later made the golden calf.
- Refusal. Turning down the place God assigns is not humility. God's anger shows where timidity had turned into unbelief.
- Root. What looks like modesty springs from self-occupation, and self-occupation traces back to pride.
- Cost. Moses could have been God's sole instrument; instead Aaron shares the work, and Moses "lost much."
- Grace. The rebuke does not cancel the kindness — Aaron was already on the road, glad to meet him.
- Lesson. Moses would not move for the promise of God, but he moved for the company of a frail man — and that man later made the golden calf.
And thou shalt speak unto him, and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.
God had answered every objection Moses raised, and still Moses asked to be excused. So God gave him Aaron, and a promise for both their mouths — a gift, but not without cost.
The verse sets up a chain with God at one end and Israel at the other. One writer traces how each link works:
Aaron could speak well. God would let Moses speak the words of God to Aaron, so that Aaron might repeat them to the people and to Pharaoh. Aaron's mouth would be the instrument Moses used to speak to the people. Moses would be the instrument God used to speak to Aaron.
Moses had pleaded that he was not a good speaker. One commentator points out that this puts the weight in the wrong place, and that God's habit runs the other way:
How common the mistake, even in the Church of God! So eloquence is what even Christians want — giving it a place beyond the power of God. The pulpits of the Christian world are filled in this way with men who are not slow of tongue. Even believers who know the truth in theory are charmed and drawn by splendid gifts. They enjoy hearing those gifts used, apart from the truth being communicated. How different was Paul's thought... This is why God often uses the one who is "slow of speech" far more than those who are eloquent. In such cases there is no temptation to lean on the wisdom of men. Everyone can see that it is the power of God.
Aaron is a gift, but he is also a loss:
Great humiliation! He might have been the simple and happy instrument of God in the mighty work. But now Aaron is brought forward to share it.
One writer weighs what Moses lost and what the Lord still kept for him:
Moses' hesitation was overcome at last... but he lost much. From then on Aaron was to be linked with him, and was to have the most prominent place before people, since he was to be his brother's spokesman. In tender grace, however, the Lord keeps for His servant Moses the chief place before Himself. He gives him the honour and privilege of being the channel of communication between Himself and Aaron... God's purposes cannot be frustrated, but we may suffer from our own stubbornness and disobedience.
The strangest part of the story is that Aaron settles Moses when God's own promise had not. Mackintosh weighs how little Aaron added:
Nothing was gained in the way of real power. There was no more virtue or effectiveness in one mouth than in another, and it was Moses after all who was to speak to Aaron. Yet Moses was quite ready to go once he was assured of the presence and help of a poor feeble mortal like himself. He could not go when God assured him, again and again, that He would be with him.
Working alongside a brother is a real good. Mackintosh says so, then warns about this companion:
No doubt the fellowship of a brother is most valuable — "Two are better than one" — whether in work, rest, or conflict. The Lord Jesus, when He sent out His disciples, "sent them two by two," for unity is always better than isolation. Still, our own knowledge of God and our experience of His presence must be enough to let us walk alone if we had to. Without that, we shall find a brother's presence of very little use. It is remarkable that Aaron, whose company seemed to satisfy Moses, was the man who afterwards made the golden calf.
Aaron speaks words placed in his mouth by another, yet he speaks as himself. Stuart uses this to explain how the Bible's writers worked:
When Aaron delivered the message to the people, he spoke words put into his mouth by Moses. Was it mechanical with him? No doubt those who heard him could have said, "That is Aaron exactly." His voice, his tone, his gestures — all were Aaron's... So with the sacred writers. Each one shows his own characteristics and style.
- The mouth God made. Moses pleaded poor speech. Commentators answer that God often uses the slow of speech more than the eloquent. Then everyone sees that the power is His.
- The mouth God fills. The promise reaches both brothers — words move from God to Moses, from Moses to Aaron, from Aaron to the people.
- The mouth Moses chose. Aaron's help is grace, but Kelly calls it a humiliation. The work meant for one man is now shared. God's purpose still stands, yet Dennett says our stubbornness can cost us.
- The mouth that steadied him. A frail man calmed Moses where God's own promise had not. Mackintosh points out that no real power was added — only a companion as weak as Moses himself.
- The mouth that later failed. Company in service is good, yet the companion Moses leaned on became the man who made the golden calf.
And he shall speak for thee unto the people; and it shall come to pass that he shall be to thee for a mouth, and thou shalt be to him for God.
Moses kept hesitating, so God handed part of the work to his brother. Aaron would carry the words to the people, and Moses would stand toward Aaron in the place of God.
God speaks to Moses, Moses speaks to Aaron, Aaron speaks to Israel. Even so, Moses keeps the higher end of the line.
From now on Aaron was joined with Moses in the work. In fact Aaron was to have the most prominent place before people, since he was to be his brother's spokesman. In tender grace, however, the Lord keeps the chief place before Him for His servant Moses. He gives Moses the honour and privilege of being the channel of communication between Himself and Aaron. Aaron was to be a "mouth" for Moses; Moses was to be to Aaron "instead of God" — that is, Moses was to pass the message on to Aaron for him to deliver.
Exodus 7:1 names the same relationship with a different word: there God calls Aaron Moses' prophet. Older translations render our verse "He shall be your spokesman to the people," and setting the two verses side by side shows what a prophet is.
Perhaps we will find God's own definition of this word by comparing Exodus 4:16 and 7:1. In the first passage God says of Aaron, "He shall be your spokesman to the people." In the second, God says, "Aaron your brother shall be your prophet." Perhaps this gives us the clearest definition of a prophet according to the Word of God: he is God's "spokesman to the people." Very often God speaks of judgment or blessing to come, and then the spokesman speaks of what will happen in the future. But his first duty is to be God's spokesman, which very often includes rebuke, or encouragement. Always remember the most important thing for a prophet: he speaks for God, not for himself, or out of himself.
The change added no power to the mission. It gave Moses a human companion, and that is what finally moved him.
Nothing was gained in the way of real power. There was no more virtue or effectiveness in one mouth than in another, and it was Moses after all who was to speak to Aaron. Yet Moses was quite ready to go once he was sure of the presence and co-operation of a poor frail mortal like himself. He could not go when assured, again and again, that Jehovah would be with him.
Another writer weighs the cost in one line.
Great humiliation! He might have been the simple and happy instrument of God in the mighty work; but Aaron is brought forward to share it.
Losing the platform did not mean losing the private access. Everything Aaron said would have to come through Moses first, and the rest of Exodus bears this out.
Moses however was to be to him "instead of God." The Lord would still deal with Moses Himself, and Aaron would get all his directions through Moses. The rod that Moses had held in his hand now came back to him, as it were, from the hand of God, as a sign of the authority God had given him. The later history shows the fulfilment of all this. Again and again we read, "The Lord said to Moses"; and at critical moments the rod appeared in his hand.
God names Aaron as a brother before giving him a job. One writer traces that order forward to Christ.
Jehovah formally appointed Aaron to act as a go-between for Moses and the people, so he was Moses' spokesman. But his original personal relationship to Moses was that of brother. Jehovah described him as "Aaron, your brother, the Levite." Aaron was first brother, then spokesman... Christ was first Son, and then God's Spokesman.
Company in the work is a real gift. Still, it cannot stand in for knowing God yourself.
No doubt the fellowship of a brother is most valuable — "Two are better than one" — whether in work, rest, or conflict... still, if our own knowledge of God and our experience of His presence do not make us able to walk alone when needed, we shall find the presence of a brother of very little use. Aaron's company seemed to satisfy Moses — and it is quite remarkable that this same Aaron afterwards made the golden calf.
- Chain. God speaks to Moses, Moses to Aaron, Aaron to Israel — one message passed down a line, never invented at any link.
- Definition. Spokesman here, and prophet in Exodus 7:1, name one office: a man who speaks for God, not out of himself. Aaron was brother first, then spokesman — as Christ was Son first, then God's Spokesman.
- Cost. Moses could have been God's single instrument. His hesitation handed the public honour to his brother.
- Kept. He still held the private place — direct dealings with God and the rod of authority in his hand.
- Warning. He trusted a frail man where he would not trust God, and that same man later made the golden calf.