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.