Trust and Obey to Speak

Exodus 4:1-17 

1 Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ” 2 So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”  He said, “A rod.”  3 And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), 5 “that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”  6 Furthermore the Lord said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. 7 And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.” So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh. 8 “Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. 9 And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land.”
    10 Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”  11 So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”  13 But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”  14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. 16 So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. 17 And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”

After meeting God and speaking with Him, after being commissioned to go back to Egypt where he was wanted for murder to command the Pharaoh to let His people go, Moses looked for reasons why he could not do God’s will.  He thought they would not believe the message because of the way he looked or sounded, that they would not believe that he talked with God and was sent by Him.  Therefore, God gave him miraculous signs to perform as proof, the rod turning into a snake and a hand turning leprous at will.  But God knew they would refuse to believe and refuse to listen and comply anyway, and told Moses one other thing He would then do (there would be more, but were not mentioned here yet).  Moses was to pour water onto the land of Egypt and watch it become blood on that dry land.  Moses again made excuses about not being eloquent or a good orator; God reminded him Who makes everyone to speak, hear, or see.  God would therefore do his thinking and speaking.  Moses asked God to find someone else, angering the great I AM, and God gave him Aaron to be his spokesman.  Moses was to be given the words to give to Aaron as God’s, and he was to take the rod for the signs as commanded.  He needed only to trust and obey.  How often we refuse to speak the way and when God gives us opportunity to do with the words of life, the good news of His work in Jesus Christ?  Let us learn from Moses’ example what not to do, and do as commissioned and commanded in faith and boldness (holding nothing back as Paul affirms in Romans 1:16).  We are to speak liberty to the captives of sin’s bondage.