Êxodo 4

Êxodo 4

Morris - Here is a direct claim that the human body was not developed by random processes, but by God's direct power. Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? "Some think this is cruel of God. Nevertheless the point here was not to analyze the origin of evil, but to show that God is so mighty that He can even call the mute, deaf, and blind to do His work. Moses’ perceived inadequacies didn’t matter at all.. If Moses was a poor speaker, was this news to God? Does God have trouble keeping track of who is deaf, who is blind, and who is mute? Does Moses really think God made a mistake here?. If Moses was a poor speaker, it didn’t matter—the mighty God said, “I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” By extension, God is sufficient for us, no matter what real or imagined inadequacies we have." (Guzik) Your disabilities can be used to glorify God as is vividly shown in the life of Joni Earecksen Tada. God mentions blindness as well as sight in order to show that every human being is called to serve him and this makes one think of Fanny Crosby (movie) who was blinded in early childhood, but was used by God as one of the greatest hymn writers of all time. No excuses. Let God use you, just as you are and He will! If God is the one who makes a person deaf or blind, then even these limitations can be used for his glory. Is it not I, the LORD? - Just in case Moses did not "get it" yet, Jehovah speaking to him from the burning bush reiterates Ex 3:12 “Certainly I will be with you" and that promise includes "when you speak!" Jesus promised His disciples (and applicable to us) that "when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father Who speaks in you." (Mt 10:19-20+) The point is that while He won't give the words (those were "revelation" given to Moses), He will by His Spirit enable us to speak, even as He enabled thrice-denying Peter to speak boldly on Pentecost in Acts 2+! NET Note on Is it not I, the LORD? - The final question obviously demands a positive answer. But the clause is worded in such a way as to return to the theme of “I AM.” Isaiah 45:5–7 developed this same idea of God’s control over life. Moses protests that he is not an eloquent speaker, and the LORD replies with reminders about himself and promises, “I will be with your mouth,” an assertion that repeats the verb he used four times in 3:12 and 14 and in promises to Isaac and Jacob (Gen 26:3; 31:3) ILLUSTRATION - A good example of how God can be glorified in someone’s disability comes from the ministry of Donald Grey Barnhouse, the famous pastor of Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church. Barnhouse had been conducting a week of services in another church, and there had been a good deal of banter about the host minister, whose wife was expecting their first child to be born at any moment. On the last night of services, when the minister failed to arrive, Barnhouse knew what had happened. What Barnhouse did not know, however, was that the child was born with Down’s syndrome. The minister was devastated. “Dr. Barnhouse,” he said, “our child is a mongoloid. I haven’t told my wife, and I don’t know what I’m going to tell her.” Barnhouse replied, “My friend, this is of the Lord,” and turning to the fourth chapter of Exodus, he read, “And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth, or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind … have not I the LORD?” The minister demanded to see the passage for himself, and as he studied it Barnhouse said, “My friend, you know the promise in Romans 8 that all things, including this mongoloid child, work together for good to those who love the Lord.” The minister returned to the hospital, where his wife was beginning to worry that something was wrong with the baby. He was able to say to her, “My precious darling, the Lord has blessed us with a mongoloid child.” After she was finished crying, she said, “Where did you get that?” and he proceeded to show her what the Scripture said. Later, when she called her mother to tell her the news, she said, “Mother, the Lord has blessed us with a mongoloid child. We don’t know the nature of the blessing, but we do know it’s a blessing.”On the following Sunday, when more than seventy nurses from the hospital attended that man’s church, thirty of them came to faith in Christ! (Phillip Ryken) God’s Mouthpiece Who gave human beings their mouths? . . . Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak. Exodus 4:11–12 Today's Scripture: Exodus 4:1–12 My nerves fluttering, I waited for the phone to ring and the radio interview to start. I wondered what questions the host would ask and how I would respond. “Lord, I’m much better on paper,” I prayed. “But I suppose it’s the same as Moses—I need to trust that you will give me the words to speak.” Of course I’m not comparing myself with Moses, the leader of God’s people who helped them escape slavery in Egypt to life in the Promised Land. A reluctant leader, Moses needed the Lord to reassure him that the Israelites would listen to him. The Lord revealed several signs to him, such as turning his shepherd’s staff into a snake (Ex. 4:3), but Moses hesitated to accept the mantle of leadership, saying he was slow of speech (v. 10). So God reminded him that He is the Lord and that He would help him speak. He would “be with his mouth” (as the original language translates, according to biblical scholars). Lord Jesus, You dwell with me. May my words today build up someone for Your glory. As God’s people we are His mouthpiece to spread His good news. Exodus 4:12 "Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say." Ps 25:4,5 Ps 32:9 143:10 Isa 49:2 50:4 Jer 1:9 Mt 10:19,20 Mk 13:11 Lu 11:1 12:11,12 21:14,15 Joh 14:26 Eph 6:19 Exodus 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries THE CREATOR OF HIS MOUTH WOULD BE HIS DIVINE TELEPROMPTER! Now then go - In view of the fact that God gives speech, Moses is called to go. This is not a suggestion but a command. God's longsuffering is being tested! Remember God's commandments always include His enablement, which in this case is described in the last part of this passage. Don't miss that this is the fourth time God had told Moses to GO - Four times he commanded Moses to go (emphasis added): “So now, go” (Ex 3:10NET); “Go and gather” (Ex 3:16); “You and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt” (Ex 3:18NIV) and “Now then go" (Ex 4:12) Moses had run out of excuses! And I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say - In Ex 3:12 God had said "Surely I will be with you," indicating His presence. And here He reassures Moses that He will not only be with him but specifically with his mouth. See God working through speech of others in Deut 18:18; Jer 1:9. So God is saying that not only will He enable Moses' speech but will give him the very words to speak. J Ligon Duncan - God is gracious with Moses, even after these questions. We’re on the fourth one now. God graciously and patiently promises emphatically to Moses to be his mouthpiece, to be his teacher, to be his supplier of words. God is promising to be Moses teleprompter. He doesn’t have to think of anything. God is going to supply the words that he needs. And it’s not the eloquence of Moses that He’s after. There are two things that stand out to me about this first section. (1) The first one is this. Simply, that God uses sinful and weak vessels to accomplish His purposes. Moses displays the same kind of weakness, the same kind of unwillingness that Israel has displayed and will display. The story of God’s servants in the Bible is not the story of sinlessly perfected servants. You can look at Abraham, you can look at Isaac, you can look at Jacob, you can look at Joseph, you can look at Moses, you can look at David, all of them, save one, are filled with faults, and foibles and flaws. God is the Savior. He’s the true Savior. Moses is His instrument. But it’s not through Moses’ courage, it’s not through Moses’ eloquence, it’s not through Moses’ native abilities that the people of God are going to be saved. So even in this instance of Moses failure of faith God is just reminding us again that in the final analysis it’s He who saves us. (2) Secondly, God is showing to us here that His message is powerful apart from the way that it is delivered. We live in a culture where the method is the message. We care more about the way you deliver the information, than the information itself. We want it snappy. We want it easy. We want it accessible. We’d like it with a tune, and maybe with a video as well. God, however, gives us words which in and of themselves are powerful (1 Cor 1:18, 1 Cor 2:4, 1 Th 1:5, Heb 1:3). They are His words. They are creative. They never return void (Isa 55:11). And usually He deliberately delivers them to us without any flashiness, without any eloquence. You know, it’s interesting, we are told that Egyptian magicians were usually thought to be very eloquent in their speech, and it seems here that God has deliberately chosen an ineloquent spokesman so that the message stands out more than the messenger. And so that the message itself is not lost in eloquence, but stands out more starkly. Paul, himself, having been thought of by the Corinthians as not much of a preacher, understood this very point. Turn with me to I Corinthians, chapter 1. Paul says this: "Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech that the cross of Christ should not be made void." Notice there that Paul suggests that cleverness of speech can actually make void the cross of Christ, can drown it out, can garble the message. It’s not to be delivered in cleverness of speech, for the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And so he goes on to say, "We preach Christ crucified," verse 23, "to the Jews, a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." This plain-spoken man, this ineloquent man, because he speaks the truth, in the very simplicity of that speaking will exalt God’s sovereignty, he will rebuke man’s vanity, he will make the truth less palatable to those who are wise in their own eyes, and he will make the truth more easily graspable by the humble. And all by choosing an ineloquent messenger. Listen to what the Jewish commentator on this passage says: Whatever the circumstances of Moses in eloquence, whatever caused it, whatever Moses was referring to, whatever the circumstances, it is certain that the underlying idea is that prothetic eloquence is not a native talent, but an endowment granted for a special purpose. The message originates with God, not the prophet. I often tell seminarians that the ones who are most natively gifted in their speaking abilities are the ones who will have to work hardest not to get out in front of the word. It is not the messenger. It is not the method. It is the message. Moses, in and of himself, reflects the weakness of God’s servants, and so the sovereignty of God in salvation, and he reminds us that God’s message is powerful in and of itself.(Exodus 4:10-17 A Spokesman for Moses) We see this same truth in the NT in Lk 12:12 and Jn 14:26 Now Go! Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say. —Exodus 4:12 (niv) Today's Scripture & Insight: Exodus 4:10-17 More than 10,000 evangelists and Christian leaders sat in a giant auditorium in Amsterdam in 1986 listening to world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham. I sat among them, listening as he narrated some of his experiences. Then, to my surprise, he said, “Let me tell you: every time I stand before the congregation of God’s people to preach, I tremble and my knees wobble!” What! I wondered. How can such a great preacher who has enthralled millions with his powerful sermons exhibit trembling and wobbling knees? Then he went on to describe not fear and stage fright, but intense humility and meekness as he felt inadequate for the daunting task to which God had called him. He relied on God for strength, not on his own eloquence. Moses felt inadequate when God sent him to deliver the enslaved Israelites from their 400-year captivity in Egypt. Moses pleaded with the Lord to send someone else, with the excuse that he had never been a good speaker (see Ex. 4:10,13). We may have similar fears when God calls us to do something for Him. But His encouragement to Moses can also spur us on: “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (v.12 niv). As Billy Graham said that day, “When God calls you, do not be afraid of trembling and wobbling knees, for He will be with you!” By: Lawrence Darmani Speak What He Teaches