“And Moses said unto the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.”
When God called Moses to go to His people and lead them out of slavery in Egypt, Moses tried repeatedly to give reasons as to why he was not the one: “Who am I, that I should go forth...?”, “They shall say to me, What is His Name? What shall I say to them?”, “But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say; the Lord hath not appeared unto thee.” His final protestation was that he was slow of speech, and therefore not fit to lead God’s people, much less speak for Him.
Many have surmised that Moses stuttered or had a type of speech impediment. Rabbi Mohliver of Byalystok taught that God chose Moses, at least in part, for this very fact; that a man of eloquent speech would enter into a long disputation with Pharaoh about the evils of slavery, the necessity of emancipation, the importance of his peoples’ traditions, the unassailable truth of one true God versus the Egyptian false pantheon, etc, and thus would have been entangled in an on-going debate, for which the end result would have been nothing. Instead, because Moses could only pronounce a few words without difficulty, he said very plainly, “Let my people go.”
Whether or not this is the case, there is another point that should be considered. Today, when we speak of a person’s career, it typically spans from 20 to 40 years. Moses’ calling involved his entire life’s experiences. Having lived to the age of 120 years, his life can be divided into three distinct 40 year spans. His first 40 years were as Pharaoh’s son, raised in opulence in royal Egyptian customs, privately educated by her best tutors. The next 40 years were the exact opposite. Fleeing Egypt after having killed a slave master who was beating one his fellow Israelites, he would spend the next 40 years as a foreigner tending sheep in a desolate landscape. At 80 years of age, he would begin his calling to now tend and lead an entire nation via a miraculous manifestation of God on a mountainside. All of his prior life, from the highest to the lowest conditions, God had formed him into the man, (with all of his strengths and weaknesses), to lead them.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find me when you seek Me with all your heart,” Jeremiah 29:11-13.
When we look at the vicissitudes of our own lives, we tend to focus upon the better times, without realizing that our hardships formed us as much, or more, than our halcyon days.
God tells us that this earth is not our natural home, rather it is that which awaits in heaven eternal. In the interim, we are being prepared, through both our God-given strengths and weaknesses, to serve Him. May we do so to His glory.
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