Exodus 3 and 4 - Moses' Mouth

            One of my favorite stories is Moses and the burning bush. Moses had fled from Egypt after killing a man and made a pretty nice little life for himself in Midian. But whatever Moses thought himself capable of, God wanted way more from him.

            So God sends this burning bush, to kind of get Moses’ attention as well as let him know what needs to be done. An interesting thing about this bush, that Moses notices as well, is that “the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.” I think in all of our lives we should do our best to burn for God, so anyone who knows us will be able to see Him through us. But at the same time, we can’t burn so fast and hard that we burn out. I’ve definitely made that mistake in my life. Indeed, God’s word must be proclaimed to all who might receive it, but when we think about structures and time commitments, you can’t stretch yourself too far. If you do overcommit overzealously, you will not be able to impact as many people as well.

            Next God starts conversing with Moses (how freaking cool is that????), letting him know how to save the Israelites out of Egypt and how to get them to listen. Moses has many excuses, but God has an answer for all of them. Finally Moses says to God, “I am not eloquent… but am slow of speech and of tongue.” I’ve heard it said before that some people think Moses had a stutter or some kind of speech impediment. At this last excuse God is like, “Listen here buddy. Who MADE your mouth?! Who MADE you?! I will be with there with you every step of the way, and I will tell you what to say.” In other words Moses has the easiest gig in the world. But he still doesn’t believe the Israelites will listen to him and begs God to send someone else.

            At this point, the human rationale would expect God’s response to Moses’ behavior to be along the lines of, “Alright, Moses, I’m about to save your people from slavery, throw in some bangin’ miracles along the way, and you seriously don’t want a part of this? I’m doing all the work and you get to slap your name on it when it’s over. Alright, fine, I’ll just get someone else.” But God, being the super patient, merciful God that He is, tells Moses to meet his brother Aaron, and He will use the both of them to carry out His plan. “You shall speak to [Aaron] and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.”

            This story reminds me a lot of Job, when he has been basically reduced to nothing and resorts to complaining, but God gently reminds him who indeed made the heavens and the earth, who the lightning asks where to strike, who set the stars in the sky, and who set the oceans in their rhythm of ebb and flow. I think we can learn so much from this. No matter who we are, where we are, what we’re going through, simply remember that God is GOD, and He has created each and every one of us. He loves us sooooooo much and has such great plans for every last individual. How could we not be absolutely ecstatic to serve a God like Him??

Note: This has been taken from Exodus 3 and 4, and is a very loose interpretation of what I think the Bible may be trying to convey



Also if you want to watch something that will blow your mind and/or make you cry, here is a music video based on the last few chapters in Job.