You Don’t Have to Be Eloquent (Exodus 6)

Exodus 6:12 12 And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?

Moses is in a leadership crisis. God has clearly called him and is continually commanding him to go speak to Pharaoh. But Moses is having little fruit and lots of doubts and fears. The Israelite people are not listening to him, so, he reasons, how will Pharaoh listen if his own people won’t?

He brings up the fact that he has “uncircumcised” lips in 6:12 and 6:30, which basically means his lips are unclean and unacceptable. This is connected to his statement in 4:10 where he says, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent…” Moses feels that if he was a better speaker with more eloquence and smoother words, he would be more effective.

Maybe he had some kind of speech impediment or a stutter. Maybe he felt inadequate in the language of the Hebrews, having spent little time with them growing up. But regardless, he felt he was unable to do the job, and he understood the people’s failure to listen to be a failure on his part as a speaker.

For all of us who at times feel that we are unqualified or lack the type of personality, ability, or skill necessary to do God’s work, may Moses’ example be of help to us. May we see that God deliberately chooses individuals to work for Him, that He knows what He is doing, and any weakness we might have is no match for God’s power to work through that weakness.