Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Faltering Lips Sink Ships

Exodus 6:28-7:7

So Moses continues his "Why me? Send someone else" pleas and God reinforces his compromise-

Moses' excuse is faltering lips- why would they listen to me? God's response is that Aaron will be the voice. But the arrangement is a bit more complex than that.

Moses will be like God to Pharoah- and Aaron will be Moses' prophet. God hasn't given Moses carte blanche- He will tell Moses everything to tell Aaron- but he won't have to be the speaker. The speech teacher in me continues to be interested in the speech anxiety present in Moses' character, but even more interesting is the struggle with faith evident here.

Moses...dude...um, God's in your court- where's this anxiety coming from?

But it's there- and God helps him cope with it. But in a really weird way.

God sets up this hierarchy where Moses is "like God to Pharoah" and Aaron will be Moses' prophet. So- why is Moses even necessary in the process. Why not cut out the middleman and speak directly to Aaron since he seems to have been given the gift of gab?

Maybe it's more for Moses' benefit than for the fulfillment of God's plan. Maybe it's an attempt to let Moses see just what can be accomplished through God's will. But it's still odd.

Kinda cool to notice that once again God uses the younger (Moses) to rule over the older (Aaron). It seems to be a pattern for God to take the unlikely and use him to accomplish His goals.

And maybe that's why He uses us, too.