“But Moses said to the LORD, ‘Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.’ Then the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.’ But he said, ‘Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.’ Exodus 4:10-13.

“And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” Luke 12:11-12.

God often asks His people to do things that are seemingly difficult for them as He wants to demonstrate that it is His power and not theirs that fulfills His plans. Here at the burning bush Moses, one of the great figures in the Bible, one so close to God that he spoke to Him like a friend (Exodus 33:11), showed a lack of faith. Despite God assuring him of success and giving promises of miracles to assure that success, Moses felt inadequate to the task assigned. Moses was naturally very humble (Numbers 12:3) but this seems more a crisis of faith due to his lack of ability to speak well. God assured him that He had made Moses’ mouth and would empower him to effectively speak the words he had for him to deliver to the Children of Israel and Pharaoh. In the end, Moses continuing lack of faith caused God to assign Aaron as his mouthpiece. Despite that lack of faith, God still was able to use Moses to do great things, delivering His people, despite his lack of faith. This is encouraging, weak in faith as we sometimes are, as it shows that God can even use us to accomplish His purposes, despite our inadequacies and lack of faith. If we can find faith even the size of a mustard seed we can move mountains (Matthew 17:20) because it is God, and not us, that is moving them.

Today, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit that Moses did not have. We are instructed not to concern ourselves about what to say when we are asked to stand before rulers and authorities or others to defend ourselves as Christians, the Holy Spirit will give us wisdom as to what to say. What a wonderful promise that God, as with Moses, will “be with our mouth”, the mouth that He created, to see his plan wonderfully fulfilled.