16th.: Moses’ 5th Response to his Commission
After the previous responses could not convince God, Moses gave an obscure response.
The literal translation goes something like,
“O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand thou will send.” (Exo. 4:13).
It was like Moses got nervous. Speech deficiency took control.
Many bible translations render Moses’ garbled reply as:
“O, my Lord, please send someone else,”
Was Moses trying to avoid the work God gave him?
Yet, Exo. 33:12b seems to indicate that Moses tried to say,
“Please send someone to go with me; I don’t want to do this by myself.”
If the later point is correct, Moses’ request angered God, because God had already said that He would go with Moses (see Exo. 3:12a),
“And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses,” (Exo. 4:14a).
Nevertheless, God acquiesced, “And He said, ‘Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well….
And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words into his mouth, and I will be with thy mouth …
and he shall be thy spokesman unto the people…. And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.” (Exo. 4:14-17).
Angrily, the Lord told Moses he could speak to Israel, and the Egyptians, through his brother Aaron, but that in no uncertain terms, Moses was the one to go.
God's consent to Moses' request, indicates that there may be times when He would consent to some of our requests,
even if it may not be the best way.
“He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Ps. 103:14)