Moses Was a 'Slick Talker'

Some of my friends in the ‘blogosphere’ may recall that I had been going through a bit of a time . I’ve wanted to communicate to my blogging buddies, an explanation. However, I just could not find a place to begin. Well, today is the day “God release (d)” me (Quoting Tamela).

Today, I was allowed to see what is so simple. I want to offer accountability, explainations and focus on reasons. Because of this, I believe the Lord was keeping me still. You see, I don’t have to discuss my problems. I do not have to account for where I’ve been. After all, I must accept, life is not about me. My blogging, is not about me.

But what about my difficulty in finding words for blogging? Again, the answer comes, ‘It’s not about me’. My blogging is not to promote any secular activity or to promote me. I began “Journaling for Growth” because; I have a passion for telling people of what the core message of the Bible is. And, incase I have not impressed this upon you enough; the core message of the Bible is God’s love for us and the love we should have for one another.

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a]
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.( NIV-John
3:16)

34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have
loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you
are my disciples, if you love one another." (NIV-John 13:34, 35)

The funny thing is: God knows I just have to run my mouth, or, in this case, explain how I did not have words to write. So, God gave me the project of explaining Moses’ lack of words to speak.

10 Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent,
neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of
speech and tongue."
11 The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who
makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the
LORD? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
(NIV-Exodus 4:10-12)

I spent some time in the past week, studying. My thoughts continually came back to Moses and his difficulties with Pharaoh. Moses wanted to protest and claim that he had never been an eloquent speaker. And God, said, I will give you the words to speak.
Allow me to unpack this for you.

Verse ten of Exodus four indicates a lack of confidence on Moses’ behalf, for he to be responsible for communicating on God’s behalf.

Acts 7:22 says,

“Moses was educated in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in
speech and action”.

(Now, since this is hindsight, “powerful in speech and action” could be a reference to Moses’ God given abilities of Exodus 4:12. However, I am going to treat it as a reflection of Moses’ reputation among the Egyptians, prior to God calling Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, for the reference to Moses’ ‘Egyptian education and wisdom’).

At first, I began to consider verse ten of Exodus four; thinking, ‘Moses was raised as an Egyptian and this would be a reference to having difficulty in communicating in Hebrew’. Is this why he considered himself of having faltering speech and tongue? Maybe. However, Moses would not go to Pharaoh speaking Hebrew. He would communicate in a formal dialect of Egyptian speech. According to Acts 7:22, Moses would have spoken Egyptian very well. In fact, Egyptian was Moses’ first tongue.

In examining the Greek to see if any special indicators would give ‘tense’ and ‘voice’ to the words in Acts 7:22, I found some help.

“Powerful” is the Greek word ‘dunatos’- (nominative [referencing subject], singular, masculine). ‘Dunatos’ means – To be able.

“To be able” in what? ‘Speech’ is what is referenced with a linking word between ‘speech’ and ‘powerful’. The linking word is ‘was’. (Don’t try and make sense of the use of the word was as a linking word. Maybe someone can offer an explaination for this. Because, our Bibles do not use the word “was” as a linking word. However, in the Greek, this is apparently the equivalent translation to ‘was’). The ‘link’ or ‘coupious’ gives power to the subject word which is ‘dunatos’ (powerful), and voice to the verb, which is ‘speech’. The link, ‘was’ is imperfect/active voice/indicative/3rd singular.
Now, this word used as a link, causes the word ‘speech’ to translate in a voice that says, or defines speech as: “mere talk, wordy show”.

Moses was simply saying that he was not quick to think on his feet. And, therefore would not be very convincing to Pharaoh.

What is humorous is when one considers the possibility that “wordy show” meant that God made Moses to be a ‘slick talker’. Moses spoke so quick and witty that he caused Pharaoh to appear as a dummy in the presence of his court.