Divine Deliverance
Divine Father-Son Relationship
And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life. And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. Exodus:4.10-20
While the Pharaoh’s house and daughter preserved Moses’ life, it appears that nearly 80 years of absorbing such dysfunctional living compromised Moses’ Godward speech. Perfect verbal communication from God also may have made Moses more aware of his human speech deficiencies. Aaron, always a Jew, never in the corrupt Pharaoh’s house or headquarters, could speak his purer, surer mind and utter Moses direct-from-God orders more fluently than Moses himself. God allowed this delegation of voicing God’s commands after making clear that Moses was a God-figure to both Aaron and the Pharaoh. What went wrong in Egypt has much to do with lines of authority, so God very carefully clarified correct hierarchy in His dealings with Moses, Aaron, the Levites, the People of God, Pharaoh, the Egyptians, the Midianites, etc.
Moses was a de facto son of Pharaoh, having been raised in his house and trained in the ways of the Pharaoh ruling class (known for wickedness, slaving, whipping, starving and murdering their subjects). Moses was Pharaoh-enculturated, yet showed himself to be a worthy leader according to his Jewish lineage. Since he murdered an Egyptian found mistreating Jewish slaves, we know Pharaoh training had not produced wisdom to judge all matters peacefully. Banishment to the Midianites appears to be God’s sovereign way of relieving unsavory Egyptian influence. In the hospitality of Midian priest Jethro, Moses became a shepherd of sheep, husband for one of Jethro’s seven daughters, and a father. This outside-of-Egypt and outside-of-broken-spirit-Jewry enculturation appears to have produced a true gentleman God now would effectively use to deliver His sorely mistreated lambs suffering and sorrowing under the Pharaoh’s wicked hand. It is one thing to deliver a people FROM an intolerable situation that would have consumed them. But deliverance also demands promotion TO a better place, a better way. Moses now knew and practiced gentle ways. God would gradually give him wisdom commensurate to dealing with hard-hearted Pharaoh peacefully. He would refine Moses to become an instrument of God, fully able to prepare lambs of brokenness in the context of a barren desert to rise in faith emblematic of God’s Chosen. To inhabit a land of milk and honey, citizens also have to progress in spiritual preparation to fitly become milk and honey of God. The Pharaoh was an intransigent overseer dispensing hardness that would have extinguished the entire population of God’s Lambs. Asia Minor wilderness dispensed an environmental hardness that God progressively softened, that sojourners regain full faith in His providence. It would take 40 years, but a re-spiritualized remnant was produced that could become bona fide citizens of Canaan Land, not corrupted, destructive aliens.
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