Uncircumcised Lips and the God Who Sends Text: Exodus 6:10-13
Introduction: The Glorious Inadequacy of God's Man
We live in an age of self-esteem, an era of self-help gurus who tell us that the power is within. Our culture is dedicated to the proposition that if you just believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything. The world tells you to find your voice, to speak your truth, to be confident in your own abilities. And here, in the middle of one of the great hinge-points of redemptive history, we find God's chosen man doing the exact opposite. Moses is not confident. He does not believe in himself. In fact, he is profoundly aware of his own inadequacy. And this, as we shall see, is precisely why God could use him.
The story of the Exodus is the story of God's absolute sovereignty clashing with the pretended sovereignty of man, embodied in Pharaoh. Pharaoh is the archetypal tyrant, the man who says "I will not let them go," the man who thinks he is god of his own little mud-puddle on the Nile. To confront this arrogance, God does not send a polished orator, a smooth diplomat, or a chiseled general. He sends a fugitive shepherd who has already failed once, a man who is, by his own admission, a terrible public speaker. God's strength is made perfect in weakness, and this is a lesson that runs like a bright red thread through the entire fabric of Scripture. God consistently chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
In this brief exchange, we see the raw honesty of a man overwhelmed by the task before him, and the unyielding authority of the God who commissioned him. This is not just a historical account of Moses' reluctance. It is a paradigm for all Christian service. It is a lesson in the kind of instruments God delights to use, and a reminder that the power is never in the messenger, but always and only in the one who sends him.
The Text
Now Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "Come, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the sons of Israel go out of his land." But Moses spoke before Yahweh, saying, "Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?" Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron and gave them a command for the sons of Israel and for Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
(Exodus 6:10-13 LSB)
The Unflinching Command (vv. 10-11)
We begin with God's straightforward, unadorned command.
"Now Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 'Come, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the sons of Israel go out of his land.'" (Exodus 6:10-11 LSB)
Notice the blunt simplicity of this. There is no negotiation. There are no suggestions. God does not offer Moses a range of options. The command is direct: "Come, tell Pharaoh." This is the nature of divine authority. It is absolute, total, and non-negotiable. God is the Creator. He is the King. His Word is law, not because it is arbitrary, but because it is the expression of His perfect, holy, and righteous character. When God speaks, reality rearranges itself.
The task is monumental. Moses is to walk into the court of the most powerful man on earth, the man considered a living god, and deliver an ultimatum. He is to command this tyrant to release his entire slave-labor force, the engine of the Egyptian economy. From a human perspective, this is not just audacious; it is suicidal. It is like sending a single, unarmed man to tell a dictator to dismantle his entire military. But God's commands are not based on human calculations of probability. They are based on His own omnipotence. The power to accomplish the task is resident in the command itself.
The Qualified Messenger (v. 12)
Moses' response is not one of defiant rebellion, but of honest, despairing inadequacy.
"But Moses spoke before Yahweh, saying, 'Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?'" (Exodus 6:12 LSB)
Moses presents a logical argument, an a fortiori argument from the lesser to the greater. He says, "The Israelites, my own people, the beneficiaries of this whole enterprise, they won't even listen to me. Their spirits are crushed, and my words mean nothing to them. If my own kinsmen reject my message, how on earth will the enemy king, the oppressor, pay me any mind?" It is a very human response. He is looking at the circumstances, and the circumstances are bleak. He has failed with the friendly audience; he is certain to fail with the hostile one.
But then he gives the reason for this failure, and it is profoundly theological. "For I am of uncircumcised lips." Now, this is not simply a poetic way of saying he has a stutter, or that he is "slow of speech and of a slow tongue" as he said earlier. The metaphor of circumcision is covenantal. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant, the sign that a man belonged to God, that he was set apart and clean. To be uncircumcised was to be common, unclean, an outsider, unfit for covenant service.
The Bible uses this metaphor elsewhere. Jeremiah speaks of Israel having an "uncircumcised ear" (Jer. 6:10), meaning they are deaf to God's word. He speaks of the "uncircumcised in heart" (Jer. 9:26), meaning their hearts are hard and rebellious. Moses is saying that his lips, his speech, are ritually unclean. He is saying, "I am not a fit vessel to carry your holy words. My mouth is common, profane. I am not qualified to be your spokesman." He feels that his very words are unfit for the presence of God, let alone the court of Pharaoh. He is confessing his own ceremonial inadequacy for the prophetic task. Like Isaiah, who cried out "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips" (Isaiah 6:5), Moses understands that the spokesman for a holy God must be holy himself. And he knows he is not.
The Authoritative Re-Commission (v. 13)
God's response to Moses' plea of inadequacy is not sympathy. It is not a pep talk. It is a re-statement of the command, now with added authority and a partner.
"Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron and gave them a command for the sons of Israel and for Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt." (Exodus 6:13 LSB)
God does not argue with Moses' assessment. He does not say, "No, Moses, you're a fine speaker, you're not uncircumcised." God simply overrides the objection. The issue is not Moses' qualification, but God's commission. God's command is what qualifies the man, not the other way around. God is the one who circumcises the heart, the ears, and the lips. The power for the task comes from the one who gives the task.
God simply re-issues the order. Notice the structure: "Yahweh spoke... and gave them a command." He doesn't debate the point. He doubles down on His authority. And He provides for the weakness Moses identified by officially joining Aaron to the commission. The command is not just for Moses anymore, but for "Moses and to Aaron." The command is not just to Pharaoh, but "for the sons of Israel and for Pharaoh." God is establishing a formal, legal charge. This is a divine summons. Moses and Aaron are now bailiffs of the court of heaven, sent to deliver a legal notice to both the enslaved and the enslaver.
The final clause seals it: "...to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt." This is the goal. This is the end game. And it is stated as a fact, not a possibility. God's command does not just point to the path; it guarantees the destination. Moses' feelings of inadequacy, while honest, were ultimately irrelevant to the outcome. God was going to do it, and He was going to do it through these flawed, weak, and reluctant instruments, so that no one could doubt where the glory belonged.
The Gospel for the Uncircumcised
This passage is a bucket of cold water in the face of all our modern therapeutic notions of ministry and service. We think God calls the qualified. The Bible teaches that God qualifies the called. We think our weaknesses disqualify us. The Bible teaches that our acknowledged weakness is the prerequisite for God's power.
Every one of us, before Christ, is uncircumcised in heart, ear, and lip. We are spiritually unclean, unfit for the presence of God, and unable to speak or hear His truth. We are by nature hostile to God, and our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. We are, in our natural state, far more inadequate for the kingdom of God than Moses ever felt he was for the court of Pharaoh.
And what is God's response to our condition? He does not leave us to wallow in our inadequacy. He gives a command. He commands all men everywhere to repent. And with that command comes the power to obey it. He sends not a prophet, but His own Son, the perfect Word, Jesus Christ. And through the gospel, God performs the true circumcision, the one "of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter" (Romans 2:29).
When God saves you, He takes your unclean lips, and like the seraph with the coal from the altar, He touches them and says, "your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." He gives you a new heart. He opens your ears. He puts a new song in your mouth. He does not call you because you are eloquent, or powerful, or have it all together. He calls you precisely because you don't. He calls you so that His strength, His eloquence, His power might be displayed in you.
Therefore, when God calls you to a task, whether it is raising your children, sharing the gospel with a neighbor, or standing for righteousness in your vocation, do not answer Him with a litany of your inadequacies. Do not point to your uncircumcised lips. Your inadequacy is the entire point. Agree with God about your weakness, and then look to the authority of His command and the sufficiency of His grace. The God who sent a tongue-tied shepherd to topple an empire is the same God who sends you. And His commands are His enablements.