Uncircumcised Lips

Everybody has a bible verse or two that you repeatedly come back to in walking as a Christ follower. For Momo, it is Exodus 6:12.

But Moses said to the LORD, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?”

Exodus 6:12 (New International Version)

She has never been a person of words and needs time to be warm with new people or new environments. Life at Shevet could be of course one of those challenges. We then always come back to Exodus 6:12. God made each one of us perfectly in his eyes with strengths and weaknesses, so we can have a peace in the way we are made. Whenever God uses us, He already knows how we can serve. If you are willing to look up and take a first step, he is willing to give us necessary help.

Even Moses, a great leader who led the Israelites out of Egypt, is complaining here to God, “how can I lead people with flattering lips?” In New Living Translation, it says “I’m such a clumsy speaker!” In New American Standard Bible, it says “I am unskilled in speech."

This time, God gave me a revelation to take it one step further. The original Hebrew, the adjective “faltering” is aw-rale'(Strong H6189) that means “uncircumcised, having foreskin.” Moses is saying that people will not listen to him, because he is speaking with uncircumcised lips.aw-rale'(Strong H6189I knew that the Bible talk about “circumcised heart,” a repenting God-fearing heart” but this one is uncircumcised lips. Doesn’t this mean that every body part, your lips, your hands, your feet or even your talents and special gift or even your weaknesses and problems need to be circumcised before putting in use, and then God will bless them abundantly to do His wonders?

「心の割礼（悔いた心、神をあがめおそれる心）」という表現はきいたことがあったけど、今回は「唇の割礼」。それで思ったけど、私たちの口も手も足も、また特別な能力や得意なこと、さらには短所や困ったところでさえ、すべて神様のために使うためには「割礼」が必要ということではないのかなと思った。決して自分のエゴや自分勝手な思いのために使うのではなく、ただ神のために使いたいという思いで（割礼して）使うとき、主はきっと素晴らしく報い主のみわざをなしてくださるんじゃないかな？