Uncircumcised Lips!

“O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?”

— Exodus 5:22

Moses had expected something very different.

After encountering God at the burning bush, he likely imagined that things would begin to fall into place. Perhaps Pharaoh would recognize the authority of God. Perhaps the Israelites would welcome him as the messenger of their deliverance.

Instead, everything collapsed at the very beginning.

Pharaoh hardened his heart. The burden on the Israelites increased. And the people Moses came to save turned against him.

In that moment, Moses retreats inward to the place of his deepest wound.

His speech impediment.

Even before he approaches God, his mind is already circling around it again. His question, “Why did you ever send me?”, reveals the posture of his heart. Moses slips into the position of a victim. He curls inward, focusing on his wounded self, allowing discouragement to take root.

Yet God does not respond with anger.

Instead, He patiently widens Moses’ perspective. God reminds him that His plans stretch across generations. The patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—received the promise long ago. What Moses is witnessing now is part of a much larger unfolding.

God is inviting Moses to learn something essential:
to walk at God’s pace,
to accept the route and its unexpected turns,
and to surrender the turmoil inside his own heart—his confusion, doubts, and especially his deep sense of inadequacy.

But Moses continues to struggle.

The rejection he faces weighs heavily on him. His spirit begins to break under the pressure.

“Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then shall Pharaoh listen to me, who am a man of uncircumcised lips?”
— Exodus 6:12

Now the language becomes even more revealing. Moses calls his lips “uncircumcised.”

Perhaps he is remembering the earlier episode when God was angry with him for failing to circumcise his son. That painful moment may still linger in his memory. Now Moses begins to connect that experience to his own weakness. It is as if he believes something in him remains unworthy, unclean, or insufficient for the task.

Wounded minds often make these kinds of connections.

Old failures, past humiliations, and hidden insecurities begin to weave together until they form a narrative that speaks louder than God’s promises.

But God does not abandon Moses.

He continues to work with him—patiently, steadily, over time.

Because healing rarely happens instantly.

It requires something deeper: the slow rewiring of the mind with truth. Truth that must be heard again and again until it becomes stronger than the wounds that shaped us.

God was not simply delivering Israel through Moses.

He was also healing Moses while doing it.

And perhaps He does the same with us.

Reflection:
Where do your wounds still speak louder than God’s calling in your life?

Prayer:
Lord, when my weaknesses and past failures begin to define me, remind me of the truth you speak over my life. Teach me to walk at Your pace and trust the path You have chosen.