July 13, 2025 - Moses' Uncircumcised Lips (Exodus 6:9-30)

Moses' Uncircumcised Lips (Exodus 6:9-30)

Rev. Myung-Sin Choi

9 So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage. 10 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 11 “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land.” 12 And Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, “The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” 13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them a command for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. The Family of Moses and Aaron 14 These are the heads of their fathers’ houses: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the families of Reuben. 15 And the sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon. 16 These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. And the years of the life of Levi were one hundred and thirty-seven. 17 The sons of Gershon were Libni and Shimi according to their families. 18 And the sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. And the years of the life of Kohath were one hundred and thirty-three. 19 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of Levi according to their generations. 20 Now Amram took for himself Jochebed, his father’s sister, as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty-seven. 21 The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri. 22 And the sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan, and Zithri. 23 Aaron took to himself Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Nahshon, as wife; and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 24 And the sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the families of the Korahites. 25 Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took for himself one of the daughters of Putiel as wife; and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites according to their families. 26 These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.” 27 These are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt. These are the same Moses and Aaron. Aaron Is Moses’ Spokesman 28 And it came to pass, on the day the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, 29 that the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “I am the Lord. Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.” 30 But Moses said before the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me?”

Introduction

This is a story from the pilgrim’s progress and Christian enters a large room that symbolizes the human heart. In that room, there was dust that was made full of human sins so with a dust pan and broom, this person was trying to brush all of the dust out but the dust kept getting bigger and bigger. This shows an important symbolism here. When a problem arises, when you try to judge it for yourself, this is the situation that you will face. When you face a problem, how will you try to solve it? You need to hold onto the method through today’s sermon. You need to use water so that you can clean the dust clean and without making more mess. In other words, with the word of life and with the word of God, when you try to solve problems with the help of God and God’s word then you can solve that problem well. This is the word of God that people of God must hold onto. God has given us an important message here. 

1. Israel's Spiritual State

(1) The people's rejection

Verse 9 - Moses kept praying to God and asking God what to do, God replied to Moses that “He is the Lord God.” Moses held onto God’s word and received strength from that. So Moses went to the people and relayed God’s word to them. But the people of Israel did not heed Moses’ words. When you look at the vocabulary used here, you can see the state of the Israelites here. In their heart, it was full of anguish and this meant that their spirit was full of anguish. It also said that their heart was cruel which means that it was cut into pieces. The Israelites were in a state where their spiritual state was cut in pieces and broken. The Israelites had no hope left and were broken. When I tell you this situation to you, Moses heard God’s word and relayed the words to the Israelites that God will free them. And, Moses even showed miracles to the Israelites such as the rod turning into a serpent and water turning into blood. The Israelites were able to gain great reassurance through Moses by the miracles that were shown to them. So these representatives of the Israelites went before Pharaoh to talk to him and they were expecting Pharaoh to let them go easily but Pharaoh got angry with them instead and demanded to know who this “God of Israel” was. Also, their hearts ended up becoming filled with anguish and cruel bondage. Pharaoh became more angry with the Israelites and the Israelites ended up getting more suffering as a result. To this point, their lives became at stake. None of God’s words ended up piercing through the hearts of the Israelites when Moses approached and proclaimed the words of God to the Israelites. The Israelites rejected God’s word and proclaimed that God did not help them but made their lives worse and gave them more suffering instead. Their state was in a place where their spiritual eyes were not open at all. There is a physical world, world of God, and a world of Satan. This world that we live in these three worlds coexist. That is why there is reality, fact, and truth. Among them, we must see the spiritual truth and facts. From these biblical scriptures, we must reexamine something here. Are we looking at the world with our spiritual eyes? Satan is absolutely alive and working. And, God is alive and watching over us constantly. Do you believe in this? In a short time, we will go to heaven or hell. Are you aware of this? Nonbelievers think that heaven and hell are not real, and they live their lives not aware of this at all. What is absolute is that Satan and God exist, and they are alive and working right now. When we die, there are two destinations, heaven or hell. We must always be aware of this and live in this world understanding and knowing this. 

(2) The Lord's command

When God saw the Israelites rejecting His word, He spoke in verses 10-11 - The Lord of the covenant does not care if you obey or believe in His covenant or not because His covenant will be fulfilled no matter what in the end. 

Verse 11 - From here, God commanded Moses to go in and tell Pharaoh. This has an important meaning here. When we face difficulties, what kind of posture and attitude do we have? 

1 Peter 5:7 “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” - When you face difficulties, what do you do? Entrust all your worries and problems to God. Entrust them to God. Why is that? Because God cares for you. The Lord God and Jesus Christ cares for you. Because of that, we must boldly approach our problems and difficulties. God commands Moses to go before Pharaoh boldly and to command to Pharaoh to let God’s people go. This means that God was telling Moses to not be afraid but boldly proclaim to Pharaoh to let God’s people go. The second time, God commands Pharaoh to let His people go out of the land of Egypt. This time might make Moses’ life in danger. But God commanded Moses to boldly proclaim this to pharaoh. Why is that? When Moses obeys God’s command then Moses will be able to show the power of God. When we hold onto God’s word and obey it, then God’s power will be revealed through us. When we obey God then the impossible will turn into the possible. This is the important spiritual truth and fact. What is absolute is that Jesus Christ has resurrected and He is alive. The Triune God is alive and working right now. When we hold onto God’s word and obey His word, then the impossible will turn into the possible. 

2. Witnesses whom God Uses

(1) Moses' confession

When Moses heard this, he responded in verse 6:12 - God gave a command to Moses but Moses was explaining his situation to God. Moses was saying that even the Israelites are not listening to him so why would Pharaoh listen to him? We must see something important here. Moses was saying that the Israelites did not listen to his words, not the words of God. Moses was not relaying God’s word but he was trying to persuade the Israelites with his own words. As a result, his method failed. From here, we must see the difference between persuasion and proclamation. When you receive God’s word and relay it, are you trying to persuade people with God’s word or do you try to relay God’s word? Do you try to use your own wisdom to relay God’s word or do you use the guidance of the Holy Spirit to proclaim God’s word? When you have forum, do you relay the grace that you received from God or are you just relaying your own knowledge? Moses said that he had uncircumcised lips which means that he failed to persuade the Israelites. When you look at the vocabulary used, the uncircumcised lips, means that Moses was saying that he possesses incompetent lips. He has a great realization here that he cannot do it with his own strength and ability. He cannot persuade the people of God so he definitely cannot persuade Pharaoh. In other words, he realized that he could not do it with his own power, strength, and ability to convince the Israelites or pharaoh. This is important. When does God start using us? When we proclaim our powerlessness to God then that is when God will start using us. When you confess to God that you are powerless and confess that only God can give you power then that is when God will start using you. 

This is why Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:27 “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” - What must we do to receive God’s blessings and power, we must discover where we are at? We must not try to discover how great we are but we must first realize and acknowledge that we are powerless and we are nothing before God. 

(2) Moses, God's servant

Verse 13 - The moment Moses proclaimed and confessed that he couldn’t do it, that was when God ended up using Moses and Aaron. What was God trying to show them? That He was their Lord God. Why did God want to keep using Moses and Aaron? God could’ve directly approached Pharaoh and told him that if he doesn’t let His people go then God will kill him. If you remember, God did approach a pharaoh in his dream who tried to take Abraham’s wife that if he doesn’t give Sarah back to Abraham then he will die. So, why is it that God was persistent on using Aaron and Moses? Why does God want to use you? 

Isaiah 43:10 “ ‘You are My witnesses,’ says the Lord, ‘And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me.’ ” - The reason why God called you is because you are chosen by God and you are God’s witness. God wants to raise you up as His witness. God called you to be His witness. The reason why was so that we can know and believe in God. We can see the great grace of God’s salvation and see that God is the Lord God. In order to give us this faith, God has given us great blessings. You don’t realize how blessed you are and how precious you are to God. We see a great characteristic of Moses here. As Moses kept meeting with the pharaoh, he didn’t try to give any responsibility or blame to the pharaoh. Also, Moses didn’t try to blame the Israelites and never complained about them. What did Moses confess to God? He confessed to God about his uncircumcised lips and showed the problem in himself. He discovered himself and saw how weak he was. In the problem, Moses saw how powerless he was. God knew how cruel and disobedient the Israelites and the pharaoh were in this situation but the reason why God kept using Moses was so that Moses could keep relying on God. God was pleased with this so that is why God kept using Moses and Aaron. God was using them as His witnesses and servants. 

3. The Eternal Masterpiece

(1) The genealogy that Moses recorded

Verses 14-16, 20 - It speaks about the family line of Reuben. There was a second son, Simeon and a third son, Levi. You see three generations of family lines here. It speaks about the three heads of the 12 tribes of Israel. If you look in the Bible, if you look at these three people, they had many problems. The first son, Reuben lost blessings due to incest. The second son, Simeon and third son, Levi, killed people and stole people’s goods. These people were cursed by God but why were their names mentioned? Moses recorded this to show that his family line also had problems. The Israelites were saying that they were chosen people of God but Moses was showing that the Israelites also had problems. We are all the same under the eyes of God. Moses was showing that we have all fallen into sin. We received God’s grace and because of God’s grace, we are able to receive God’s salvation. 

Verse 20 - Amram took his father’s sister, Jochebed, as his wife. A long time ago, this was not a crime. Why did Moses record this? Moses was showing that his family background had nothing to boast about and he grew up with a problematic family as well. He was revealing his shameful family background with everyone. Moses was showing that he was not special and showed his flaws and shame. 

1 Corinthians 1:28-29 “And the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.” - God was saying that there is no one who can boast about anything before Him. The fact that we have received salvation, this is the only thing we should boast about. Everything was given to us by God’s grace alone. What God wants from us, we must find that and hold onto it. We must hold onto that if we boast about who we are, God will not be pleased. God is looking for those who discard all things and show how powerless you are before Him. 

(2) The eternal covenant

Through Moses, the Israelites were able to enter Canaan then what is the eternal covenant that we must hold onto? 

This is the word of God that will absolutely be fulfilled. Matthew 28:20 “Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.” - Making disciples of all nations, this is our first covenant. 

Our second covenant is Mark 16:20 “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.” - The people of God performed miracles of healing diseases. True healing will take place. When you pray, physical and spiritual healing will take place. Hold onto this covenant. 

The third covenant is Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” - Receive the power of the Holy Spirit and be God’s witness. With these three covenants, hold onto them and pray. When you pray 24 hours, pray with these things. Pray simply. 

How do we pray with Matthew 28:20? Pray to God that you want to evangelize. Sincerely pray this. Pray that you want to experience the power of Biblical evangelism. This is how you hold onto God’s covenant. 

Mark 16:20 - I want to receive healing and want to heal in the name of Jesus Christ. Pray about this 24 hours. Hold onto this covenant. 

Acts 1:8 - Pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray for the same power of the Holy Spirit that came upon Mark’s Upper Room. May the Holy Spirit take hold of my spirit, soul, and body. Pray for this covenant. This is the eternal covenant. We must hold onto these three covenants before the second coming of Jesus Christ. When we hold onto this, then the eternal masterpiece will come upon us. 

Conclusion

Romans 16:27 “To God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” - God alone is wise and give glory to God. The moment you open your eyes in the morning, give glory to God. Before you close your eyes to sleep, give glory to God. Be victorious.