“But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me, I get tongue-tied and my words get tangled.” Exodus 4:10
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck
If a woodchuck would chuck wood?
He’d chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could,
If a woodchuck could chuck wood. Mother Goose
“Let the dead bury the bed!” Bill Hull
“Uncle Jed, I decided I ain’t gonna be a brain surgeon.” Jethro Bodine, The Beverly Hillbillies.
Eloquence is overrated, yet has a power unto itself, which, like fire, can be used for good or for ill, especially if it comes to a person early and often. A ten-year-old George Whitefield (1714-1755) performed Shakespearian soliloquies to entertain guests at his parents’ hotel. This bright and gifted boy from Gloucester worked his way through Pembroke College, Oxford. He met the Wesley brothers, John and Charles, and they became friends as members of the Holy Club. Together, they birthed a great spiritual awakening in England. The Wesleys took what Whitefield started and turned it into the Methodist movement. Whitefield, an avowed Calvinist, [1] went his way, and the Wesleys, clearly anti-Calvinists, went theirs.[2] John Wesley was a more narrow-focused combative sort, while Whitefield had a more conciliatory nature. Whitefield’s eloquence made it possible for him to be so. Whitefield was the show horse and Wesley the work horse. Whitefield’s eloquence gave him entrée to the English elite, to fashionable parlors where he would evangelize, while Wesley was the working man’s pastor. They were alienated for several years, but gratefully, they reconciled before Whitefield’s early death.
Whitefield was called “the marvel of his age.” He is a grand example of a gifted orator who was a wonderful steward of his eloquence. Sadly, in more contemporary times, many eloquent men and women speaking for God have given in to the allure of fame and celebrity. Whitefield said yes to God. Moses didn’t know Whitefield, but I’m sure they are now friends in the celestial realm. Many have heard of Whitefield, but compared to the tongue-tied Moses, Whitefield and his eloquence are just a footnote.
Go Down Moses
“Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land, tell old Pharaoh: Let my people go.” [3]
More people identify with Moses than any person to whom eloquence has been given. In one statement, Moses gives every excuse he can think of. He isn’t reasoning; he is pleading. He knows he’s a goner, that he is losing the argument, and in the back of his mind, he knows it. He is hoping that he can be so pathetic that even God will change his mind.
“God, you know I’m no good with words, I get tongue tied, even when you tell me what to say, I can’t get it straight, I’m a loser!”
Finally
God answers Moses and puts the matter straight.
“Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak and I will instruct you in what to say. Exodus 4:11, 12
God’s answer is not about the philosophy of individuals in particular, but of his creative powers in general. The logic is: don’t you think I can handle your problem?
If
God is telling Moses, if you go and if you speak, I will be with you. If a serpent can speak, if a donkey prophesy,[4] if angels can sing, you can preach. If you don’t go, and if you don’t speak, I won’t be with you.
Deciding to be your own God will ruin your life, and you will live separated from God. That, my friend, is to live a hellish life, a life that will separate and atrophy as you live it. Nothing will come together. It will come apart at the seams. That is what hell is. Instead of reconciliation, you get alienation. Instead of harmony, the songs in your head will be discordant. None of us can imagine hell because no one has lived a human life, to this point, totally without God. When God is gone, you are left with hell.
Moses’ statement could have been my life’s verse:
But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me, I get tongue-tied and my words get tangled.”
Lunch @ the top of the Indy Hilton
Many national sporting events now take place in my hometown of Indianapolis. The first 19 years of my life were spent there. Every time I see a shot of Monument Circle downtown Indy, I notice a certain building that was the Hilton hotel and the site of an event that explained my life. My good friend Fred Tucker, RIP, owned the hotel. Fred and I were teammates on the Broad Ripple High School basketball team. Fred was heir to the F.C. Tucker Reality empire that dominated the state of Indiana. He decided to host a luncheon in the library at the top of the Hilton Hotel and invite our old teammates and friends. I was to be the guest of honor, a reunion of sorts. The guys around the table were now medical doctors, attorneys, business owners, and bank presidents, all very successful. After a great lunch, Fred called the group together and essentially said, “Bill, we haven’t seen you in a while. You graduated along with David Letterman at the bottom of our class. Now that you have authored books, you travel the world and speak. And you have become a Christian Minister. Bill, what the Hell happened to you?” The following is what I told them:
I cited this statement from Moses. “Lord, I’m not very good with words.” “I can’t spell them, pronounce them, or define them in a sentence.” They laughed, of course, and then I hit the punch line. I paraphrased God, “Bill, I can fix all that, just submit and go.”
I was a basketball player at Oral Roberts University, but not a Christian. I met students there who made Christ real, practical, and relevant to my daily life. I had mocked God, I made fun of Oral Roberts, I was profane and proud. But God put me at ORU and surrounded me with his people. I was not that tough of a case, because just three months into the first term, I knelt beside my bed and asked God for help. I couldn’t answer three simple questions: “Who am I?” “What is my purpose in life?” “Where might I end up after death?” I committed my life to Christ that night. I borrowed a Bible from another player and began reading it. I took off like a rocket. By spring, it was well known that I was a follower of Christ. My leadership gifts began to emerge, and I led a Bible study in my dorm room.
Few said no
Oral Roberts was planning a crusade in Nairobi in the summer of 1968. Students were applying for the chance to go. Not me. I had no skills related to the mission, wasn’t good with words, was an average student, and didn’t aspire to it; it was not appealing to me at all. I was stunned when he asked me to go. I stammered and said I would pray about it. “Great!” he enthused. In his mind, that meant I was going.
After a 2-day layover in New York City to visit a friend, I was peering out of the plane window, obediently looking at the Acropolis, Parthenon, wondering what the big deal was, as the pilot seemed to think it was important. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Greece, “to be or not to be”—it all ran together in my 20-year-old jock head. What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? I was about to find out.
The next day, we landed in Nairobi, TWA lost my luggage, and we were bussed to the New Stanley Hotel. [5]It was new—$50.00 per night in 1968. It had a great little Grill where I ate all the meals because I could put them on my room. Every night, I would put my clothes out, and the next morning, they would return clean and freshly pressed. Thanks to TWA, I wore the same fresh clothes every day for a week.
The first week was a pastor’s conference attended by up to a thousand. I took my place at the back of the student choir and helped with the luggage.
The second week was the crusade, attended each evening by more than 100,000 in downtown Nairobi. A vast throng of desperately ill people waited for hours for a touch from God. Oral Roberts laid hands on and prayed for hundreds. He waved me onstage, where I was introduced as the greatest college basketball player in the United States. (My Indy buddies and I laughed) Oral told me to pray like he had been doing, so I replaced him for a few minutes. I prayed for many who appeared to be healed, and I saw wondrous miracles over the several nights.
The third week was ministry in villages. We broke into teams, and mine was two girls and me, led by an African pastor. We went to a Swahili village, sang a few songs, and the people gathered for a meeting. The pastor surprised us when he asked, “Who is going to preach?” The girls pointed at me! I was stunned, but I pulled myself together much like when the coach would call a play for me with just a few seconds left on the clock.
My mind locked in, and the words came out. I heard myself telling a story about Christ and the gospel. I had absorbed all those books, the words of the Bible, the sermons I had heard, and the conversations with seminary students. The pastor was my interpreter, which I’m sure helped. I finished the sermon, gave an invitation, and the entire group of 65-70 people confessed Christ as a group. This, of course, is what tribal people do; it seemed like when Peter told people, “You and your household will be saved.”
I knew immediately that my life had changed and what my purpose in life was. I was a preacher, and that was that. I returned home and informed Jane that she was to marry a preacher, not a basketball player. As it turned out, both were true. I spent the next six years playing basketball and using it as a means to get a hearing for the preaching.
When I finished my luncheon speech, there was silence, the nodding of heads, and a line of guys wanting to talk. Some I had already spoken with, but the next few days and years led to many rich conversations that bore fruit for the kingdom of God.
I experienced what God promised Moses would happen. It did, and even has; it was just the beginning for Moses and me—it can be the beginning for you.
NOW JUST GO.
Bill Hull
2025.
[1] Calvinist: Based on what is sometimes called Reformed Theology. Named after Reformer John Calvin. It can be summed up in the Acronym TULIP. T is Total depravity of man. U is Unconditional election of some to salvation. L is Limited atonement, meaning Christ’s death and sacrifice on the cross can only be applied to those elect for personal salvation. I is Irresistible grace. Meaning that for the elect, God’s grace cannot be resisted because they are predisposed to believe. P is Perseverance of the saints, meaning all true elect saints will persevere until the end.
[2] The Wesleys, Charles and John, built the Wesleyan/Methodist movement, which highlighted human choice and involvement in one’s spiritual future and salvation, and thus, were at odds with the Reformers. Yet, Whitefield and John Wesley agreed on the bigger ticket items such as the need for salvation, the deity of Christ, the need for preaching the word, and evangelism, etc.
[3] Well known lyric to a Negro Spiritual “Go Down Moses.”
[4] Reference is to Lucifer as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and Balaam’s donkey, who alone saw the angel, and Balaam beat his donkey three times. Finally, God speaks through the Donkey and asks Balaam, “Why are you beating me?” Numbers 22:21-38. One of the scriptures’ best and most confusing stories.
[5] In the 1990s, I returned to Nairobi and the site of the New Stanley Hotel. It is now just The Stanley Hotel.
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I never tire of the Nairobi story. It had a profound effect on me when I first heard it 20+ years ago. So glad you submitted to God’s plan.