“And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.”
God says of the arrangement: he will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. The language is deliberately elevated: Moses stands in relation to Aaron as God stands in relation to Moses, with Aaron as the prophetic mouthpiece of a higher authority. This foreshadows the entire prophetic institution in Israel — the prophet speaks the word of God as God's mouth, not as his own. Ezekiel 3:4 commissions Ezekiel in similar terms: go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them. The relationship between principal and agent, between the source of the word and its deliverer, is established here in miniature and will define Israel's prophetic tradition for centuries. It also establishes the principle that weakness in one area does not disqualify from calling — it creates the opening for partnership.
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