Objection: God Creates Dumb, Deaf and Blind People (Exodus 4:11)
Exodus 4:10-12:
And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
This verse is taken by some to mean that God intentionally creates some people dumb, deaf or blind, in an argument similar to the one raised about the man blind from birth in John 9:1-7. It is curious that if this conclusion is true, Jesus undid the works of God by healing the dumb, deaf and the blind throughout His ministry. If God created these people that way on purpose, Jesus was undoing, not doing, the works of God. Therefore, these things cannot possibly be the works of God.
Examine the verse in its context and you’ll find that God was saying that he would help Moses overcome his slowness of tongue. He did not just say, “That’s right, Moses, I created you to be a lousy speaker on purpose, but I still called you to deliver Israel. Ha-ha. Deal with it.”
God said the opposite of what most people think He said in this passage. He did NOT say, “Some people just have certain problems, and they’ll just have to live with them because that’s how I made them.” Moses complained about being a poor speaker. God did NOT say, “Well, Moses, I just made you that way because it was just My will for you to have problems with public speaking. So you’re right, you’re just the wrong guy for the job. What was I thinking? Duh!” Instead, He encouraged Moses that he could GO anyway and God would help him by teaching him what to say. He did NOT have to continue to be constrained by an ongoing problem that he was living with.
So if you’re dumb, deaf or blind, take heart! You don’t have to stay that way either, any more than the man born blind in John 9:1-7 had to stay blind once Jesus appeared on the scene.
Yes, but doesn’t it explicitly say that God makes people dumb, deaf and blind? No, it doesn’t. This verse does not say that God creates some people with birth defects on purpose! There are two plausible takes on what He is actually saying.
First take: God simply said that He was everyone’s Creator, including the dumb, deaf, blind, and those with any birth defects. All such conditions are possible because sin and Satan are on the earth, but God is still the Creator of everyone, including those who are disfigured or disabled. God’s point was that with Him, all things are possible. Since He is the Creator of man’s mouth, he can make the poor speaker eloquent.
Second take: Because God said that He HAS made man’s mouth, and that He MAKES people blind, deaf, dumb, etc., the point at which He makes people blind, deaf or dumb does not have to be birth! He smote the Sodomites with blindness (Genesis 19:10-11). He smote people who came after Elisha with blindness (2 Kings 6:18-20). He smote Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, with dumbness for a season – God hit his “mute” button (Luke 1:18-20)! Paul went blind for three days after he met Jesus (Acts 9:8-9). Bar-Jesus the sorcerer was struck blind for a season (Acts 13:6-12). So this verse is not necessarily talking about birth defects. I would be more likely to side with this second take because the context shows that whatever condition you might have is subject to change, which is the very point of the passage anyway!
I admit that this is a difficult passage for some people, but it surely does not set aside the healing covenant that God made later with Moses. The people as of the time of Exodus 4 did not yet have a healing covenant with God. The dumb, deaf and blind had no guarantee of healing from God yet. This did not come until Exodus 15:25-26. God at that point made clear to Moses how he would deal with the dumb, deaf and blind if they would keep His covenant – He would heal them! God is definitely the healer of the dumb, deaf and blind today. Jesus healed all those conditions and He is the same today as He was then (Hebrews 13:8).