Read Exodus 4:1–10

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)

“But Lord,” Moses was saying, “I can’t be Your spokesman in this situation. Why, I wouldn’t have any answers when those guys started firing questions at me.”

Before we consider the Lord’s response, stop and think about that lame excuse for a moment. It has a familiar ring to it, doesn’t it? It’s a pretext mouthed by many believers today. “Lord, I can’t do that, because I’ll get in a verbal corner and won’t know how to handle it. Somebody will ask me, ‘What about the heathen in Africa?’ or ‘How did they fit dinosaurs into Noah’s ark?’ I’ll get tongue-tied. I won’t know what to say, and I’ll appear ridiculous and foolish in the eyes of other people. No, I can’t do that, Lord. You can see that, can’t You? I just don’t have all the answers.”

Maybe you remember what it was like in high school or college to have a teacher or professor who stranded himself out on a logical limb. He found himself in the wrong, everyone knew it, and yet he stubbornly refused to admit it. What did you do? Chances are, you began to bear down on him, sawing off that flimsy limb with a set of sharp-toothed facts. Why did you do that? Because there is something inside of us that wants the other person simply to admit, “Yeah, I was wrong.”

I have never lost respect for any individual who replied to a question with the answer, “I just don’t know.” On the other hand, I have lost a great deal of respect for those who knew they were wrong, and knew that I knew they were wrong, but could not bring themselves to admit it.

Direct question: Why do we feel we have to have all the answers at our fingertips? Straight answer: Pride. Pride says, “If I don’t have a ready comeback, if I say ‘I don’t know,’ they’ll laugh at me.” But that’s not true at all. Intelligent, thoughtful people won’t laugh; they will realize that no one has all the answers.

Taken from Great Days with the Great Lives by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing.