Genesis 11:7 Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."
Exodus 4:10 But Moses said to the LORD, "O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."
John 16:25 "I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father.
1 Corinthians 2:4 My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
A friend forwarded to me the transcript of the victory speech from one of the winners in Tuesday’s election. It was a very well-crafted speech. It included several references to the victor’s faith and even appropriated the metaphor of David vs. Goliath. The victor, the party affiliation and even the particular office involved are not what sparked my interest and attention. I was fascinated by the inherent self-contradictory nature of the speech itself. The victor was utilizing some of the same sort of rhetoric of division the victor was criticizing.
As I thought about all of this, I once again confronted the power of the spoken and written word. I am almost ashamed to admit that until I entered seminary, I was never fully cognizant of the power of words. Seminary taught me the sheer power of thought, word, tone and inflection to convey information and to awaken minds to the realities of the world around us.
It was impossible for me to read that speech and not be filled with enthusiasm and hope for the future. Obviously, that should be true of any well-crafted speech. But, the power of speech, of words, even of thoughts can be harnessed to serve either good or evil, to work for beneficence or maleficence.
The devotionals in These Days this week have focused on Psalm 23. This morning, the reflection was on, “Psalm 23:5 . . . you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” The author wrote of, “the acknowledgment of the overflowing possibilities for God to use particular skills, abilities, contacts, knowledge, and resources. That overflowing cup also means God has given too many blessings and opportunities to count, blessings and opportunities meant to be used to glorify God, to be shared with others, and to be used in ministry.” (These Days, November 6, 2026)
We will all be inundated with politics and political rhetoric for the foreseeable future. Victors will tout their victories. Losers will mourn their losses. Each will draw from the results differing lessons and/or mandates. Flowery words will be spoken. It has always been so and probably will always be so in the future.
As a Christian, the thing for which I will be watching is whether the words of the victors and the excuses of the losers will be transformed into improving the lives of all of us. I will watch for whether or not anything changes to advance the Kingdom of God.
When Moses negotiated with God, he was probably accurate about his being ineloquent, slow of speech and slow of tongue. Moses, however, was not a politician, was not running for election to public office. Moses was not formally trained in rhetoric. A study of history will reveal that ultimately, formal training in rhetoric became highly valued. Much of what we read in the New Testament reveals such training.
Few of us today are formally trained in rhetoric. Even in seminary, in the courses in Exegesis and Homiletics, we did not receive such formal training. But all Christians, as we experience our individual lives of faith, become aware of “the overflowing possibilities for God to use particular skills, abilities, contacts, knowledge, and resources.”
Look at your own world. Look at your own life. Irrespective of who you are, “God has given too many blessings and opportunities to count, blessings and opportunities meant to be used to glorify God, to be shared with others, and to be used in ministry.”
In his victory speech, that victorious politician declared that truth for his own life. He offered the promise of using his office to advance the Kingdom of God through the service to which he was elected.
Each day, every day, we are all offered the opportunity to acknowledge our own blessings and opportunities, to use those God-given blessings and opportunities to glorify God, to share them with God’s other children and to use them in God’s ministry.
Harness your own skills and abilities in God’s service, trust God,
Pastor Ray