Exodus 4 Devotional Bible Study

Exodus 4 Chapter Summary

Moses was unsure the Israelites would believe God sent him, so God turned Moses’ staff into a snake and back again, implying Moses would be able to repeat this miracle as proof. He also changed Moses’ hand from healthy to leprous to healthy again. The third sign would be turning water from the Nile into blood.

Moses then doubted his abilities, saying he wasn’t a good speaker.

 

The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths?

Who makes them deaf or mute?

Who gives them sight or makes them blind?

Is it not I, the Lord?

Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

- Exodus 4:11-12

 

Still Moses asked the Lord to send someone else. God was angry then but informed Moses that his brother Aaron was already on his way to meet Moses. Aaron was a good speaker and could be the spokesman as Moses told him what to say.

 

Moses took his family to Egypt. One night, God appeared to Moses and was going to kill him, but Zipporah took their son and circumcised him, appeasing the Lord as she carried out the instructions of God’s covenant with Abraham.

 

God sent Aaron to meet Moses, and when they arrived in Egypt, Moses performed the signs for the Israelites, and they believed him. They worshiped God for being concerned for them in their slavery.

 

The POWER to Overcome

Exodus 4:10-12

Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

Do you know that your God can change your circumstances, even your abilities, even your body at any moment? He’s not saying here that He creates people deaf, mute, or blind. He’s saying He can turn them that way. He make the well person disabled and the disabled person well. 

The Lord has power to overcome any obstacle or shortcoming. He has the power to overcome your obstacles and shortcomings. Amen?

 

He Already Has a Plan

Exodus 4:13-16

But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.  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 Lord already had a plan to overcome Moses’ lack of speaking ability. He was sending Aaron to meet Moses at that moment. Moses didn’t know the plan; Moses simply needed to trust that God did have a plan.

 

And so do we. We don’t how God will work out our problems. We don’t see His full plan. But can we trust that He does have a plan? Can we trust that it’s the best plan? Can we trust that already, God is setting things in motion to fulfill His plan?

 

How Did God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart?

Exodus 4:21-23

The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”

The best explanation I’ve heard of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart comes from Origen, a Christian thinker in the 3^rd century:

“Concerning the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, you could say the sun both hardens and liquefies, although liquefying and hardening are opposites. But the sun, by one and the same power of its heat, melts wax but dries up and hardens mud: not that its power operates one way on mud and in another way on wax but that the qualities of mud and wax are different although they both come from the earth. 

“In the same way, God was working through the signs and wonders He performed through Moses. Pharaoh was hardened through the intensity of his wickedness, but other Egyptians obeyed God and joined the Israelites when they left Egypt.”

 

Will God Use the Disobedient?

Exodus 4:24-26

At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)

At this point in the story, God had already met with Moses in the burning bush and told him He was going to use him to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Moses was God’s chosen person for a special ministry.

And yet the Lord was about to kill him. Why? Because he hadn’t followed God’s command through Abraham to circumcise his son. Moses was God’s chosen person, but He wasn’t going to overlook Moses’ disobedience.

Do you want to be used by God? He will not use you to do what He’s called you to do if you’re continuing in sin.