Exodus 4
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
2 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
3 The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
6 Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous[a]—it had become as white as snow.
7 “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
8 Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
10 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.”
11 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? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
14 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. 15 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. 16 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. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”
Moses Returns to Egypt
18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”
Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
19 Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
21 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. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 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.’”
24 At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses[b] and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it.[c] “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)
27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.
29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Footnotes
- Exodus 4:6 The Hebrew word for leprous was used for various diseases affecting the skin.
- Exodus 4:24 Hebrew him
- Exodus 4:25 The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.
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 3rd 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.
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