Exodus4
Exodus 4 – Lessons & Training
Exodus 4:1-9
1Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’”
2The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”
3And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.
4But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand—
5“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.”
6Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.”£ And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous£ like snow.
7Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.
8“If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
9If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
V.1 – It is well to remember that in that culture it was proper to express humility before such a great assignment. However, here his words revealed a presence of uncertainty in his mind. Moses was not doubting God’s promise but would be certainly be showing concern over would his brethren believe that he was God’s representative to the powerful Egyptian masters. To show that God was with him God gave him 3 miracles to perform as proof that he was God’s appointee.
V.3-5 – The Rod to a snake – Moses runs from it as a natural action to the animal. He is told to pick it up at the tail. Moses obeys shows his trust building in God as he reaches over and grabs the snake by it’s tale. A demonstration to show Yahweh’s control of something as frightening as a snake to make it materialize from a piece of wood was evidence of his powerful reality.
V.6-7 – The hand turned to leprous condition and back to a healthy condition. Elaborate precautions were taken to avoid contact with such an inflicted person. The people there considered such a disease was the result of a powerful god as judgment against them. They would make supplication to the gods asking for healing. Moses says: “Look what Yahweh can do with disease!” In essence: Have you seen any god do this before?
V.8-9 – 3rd proof was to take some water from the Nile and when poured out it would turn to blood on the ground. This was an act against the Egyptian most powerful god, Hapi. They considered this god the giver and sustaining of life.
Exodus 4:10-18
10But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
11Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
13But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
14Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
15You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.
16He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.
17And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
18Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
V.10 – Two protests of Moses were:
1st was somewhat a ‘ritual’ sort, mannerly and emphasizing his need for divine help. Termed: “exaggerated humility” by the Near Easterners.
2nd one represented a blatant attempt to be excused from the assignment itself and draw God’s immediate anger.
Two of many examples of “exaggerated humility” in Bible time:
Genesis 18:27(ESV) – Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.
2 Kings 8:13 (NASB95) Then Hazael said, “But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” And Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Aram.” (He was a King and still used that manner of speaking in his expressing humility.)
V.11-12 – God refers to His control over human ability to speak.
V.13 – Moses asks God to send someone else. This was also said by Jonah and we know that outcome. God, as with all his prophets placed the words in their mouths. God teaches them to be what He wants them to be.
God calls prophet to preach in a foreign land -Exod 3:4–10 -Jonah 1:1–2
Prophet tries to refuse -Exod 4:13 -Jonah 1:3
Divine death penalty nearly imposed during travels -Exod 4:24 -Jonah 1:4–15
Prophet learns his lesson -Exod 4:25 -Jonah.2:1–10 [also 1:12]
God spares him -Exod 4:26 -Jonah 1:17
God renews the call -Exod 4:27–28 -Jonah 3:1
Prophet finally cooperates with calling -Exod..4:29–30 et passim -Jonah 3:3–4
Call comes to successful fruition -Exod 4:31 et passim -Jonah 3:5–10
V.14-17 – God’s grace comes into play: , “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.” God calls Aaron to Moses and provides a co-speaker for Moses, not that he needed one, but Aaron would be an encouragement to Moses in the daunting task of facing the hostility of the pharaoh of Egypt. (We know that Moses actually did the majority of speaking to Pharaoh.) We can say: God was the revealer; Moses, the prophet as he was called by God, and Aaron, the public repeater.
V.17 highlights the importance of Moses’ staff. It was and identification and even a symbol of one’s power. In this case used at time in symbol of God’s power.
V.18 The theophany structure is completed.
Moses seeks a blessing from this father-in-law for the journey to be not a forced departure. He was taking his wife and children with him. They are reunited in chapter 18…
Exod. 4:19-31
19And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.”
20So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
21And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
22Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son,
23and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”
24At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.
25Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’£ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”
26So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
27The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
28And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.
29Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.
30Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people.
31And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
V.19-20 – The long account of the theophany call concluded with verse 4:18 that included in great detail of divine reassurance to Moses.
God tells Moses it is safe to return to Egypt as all that might seek your death is dead. (This was a practice that when a new government team came onboard it canceled criminal penalties imposed by a previous government.) Therefore, the family is loaded and off to Egypt.
V.21-23 – in V.10 God says: “So now go” – He was to go and confront Pharaoh, the most powerful person in the then known world, in person.
Moses is taught three miracles in preparation to show his own people and Pharaoh that he was sent by God. Scr.: “see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power.”
Moses shows the Rod, the Hand and the water from the Nile to blood as ‘proof signs’ to his people and they accepted it from God and did worship to Him. He does not show the healthy hand to leprous hand before Pharaoh. As “proof signs” they were only the first of many great signs of God’s power.
V.21 – “I will harden his heart…not to let the people go” – Showing God was in control as he had already stated to Moses that Pharaoh would be highly resistant. That He was in full control and allowed the buildup of increasing painful plagues to force him let His people go at the moment of God’s choosing.
“Hardening of Pharaoh’s heart”
The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart allowed God to fully demonstrate his sovereignty over Pharaoh, the Egyptians, the land itself, and the gods that they trusted. The most common way to speak the phrase would be “making stubborn/being stubborn”. Exodus 4:21:
Strongs 2388. חָזַקchâzaq, khaw-zak´; a prim. root; to fasten upon; hence to seize, be strong (fig. courageous, causat. strengthen, cure, help, repair, fortify), obstinate; to bind, restrain, conquer:—aid, amend, × calker, catch, cleave, confirm, be constant, constrain, continue, be of good (take) courage (-ous, -ly), encourage (self), be established, fasten, force, fortify, make hard, harden, help, (lay) hold (fast, …
Used in: Exod. 4:21, 7:13, 7:22, 8:19, 9:12, 9:35, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:4, 14:8, 14:17
Two Translations displayed below – yet same H3820 and H3515 Strong’s ID word….
Exodus 7:14(ESV)
14Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go.
Exodus 7:14 (NASB95) – Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go.
Strongs 3515. כָּבֵדkâbêd, kaw-bade´; from 3513; heavy; fig. in a good sense (numerous) or in a bad sense (severe, difficult, stupid):—(so) great, grievous, hard (-ened), (too) heavy (-ier), laden, much, slow, sore, thick.
Hebrew: kabed+leb (read backwards) – means “be stubborn, be unbending”….
Used in Exod. 7:3, 7:14, 8:15, 8:32, 9:7, 9:34, 10:1, 14:4
In some cases we read that Pharaoh made himself stubborn (hardening his own heart)
The operating principle of Pharaoh’s heart was stated in
Exodus 9:34 (NASB95) – But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
The various wording would be a form of wording each time as any writer might use. Referring to the ‘heart’ would be calling to mind that of a person’s sinfulness. Egyptian religious texts speak often of the ( ‘ib ) (Egyptian for ‘heart’) – representing a persons’ basic essence as a place where a person’s guilt, motives and general righteousness was to be found. The Egyptians gods would evaluate the person’s ‘ib at the time of a person’s death to determine where the person would be sent at death.
Important is that the Egyptian Pharaoh was supposed to be a ‘pure’ person, one divinely manifested of the gods and who sovereignty over the people was credited, in part, by the purity of his ‘ib. The fact that God could do whatever He wanted to do to Pharaoh’s heart would show His control and sovereignty over the all things and people. When Yahweh is described as hardening Pharaoh’s heart would be to remind them that He had weighed Pharaoh’s heart and found him wanting. God had reduced this divine Pharaoh to the level of a mere mortal that was manipulated and possessing no divine ‘purity’ at all.
V.23 – Let my son (God’s first born) go and if refused God would kill his firstborn son. (The first born was the first fruits of marriage and belonged to God.) In fact, the Israelites had to do a ‘buy back’ fee to show they recognized that their son belonged to God and not them. God is saying that his people served him up until this time and now He was freeing them from the wrong master.
An announcement to Pharaoh that God was promising to protect His first born son, Israel and his son was set for death. Here God’s close identification of himself with his ‘son’ and the announcement of the tenth plagues in advance shows God speaks: “the LORD has said”…. That the plagues would build in intensity and culminate in the death of the Egyptian firstborn. The penalty that Pharaoh would ultimately pay for his refusal to acknowledge Israel as Yahweh’s son and firstborn would be aimed at his own firstborn.
V.24-26 – 24At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.
25Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’£ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”
26So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
This warning of death for the first born son of Egyptians provides an explanation for the actions of Zipporah to circumcise her son. The focus of the potential death of her 1st born for failure to follow the requirement by God to have all males circumcised as a sign to their belonging to Him.
Moses became ill (near death) by the hand of God and Zipporah takes action to save him. It may be that the reason (Gershom or Eliezer) was not properly circumcised before because of her revulsion and disgust with the rite of circumcision. She would remember her refusal and connected this to needing corrected. After that the LORD let his grip on Moses go.
Zipporah grew up in the household of a Midianite Priest and would understand how circumcision was done and the significance of it. She would also know the proper words to say in connection with such a ceremony. (Many people groups in the ancient world practiced circumcision, including the Midianites. The Egyptians practiced a ‘partial circumcision’ of cutting only a small amount of the foreskin. This would be illegitimate by the Israelites and yet could have been what was done to their son and placed him in an illegitimate standing before God.
Question as to who; Gershom, the oldest or Eliezer, the youngest that was circumcised by Zipporah. It is thought maybe it was the youngest that had not yet been circumcised. God acts to show Moses that failure to follow His commands are not allowed and death would occur when they are not followed.)
Moses was circumcised before marriage. It would indicate that his parents did not do that to him as a baby for fear of his crying being heard by the Egyptians who sought to kill the male babies. But he would have been partially circumcised by the Egyptians according to their practice.
She performs the operation with a ‘flint knife’ as normally used at that time period. Then she casts it at his feet. (Moses feet) Her touching Moses’ feet with the son’s foreskin was possibly a symbolic act of substitution, in which obedience was seen as replacing disobedience.
Others propose that she saw in the act a sort of redemption by which the blood of the youngster restored Moses to the Lord and also to her as a new bridegroom.
YLT reads:
25and Zipporah taketh a flint, and cutteth off the foreskin of her son, and causeth it to touch his feet, and saith, ‘Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me;
NAS reads:
Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me
Message Bible reads:
Zipporah took a flint knife and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ member with it. She said, “Oh! You’re a bridegroom of blood to me!”
The Good New Translation:
Then Zipporah, his wife, took a sharp stone, cut off the foreskin of her son, and touched Moses’ feet with it.
For “feet” there was a note: This reference to ‘feet’ is thought be some to be a euphemism for the genitals.
The NLT:
25 But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She touched his feet* with the foreskin and said, “Now you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26 (When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the Lord left him alone.
Zipporah touched the foreskin of the son to Moses feet (genitals). “Feet” (regalim) is a Hebrew euphemism for “genitals” . She touches Moses’s feet (genitals) with the foreskin and said the right words in an effort to legitimize the previously neglected and now emergency circumcision.
Isa. 5:2; 7:20; Ezek 16:25; Deut 28:57 others include “hand” “knee” “stones”
A “Bridegroom of blood” – “relative of blood” – a positive endearing reference to a husbands’ and wife’s joining to become on flesh/blood and producing offspring that was their own flesh and blood. The son was her blood relative. It was important and would surface as if Moses did it. The Lord let him alone since she said ‘blood relative’ in connection with the circumcision.
Moses traveled on to Egypt and after Gershom was healed the mother and child returned to Midian. (Reunited in Exodus 18:2-6)
We see Moses had failed God in two ways:
1. He himself was not fully circumcised until the time of his marriage to Zipporah.
2. He apparently did not do full circumcision on his first or second born
Two sins of omission… Fail to circumcise a child would cut them off from God’s people.
Genesis 17:14 (NASB95) “But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
We saw that Zipporah saved her son from such a fate by saying and doing the right things in the best way as she knew. It shows God’s grace in allowing her time to correct things.
It account reveals that Moses did not have all of his life or family life together. He demonstrates in his writings that he was less than perfect.
These expressions could be such, but not conclusive: “the blood of the circumcision of my son are you” or “Through this blood of circumcision the bridegroom has been restored to us”.
V.27-28– 27The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
28And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.
This is the call to Aaron from God to join his brother in the wilderness and join his divine assignment. Aaron’s key role was to be a supporter and spokesman at given times. Moses position was to be the leader.
The location of the ‘mountain of God’ (Sinai) may simply show the mountain was not to be in Midian but between Midian and toward Egypt.
V.29-31 – 29Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.
30Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people.
31And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
There is an elapse of time between Moses leaving Jethro and Aaron joining him at the mountain. Could be weeks or months as they were prepared for their encounter with Pharaoh.
With Aaron, as an Israelite elder, along he would bring to the Israelites an immediate credibility for his fellow Israelites. The verse shows the Israelites’ conversion to faith in Yahweh as they bowed down to God. The conversion is a realization of who God is and His stand before them.
Utilization of New American Commentary for information and some quoting of the material found therein. The table comparing Moses and Jonah was a quote from the NAC.