Commentary - Exodus 4:1-9

Bird's-eye view

We come now to Moses' fourth objection to God's commission, and it is perhaps the most practical one yet. Having been told what to say, Moses now worries about his reception. What if the elders of Israel simply don't believe him? This is the fear of man, plain and simple. In response, God does not rebuke Moses' weak faith but graciously condescends to it. He provides three authenticating signs, each one a powerful sermon in itself. These are not arbitrary displays of power, but carefully chosen miracles designed to demonstrate Yahweh's absolute sovereignty over the powers that held Israel in bondage: the satanic authority of Pharaoh, the defiling power of sin, and the very lifeblood of Egypt itself. This passage is a foundational lesson on how God equips His messengers and validates His word.

The progression of the signs is crucial. The first sign, the staff becoming a serpent, shows God's authority over the demonic power symbolized by the serpent, the very emblem of Pharaoh's rule. The second sign, the leprous hand, demonstrates God's power over life and death, His ability to both inflict and cleanse the defilement of which leprosy is a stark biblical type. The third sign, water from the Nile turning to blood, is a direct assault on the gods of Egypt and a preview of the judgment to come. God is arming Moses not with clever arguments, but with raw demonstrations of reality. He is the God who is, and Pharaoh is the god who is not.

Outline

Commentary

1 Then Moses answered and said, “What if they will not believe me and will not listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’”

Moses' objection is entirely reasonable from a human point of view. He is a shepherd, an exile, a man with a criminal record in Egypt. He is about to walk into a nation of slaves and announce a radical deliverance on the authority of a God they have not heard from in centuries. His concern is credibility. Notice the focus is on him: "believe me," "listen to my voice." He sees the problem as one of personal persuasion. He has forgotten that the power of the message is not in the messenger, but in the one who sent him. He anticipates their skepticism, which is really a projection of his own. He is looking at the problem horizontally, forgetting the vertical reality of the burning bush. This is the constant temptation for the church: to worry about our own credibility and relevance, instead of simply declaring the word of the King and trusting Him to honor it.

2 And Yahweh said to him, “What is this in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.”

God's response is sublime. He does not give Moses a lecture on divine power or a course in public speaking. He starts with what Moses already has. "What is that in your hand?" It is a shepherd's staff. An ordinary, mundane, familiar tool. It represents Moses' life for the last forty years. It represents his weakness, his lowly occupation. God's method is not to give us something entirely new and foreign, but to take what we are and what we have and consecrate it for His purposes. He takes fishermen and makes them apostles. He takes our daily work, our homes, our common tools, and makes them instruments of His kingdom. The power is not in the staff; the power is in the God who commands the staff.

3 Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.

The command requires an act of relinquishment. Moses must let go of his tool, his support, his identity as a shepherd. He must cast it down at God's command. And when he does, it becomes a serpent. Not just any animal, but a serpent. The serpent is the symbol of the curse in Genesis 3. It is the symbol of Satan's rebellion. And in Egypt, the cobra was the uraeus, the symbol of Pharaoh's divine power and authority to strike down his enemies. God is showing Moses, from the very beginning, that He has absolute authority over the curse, over Satan, and over the pretended divine power of Pharaoh. The very thing that represents Egypt's might is something God can create from a dead stick. And Moses' reaction is telling: he fled from it. This was no parlor trick. This was a display of terrifying, untamed power. The source of his stability became a source of his fear, demonstrating what happens when our own strength is revealed for what it is.

4 And Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”, so he stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand,

Now comes the test of faith. God commands Moses to do the most foolish thing imaginable. You never grab a venomous snake by the tail. It is an act of sheer, counter-intuitive obedience. Moses must confront the very thing that terrified him, and he must do it in a way that makes him completely vulnerable. This is a picture of faith. We are called to take God at His word, even when it seems foolish or dangerous. When Moses obeys, the power is tamed. The instrument of the curse is brought under his dominion. He takes hold of it, and it becomes a staff once more. The power of the enemy, when confronted in the obedience of faith, is transformed into an instrument of God's rule. This is a profound foreshadowing of the cross, where Christ grasped the serpent by the tail, so to speak, defeating death by death.

5 “that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

God explicitly states the purpose of the sign. It is an accommodation to weak faith. It is a divine credential. The sign is not the point; the sign points to the reality that Yahweh, the covenant God of their patriarchs, has broken His long silence and has now intervened in history. The miracle authenticates the message. God is grounding His new work in His old promises. He is the same God who called Abraham, and this sign is the proof.

6 And Yahweh furthermore said to him, “Now put your hand into your bosom.” So he put his hand into his bosom; then he took it out, and behold, his hand was leprous like snow.

The second sign is more personal and intimate. It involves Moses' own flesh. Leprosy in Scripture is a picture of sin. It is a condition that rendered a person unclean, defiled, and cut off from the covenant community. It was a living death. By striking Moses' hand with leprosy, God demonstrates His sovereign power to inflict the curse of defilement. He is the one who judges sin. He holds the power of life and death, of sickness and health, in His hand. This sign would show Israel that their God is a holy God who has the authority to judge uncleanness.

7 Then He said, “Return your hand into your bosom.” So he returned his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it returned to being like the rest of his flesh.

Just as quickly as He inflicted the disease, God heals it. This demonstrates His power to cleanse, to heal, and to restore. He is not just the God who judges sin, but the God who mercifully removes it. This is a picture of justification. He can take that which is leprous and defiled and, in an instant, make it clean and whole. This sign showed Israel that the God who was about to deliver them from physical bondage in Egypt was also the God who could deliver them from the spiritual defilement of their own sin.

8 “And so it will be, if they will not believe you or listen to the witness of the first sign, they may believe the witness of this last sign.”

God graciously provides more than one witness. He knows the hardness of the human heart. If the demonstration of His power over the external enemy (the serpent) is not enough, perhaps the demonstration of His power over their internal condition (leprosy) will convince them. God is building a case. He is patiently providing evidence, leaving the Israelites without excuse.

9 But if it will be that they will not believe even these two signs and that they will not listen to your voice, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land; and the water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry land.”

The third sign is one of pure judgment. If they reject the sign of authority and the sign of cleansing, all that is left is the sign of condemnation. The Nile was the life of Egypt. It was worshipped as a god. It was the source of all their wealth and power. For God to command Moses to turn that water to blood was a direct assault on the entire Egyptian worldview and way of life. Blood is the symbol of death. God is saying that the very source of the world's life, when set up in opposition to Him, will become the source of its death. This sign is not an invitation, but a warning. It is a foretaste of the plagues. It shows that continued unbelief in the face of God's gracious revelation will inevitably lead to judgment.

Application

The lessons here are potent for us. First, God calls us to serve Him not with abilities we don't have, but with the "staff" that is already in our hand. He consecrates our ordinary lives and uses them for His glory. We must be willing to throw down what we have at His command, relinquishing our own control.

Second, we must learn to act in faith, to "grasp the serpent by the tail." Obedience to God will often seem counter-intuitive and foolish to the world. But it is in that obedience that God's power is displayed and the enemy is defeated.

Finally, we see the progression of God's revelation. He reveals His power over our enemies, His power to cleanse our sin, and His power to judge the unbelieving world. These three signs find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ. In His life, He demonstrated authority over demons. In His death, He provided cleansing for our leprous souls. And in His return, He will execute judgment upon all who have rejected the testimony, turning the rivers of their false worship into blood.