Ep. 25. Exodus 4 | Signs and Return
EPISODE 25
SIGNS AND RETURN: EXODUS 4
Moses is undoubtedly a reluctant rescuer of the people of Israel. He was less hesitant forty years earlier when he killed the Egyptian man, but now he's had some time to think about it. Indeed, he remembers the words spoken to him by his kinsman, "Who made you our ruler and judge." Moses answers God, "Behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice." But God gives him a few signs. A staff will turn into a snake, Moses' hand will become diseased and then healed, and water will turn to blood. Surely, the people will believe these miraculous signs. Moses objects again, "I'm not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and tongue." There are a couple of things we note here. First, "since you have spoken to your servant" seems out of place if God has only been talking to Moses for a few minutes at the burning bush. However, we already saw from the New Testament that Moses was clear about God's calling on his life forty years earlier. So, this is not likely the first time God has spoken to Moses.
The second thing we observe here is God's response, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?" This verse always makes me think of the story in John 9. The disciples see a man born blind, and they ask Jesus, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus responds, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him." God was not caught off guard by Moses' inability to speak well. He is the one who made Moses and the mouth Moses possessed. The blind man in John had been born blind and remained that way for forty years so that God could display his works in the man's life. The result was salvation and sight. In John 11, Lazarus is allowed to die for the glory of God. And through the subsequent resurrection of Lazarus, many people came to put their faith in Jesus. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, "I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but the power of God." In his second letter to the Corinthians, he says, "I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." And what said of Peter and John except that they "were uneducated, common men?" So then Moses is just one in a long line of unremarkable people, so God could be shown to be absolutely remarkable.
It makes me think that perhaps I should be skeptical of people who bring their own merit to bear when "speaking for God." All glory for him and to him, and he will not share his glory with another.
Of great significance in this chapter is the foreshadowing we see of the plague on the firstborn. "Thus says the Lord [to Pharoah], Israel is my firstborn son. Let my son go so that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son." We know that Pharoah will not listen to Moses and that the tenth and final plague on Egypt is as good as guaranteed.
What is Israel's response to Moses' signs and message? "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." Sadly, they won't believe for long.
ADDITIONAL READING: Acts 4:13, John 9, John 11, 2 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5
