Exodus chapter 4 begins with Moses still before the Lord on Mount Horeb. God has just explained the successful outcome that will follow, and Moses asks, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me?“. God answers, “What is that in your hand?“. “A staff,” Moses replies. God said, “Throw it on the ground“. And when he does, it turns into a snake. Then the Lord told Moses to pick it back up and, “the snake turned back into a staff in his hand“. Many of us have things in our life we lean on. It might be wealth or intelligence, or good looks or charm, but these things must be laid down before God. Once we recognize that trusting in our own talent is keeping us from being used by God, then we can pick them up again. Notice at the end of the chapter, the staff is now called “the staff of God“. God desires to work in our whole life, not just our Sunday morning. God then gives Moses two more signs of His authority. The Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak“… and when he took it out, it was leprous. “Now put it back into your cloak“, and when he removed it , it was completely restored. Next, God says, “if they do not pay attention to the first miraculous signs… take some water from the Nile and pour it out… it will become blood on the ground“. The first two signs are examples of transformation and regeneration, but the last sign is one of judgment. Through Christ, God will restore us to perfect standing with Him, but for those that do not believe there is certain judgment.
Until now Moses has been questioning his own usefulness to God, but then Moses expresses his UNWILLINGNESS. “I have never been eloquent… I am slow of speech and tongue“… “Oh Lord, please send someone else to do it.” And we read, “God’s anger burned against Moses“. God is never angry when we question our own ability, in fact, that is the point when we recognize our NEED. But God had already promised Moses, “Go, I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say“. God is angered when we question His character or His faithfulness. The apostle Paul explains to the believers in Corinth that he is confident that we are not lacking in any gift, because, “God is faithful through whom you are called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:9). Paul declares our entire belief in salvation is based on this, “Our hope of eternal life, which God , who cannot lie, promised long ago” (Titus 1:2). God allows Aaron the brother of Moses to speak on behalf of Moses, but as we will see, he becomes a great hindrance to Moses. God will work through our reluctance and hesitation, but often our unbelief has its own consequences. God will accomplish His will, even through our reluctance.
Moses asks permission from his father-in-law, and then leaves. “So Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.” Next we read a strange verse. At a lodging place on the way, “God met with Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah (his wife) 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 (referring to the circumcision). So the Lord let him alone“. It is likely that Zipporah, not being a child of Abraham, refused to allow Moses to circumcise the boys as God commanded. God deals severely with disobedience and Moses was responsible for his wife. God often deals with our disobedience by allowing us to experience His discipline. God holds the man responsible for the woman in marriage; that is why Ephesians 5:22-23 says, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the church“. Don’t miss these roles; we honor Christ because He laid down His life for us. Husbands are to have sacrificial love for their wives. The chapter ends with Moses and Aaron telling the Israelites “everything God had said to Moses… and they believed“. Then “they bowed down and worshipped“. Let’s be encouraged to pick up the staff of God and tell “everything God has said” to those around us today.