Exodus 4-5:
“The Signs Given To Moses / Moses & Aaron Appear Before Pharaoh For The
First Time”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked at chapter 3 of the book of Exodus.
1.1.1. We looked at the mental disposition of Moses having
spent 40 years in the desert as a shepherd and living a life of obscurity. We talked about how God was preparing him for
his most unusual role of the deliverer of God’s people, and being the only one
besides Jesus Christ who would fulfill the role of prophet, priest and
king. Moses needed this 40 years of
preparation in order to be the kind of leader that the Lord needed at that time.
1.1.2. The Lord spoke to Moses
through a bush that burned but was not consumed, and He called Moses to go and
deliver His people from their oppression of slavery in
1.2.
In our study today, we are going to look at chapters 4 & 5 of
Exodus.
1.2.1. In chapter 4 we see that as
Moses is still before this burning bush that the Lord gives him three
miraculous signs that he can perform at any time in order to show the children
of
1.2.2. When Moses objects to being
God’s spokesman the Lord tells him to have Aaron speak for him.
1.2.3. In chapter 5 we see that Moses
and Aaron appear before Pharaoh and tell him that the Lord has said that he is
to let
1.2.4. Before we get into the
study, I want to pose a couple of questions.
If the Lord was planning to take the children of Israel out of Egypt
through miraculous signs, why didn’t He just do one mighty sign and thereby
prove Himself to be so great and powerful through them as to cause the
Egyptians to let the Israelites go right out of their land to Canaan? Secondly, if the Lord was planning to bring
up all of the Israelites out of the country of
1.2.4.1.I believe is that the Lord
worked in this way because He was trying to give Pharaoh and the Egyptians
every opportunity to repent and turn back to Him. They needed to have the state of their own
hearts revealed to them though first. He
will perform miracle after miracle right before the Pharaoh’s eyes, and yet he
will refuse to acknowledge that the Lord He is God over all.
1.2.4.2.The children of
2.
VS 4:1-5 - “1 Then Moses said, “What if they
will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ” 2 The Lord
said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A 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. 4 But the Lord
said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he
stretched 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.”” - The Lord gives to Moses the
first sign that he might use to persuade the Israelites and Pharaoh of his
calling: his staff that would change
back and forth into a serpent
2.1.
Moses standing before the burning bush that is not being consumed, asks
the Lord what should he do or what will happen if the children of Israel do not
believe his story about the Lord appearing to him and calling him, and they
instead say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’
2.2.
As is always the case with God who knows the end from the beginning in
all things, He has a solution for this problem that He has already considered
and planned for. The Lord will give
Moses three different miraculous signs that he may perform at will in order to
demonstrate his calling by the Lord.
2.3.
Note here that the Lord calls Himself, ‘the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not now in
Abraham’s Bosom, the Lord would not speak of Himself as being their God. As Jesus said, “He is not the God of the
dead but of the living.”
2.4.
The Lord tells Moses to throw down to the ground the staff that is in
his hand, and when he does it turns into ‘a serpent.’ When
Moses sees the serpent he is scared and ‘fled from it.’
2.5.
Then, the Lord tells
Moses to reach out his hand and ‘grasp it
by its tail.’ So, then Moses
reached out his hand and ‘caught it.’
2.6.
It is obvious that there must be a lot of symbolism in these signs that
the Lord gives to Moses to perform, and I think that in regard to this first
sign these symbolisms are apparent:
2.6.1. ‘Moses’ himself symbolizes “Jesus Christ”
as he fulfills the role of the deliverer of God’s people.
2.6.2. The deliverance of the Hebrews is symbolic of “deliverance
from sin and Satan.”
2.6.3. Moses’ shepherd’s ‘staff’
symbolizes “his authority and protective care,” as a shepherd would
chase off a predator with his staff as well as reign in a wander sheep with
it.
2.6.4. The ‘serpent’ that
Moses’ staff turns into symbolizes our adversary “the Devil” as he was
the serpent in the garden and referred to as such throughout the scriptures.
2.6.5. Jesus’ being placed upon the cross and being made a
curse for us in order for us to be saved from our sins is symbolized by this
serpent, for in John 3:13-16 when
Jesus is talking with Nicodemus who came to Him by night and telling him that a
person must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus
referred to the incident in Numbers 21:19 when the people were being bitten by
poisonous vipers and Moses was told to make a golden serpent and place it upon
a pole such that when the people looked at it after being bitten they could be
cured of their illness, ““No one has ascended into heaven, but He who
descended from heaven: the Son of Man. “As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
so
that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. “For God so
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.””
2.7.
As a symbol of Jesus Christ, the deliverer of God’s people, Moses was
able to turn his staff into a serpent and then grab and constrain that serpent
and thereby have it turn it back into a staff, and do so at will. This illustrates the fact that though Satan
may have been able to come to exist after being created by God and then
falling, that Jesus Christ can at will constrain Satan and turn the works of
evil into good in the lives of believers converted to salvation. He can do all of this through the staff of his
authority and protective care as the Great Shepherd.
3.
VS 4:6-8 - “6 The Lord furthermore said to him, “Now put your hand into your
bosom.” So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his
hand was leprous like snow. 7
Then He said, “Put your hand into your bosom again.” So he put his hand
into his bosom again, and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it was
restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you or heed the witness
of the first sign, they may believe the witness of the last sign.” - The Lord gives to Moses the
second sign that he might use to persuade the Israelites and Pharaoh of his
calling: he could put his hand into his
bosom and it would alternately turn leprous and become normal again
3.1.
This next sign that the Lord gives Moses to perform is that at will he
is able to put his hand to his breast and have it alternately come out white
covered with leprosy, and normal.
3.2.
This amazing sign obviously had some symbolisms in it, including:
3.2.1. ‘Leprosy’ is symbolic
in the scriptures of “sin” and its effects in human lives.
3.2.2. With Moses symbolizing Jesus
Christ, the putting the hand into the breast and having it alternately come out
leprous points to Jesus Christ who was made sin for us on Calvary’s cross: 2
Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
3.2.3. This also symbolizes the fact that the Lord has healed
us of our sin: Isaiah 53:5, ““But He was pierced through
for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for
our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”
3.2.4. It was the breast that
caused the hand to become leprous symbolising the fact that sin comes from
the heart and is a condition of the heart.
4.
VS 4:9 - “9 “But if they will not believe
even these two signs or heed what you say, then you shall take some water from
the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water which you take from the
Nile will become blood on the dry ground.””
- The Lord gives to Moses the third sign
that he might use to persuade the Israelites and Pharaoh of his calling: he could turn water into blood
4.1.
This third sign that the Lord gave Moses to able to perform is that he was
able to take water from the
4.2.
This sign was given to Moses only if the people did not believe the
previous two signs.
4.3.
This turning of water into blood “symbolizes the grave nature of
judgment” from God for those who refuse to repent. In the book of Revelation chapter 16, that
the third bowl judgment involves the turning of all of the rivers and springs
of water into blood. If the people
refuse to repent then they will eventually experience judgment and condemnation
that is severe.
5.
VS 4:10-16 - “10 Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been
eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your
servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” 11 The Lord
said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf,
or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12 “Now then go, and I, even
I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.” 13 But he said, “Please, Lord, now send the
message by whomever You will.” 14 Then the anger of the Lord
burned against Moses, and He said, “Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite?
I know that he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet
you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 “You are to speak to him and put the words in his
mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach
you what you are to do. 16 “Moreover, he shall speak
for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God
to him.” - Moses objects to having to be
a spokesman to God stating that he is slow of speech and of tongue, then after
the Lord tries to encourage him that He would be with his mouth and teach him
what to say, the Lord tells him that Moses’ brother Aaron could speak for him
5.1.
Here we see that Moses again begins to argue with the burning
bush. He beseeches the Lord who is
possessing the bush that He might find someone else to be His spokesman in
leading the children of
5.2.
It is possible that Moses had some sort of speech impediment for he
tells the Lord that he is not qualified to be His spokesman because he is ‘slow
of speech’ and ‘tongue.’
5.3.
The Lord again tries to reassure Moses that He will be with him so he
did not need to worry about speaking for the Lord. The Lord asks Moses who it is that ‘has
made man’s mouth’? This indicates
the fact that if the Lord made the mouth of man then He is also able to fill
it.
5.4.
The Lord secondly asks Moses who it is who has made man ‘mute or
deaf, or seeing or blind’? This
again infers that if the Lord made the ears and hearing or the eyes and seeing,
that He is also able to make people hear or see the truth when someone acting
as his spokesman speaks for Him.
5.5.
The Lord finally tells Moses that He will ‘be with your mouth,”
and also that He will ‘teach you what you are to say.’ Moses should not worry about testifying for
the Lord and communicating the message that the Lord wants to give him, for God
will show him what to say and even be with his mouth when he speaks in the
Lord’s Name.
5.6.
Finally, the Lord concedes to Moses and tells him to have his brother
Aaron, a man who is fluent of speech, to be the spokesman for him to the
children of
5.6.1. The Lord’s concession to
Moses is comforting to us because it shows that God knows that we are but
sinful people and that He works with us in spite of our limitations and the
lack of faith that we sometimes have.
5.7.
The Lord always prepares His people for the ministries that He has for
them, and we see here that the Lord prepares Aaron, Moses brother, to be the
spokesman, saying to Moses the following about Aaron: ‘he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he
will be glad in his heart.’
5.8.
Even though Aaron
shall be the spokesman, Moses is not off the hook here for we see that the Lord
tells Moses that He will speak to Moses and that Moses shall then tell Aaron
what he shall say all of the time: ‘I, will be with your
mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do, Moreover, he
shall speak for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you
will be as God to him.””
6.
VS 4:17 - “17 “You shall take in your hand this
staff, with which you shall perform the signs.””
- The Lord tells Moses to always take
his staff with him wherever he goes in order to be able to perform the signs
the Lord gave him
7.
VS 4:18-20 - “18 Then Moses departed and returned to
Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please, let me go, that I may return
to my brethren who are in
7.1.
We can respect Moses for asking permission to go to
7.2.
However, Moses isn’t really honest with his father-in-law about why he
was going to
7.3.
Moses takes his whole family with him to
7.4.
Moses also ‘took the staff’ which is now referred to here as the
‘staff of God” for his trip, as he is obedient to what the Lord told him
to do by taking it.
8.
VS 4:21-23 - “21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you
perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I
will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “
8.1.
Note here the Lord tells Moses to ‘see that you perform before
Pharaoh all the wonders’ but also tells him that He ‘will harden his
heart’ and as a result he will ‘not let
the people go.’
8.2.
One could wonder
what the use of even going before Pharaoh is if the Lord knows that Pharaoh
will not listen, and also because the Lord plans to harden Pharaoh’s heart not
to listen. However, Moses is supposed to
go before Pharaoh and perform all of the signs that he will perform because the
Lord is showing how that He is long suffering and patient and giving Pharaoh
and the Egyptians many opportunities to repent and be saved from
destruction.
8.3.
To his credit, Moses is willing to go and speak with Pharaoh on the
Lord’s behalf, even though the Lord has told him that Pharaoh will not listen.
8.4.
The Lord tells Moses here he is to tell Pharaoh that ‘Israel is My
son, My firstborn.” And, if that
because he has refused to let His son go that the Lord ‘will kill your son
your firstborn.’ This will be the
eventual result of the Lord’s dealings with Pharaoh through Moses. When the ‘firstborn’ of
9.
VS 4:24-26 - “24 Now it came about at the lodging
place on the way that the Lord met
him and sought to put him to death. 25 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.” 26 So He let him alone. At
that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood”—because of the
circumcision.” - The Lord
seeks to put Moses to death on the way to
9.1.
It appears that Moses’ wife Ziporrah would not allow her son to be
circumcised as was required by the Lord for His people (instituted under
Abraham). Now though, Zipporah is angry
with Moses for the boy not being circumcised, or perhaps she is angry because
Moses served a God that required all males to be circumcised. In any case, there is a reason that later
Moses will send his wife back to her father-in-law.
9.2.
It appears that perhaps because Zipporah cut off the foreskin of her
boy that Moses at this time was somehow struck down by the Lord and
incapacitated so he could not circumcise the lad.
10.
VS 4:27-31 - “27 Now the Lord said to Aaron, “Go to meet Moses in the wilderness.” So
he went and met him at the
10.1.
It is very interesting here to see how the Lord prepares Aaron to meet
up with Moses. The Lord tells him to go
and meet Moses in the wilderness, and Moses met him at the
10.2.
Here we see that Moses told Aaron all that the Lord had told him,
including the signs. I would imagine
that Moses actually performed the signs for Aaron at this time as well.
10.3.
Moses and Aaron then went and assembled all of the elders of
10.4.
The people realized that Moses and Aaron had indeed been called of the
Lord, and thus they believed them and their story.
10.5.
When the people hear that the Lord had ‘seen their affliction’
and sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them for bondage and
11.
VS 5:1-5 - “1 And afterward Moses and Aaron
came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord,
the God of
11.1.
Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh and gave him a word from God
telling them to let the children of
11.2.
Moses and Aaron then make the following request of Pharaoh: ‘Please, let us go a three days’ journey
into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’
11.3.
Pharaoh denies their request and his response was, “I do not know
the Lord.” This is typical of all
unbelievers. They do not know the Lord,
and they are unwilling to hear Him and do His will in their life.
11.4.
Evidently Pharaoh had heard about Moses and Aaron and their calling by
the Lord to get the children of
11.5.
Pharaoh did not want the people to leave because their were so many of
them that if they all left for three days a huge amount of labor would not be
completed and this would set back the brick production in the country
significantly.
12.
VS 5:6-19 - “6 So the same day Pharaoh commanded
the taskmasters over the people and their foremen, saying, 7 “You are no longer to give the people straw to
make brick as previously; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 “But the quota of bricks which they were making
previously, you shall impose on them; you are not to reduce any of it. Because
they are lazy, therefore they cry out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 “Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them
work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words.” 10 So the taskmasters of the people and their foremen
went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I am not going
to give you any straw. 11
‘You go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, but
none of your labor will be reduced.’ ” 12 So the people scattered through all the
12.1.
Pharaoh does even more to illustrate his being a type of Satan
here. When the children of
12.1.1. Whenever God’s people try to
take a stand for the Lord and break away from sin in their life, they will meet
spiritual warfare because the Lord allows Satan to mess with them. The Lord uses the spiritual warfare in His
people’s lives to mold their character however, and so this turns out to be a
good thing. Plus, spiritual warfare
always brings a wake up call to God’s people helping them to realize that they
have an adversary and are in a battle and that they need to trust in the Lord
for their help and deliverance.
12.2.
After this the taskmaster beat the Hebrew foremen for their people not
meeting their quota of bricks.
12.3.
The Hebrew foremen brought their complaint to Pharaoh for the way they
and the Israelites were being treated, however Pharaoh denied them their
request and called them ‘lazy.’
12.3.1. These Hebrew foremen are
much like us in the church today. We
tend to look to man when we have difficulties rather than looking to the Lord
for our help. God shouldn’t be our last
recourse.
13.
VS 5:20-23 - “20 When they left Pharaoh’s
presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them. 21 They said to them, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you, for
you have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to
put a sword in their hand to kill us.” 22 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have You brought harm to this
people? Why did You ever send me? 23 “Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he
has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.”” - When Moses and Aaron met up
with the Hebrew foremen they were angry at Moses and Aaron and blamed them for
the mistreatment the Hebrews were experiencing, and then Moses went to the Lord
and cried out to Him in prayer
13.1.
The Hebrew foremen immediately turned on Moses and Aaron when they met
up. They blamed Moses and Aaron for
making them ‘odious in Pharaoh’s sight in the sight of his servants.’
13.2.
Moses’ greatest
trials will come because of the children of Israel and the hardness of their
hearts and their being stiff-necked and stubborn.
13.3.
One of the things that was unique about Moses, and this must have a lot
to do with his life of prayer that developed while shepherding in the
wilderness for 40 years prior to this, he constantly takes his difficulties and
problems to the Lord in prayer. He knew
that importance of praying about all of our needs and desires.
13.3.1. We as Christians need to
learn to come to the Lord first for our help.
13.4.
In the scriptures, we see that the Lord never condemns anyone for
bringing their complaints to Him. When
we bring our complaints and difficulties to the Lord He hears us and meets our
need.
14.
CONCLUSIONS:
14.1.
.