1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.
4:1-171 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.
Moses said to God,
They won't believe that you appeared to me. [1]
2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
God said,
Throw your rod on the ground.
Moses threw his rod on the ground, and his rod became a snake!
Moses ran away from it.
4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
God said,
Grab the snake by the tail.
Moses grabbed the snake and it became a rod!
5That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
God said,
These tricks will make them believe that I appeared to you. [2]
6 And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.
For his next trick, God said,
Put your hand on your chest.
Moses put his hand on his chest, and his hand became leprous!
7 And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.
God said,
Put your hand on your chest again.
Moses put his hand on his chest again, and his hand was cured!
8 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
9 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
God said,
If the snake trick doesn't work, the leprous-hand trick will.And if they won't believe these two tricks, take water from the river and pour it on the ground. It'll turn to blood.
10 And Moses said unto the LORD, O my LORD, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
Moses said,
I'm not a good speaker. [3]
11 And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?
12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
God said,
Who made men's mouths?
Who made blind and deaf people? Wasn't it me? [4]
Go. I'll be with your mouth; I'll teach you what to say.
13 And he said, O my LORD, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.
Please God, send someone else.
14 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.
15 And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.
16And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.
17 And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.
Isn't Aaron your brother? I know that he can speak well.
You'll put words in his mouth. I'll be with your mouth and with his mouth.
He'll be your spokesman. He'll be your mouth, and you'll be like God to him.
Be sure to take your rod with you. You'll need it for the magic tricks.
4:18-2318 And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.
Moses said to Jethro, his father-in-law [5],
May I go back to Egypt to see who is still alive there?
Jethro said,
Sure. Go in peace.
19 And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.
God said to Moses,
Go back to Egypt.Everyone who was trying to kill you is now dead.
20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
So Moses put his wife and sons [6] on an ass, and returned to Egypt, carrying God's rod in his hand.
21 And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.
22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
23 And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.
God said to Moses,
When you get to Egypt, do all the wonders that I taught you in front of the Pharaoh.
I'll harden his heart so he won't let the people go. [7]
And say to him: God says,
Israel is my firstborn son. If you refuse to let him go, I'll kill your firstborn son.
4:24-2624 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.
25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.
26 So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
While Moses was traveling to Egypt, God tried to kill him. [8]
Luckily for Moses, his Egyptian wife Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at Moses's feet [9], and said,
Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.So God let Moses go.
Zipporah said to Moses,
A bloody husband you are because of the circumcision.
4:27-3127 And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.
God said to Moses,
Go into the wilderness to meet Aaron.
So Moses met Aaron on the mountain of God, and kissed him.
28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him.
29 And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel:
30 And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto 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 children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.
Moses said the Egypians won't believe him, so God teaches him some magic tricks. (See Exodus 7, where Moses and Aaron perform some of these tricks for the Pharaoh.)
Who makes people deaf and blind?
What the Bible says about blind and handicapped people
Up to now, Moses only had one son, Gershom, who was born in verse 2:22. But perhaps one or more sons were born, but were not mentioned, since then.
The story doesn't say for sure, but apparently God's motive for trying to kill Moses was that his son (Gershom, or one of the other nameless ones) wasn't yet circumcised.
Note for Ex 4:25 from The Oxford Annotated Bible: "Feet, a euphemism for the sexual organs (Is 7:20)." - Page 72
God's maximal power is on full non-display here. Though he imbues Moses with some really cool party tricks, it leaves us wondering why God can't just appear to his own people to tell them that Moses is going to lead them out of Egypt. If he can send an "angel of God" to speak through a bush that apparently needed to be on fire (unless "burning" refers to something entirely different that the Bible doesn't explain), certainly he can manifest for the Israelites under simple circumstances...right?
It's also unclear why God attempted to kill Moses. God gave Moses clear instructions which Moses was following, but God just decides, "screw it, I'm going to kill this guy" and stopped by a random circumcision? What?
Apparently, God forgets about this and goes back to psychically talking to Moses about where to find Aaron and what to do with him.
God's maximal power is on full non-display here. Though he imbues Moses with some really cool party tricks, it leaves us wondering why God can't just appear to his own people to tell them that Moses is going to lead them out of Egypt. If he can send an "angel of God" to speak through a bush that apparently needed to be on fire (unless "burning" refers to something entirely different that the Bible doesn't explain), certainly he can manifest for the Israelites under simple circumstances...right?