1 And Moses answered and said, “But, look, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice: for they will say, The LORD has not appeared unto thee.”
Moses is scared and looking for an excuse to get out of his calling.
2 And the LORD said unto him, “What is that in thine hand?” And he said, “A rod.”
So, what is in your hand?
God has given you everything you need to do His will in your life.
“And whoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, truly I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” Matthew 10:42
“…and who knows but what thou are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14b
You are in this place at this time to do a work for God. He has given you all you need to accomplish it. It may not seem like much to you, but it is important to Him or He would not have put you here.
What is it He wants you to accomplish?
Take soup to the sick lady next door?
Pull the elderly man across the street’s weeds?
Change your child’s dirty diaper?
“And the King shall answer and say unto them, ‘Truly I say to you, whenever ye have done it to one of the least of these My brothers, ye have done it to Me.’ ” Matthew 25:40
What essential ministry is in your hand to do today?
3 And He said, “Throw it on the ground.” And he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses ran from it.
4 And the LORD said unto Moses, “Put out thine hand, and take it by the tail.” And he put out his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
I wonder how long Moses had to stare at that snake before he got the courage to grab its tail.
5 “That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared unto thee.”
6 And the LORD said more to him, “Put now thine hand into thy coat.” And he put his hand into his coat: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.
7 And He said, “Put thine hand into thy coat again.” And he put his hand into his coat again; and plucked it out of his coat, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.
Leprosy is a highly contagious, deadly disease where your skin rots off your body. We still don’t have a cure for some varieties. But, of course, God can cure it.
8 “And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the second sign.
9 “And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither listen to thy voice, that thou shall take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou take out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.”
These signs were likely designed to directly address three of the most common fears of humanity; snakes, disease, and (especially in a desert region), contaminated water. God caused and cured all three.
10 And Moses said unto the LORD, “O my LORD, I am not eloquent, neither in the past, nor since thou have spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
Possibly Moses had a speech impediment. Or maybe he just was “slow on his feet;” the brain functioned well but had a slow “processor,” as it were.
Anyway, he obviously didn’t want to do what God was telling him to do.
11 And the LORD said unto him, “Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the LORD?
12 “Now then go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shall say.”
If God made the mouth, surely He would know what it was capable of and would not ask something that was impossible. With God’s help we can do anything He tells us to do.
13 And he said, “O my LORD, send, I pray thee, 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, look, he is coming to meet thee: and when he sees thee, he will be glad in his heart.
15 “And thou shall 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.
16 “And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shall be to him instead of God.
17 “And thou shall take this rod in thine hand, which thou shall use to do signs.”
God is not happy about Moses attitude, but He sends him help in his brother Aaron.
I wonder if Moses had just accepted his job if we would have had a “Mosaic Priesthood,” instead of an “Aaronic Priesthood.” When we don’t obey God cheerfully and quickly, we miss out on many blessings He wants to give us.
18 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 brothers who are in Egypt, and see if they be still alive”. And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19 And the LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead who wanted to kill thee.”
This tells us that whoever was Pharaoh at the time Moses left has died.
- Amenemhet III (Nimaatre) “Sour face”
- Amenemhet IV (Maakherure) son or grandson of Amenemhet III? Moses?
- Neferusobek (Sobekkare) Daughter of Amenemhet III.
Neferusobek was the last pharaoh of the 12th dynasty. The 13th dynasty begins with 21 pharaohs who all had very short rules; sometimes as little as one month. The 22nd was Neferhotep I who had a longer rule.
20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
21 And the LORD said to Moses, “When thou go 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 shall say to Pharaoh, This is what the LORD says, ‘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, look, I will kill thy son, even thy firstborn.’ “
Again God warns Moses what is going to happen. What’s more, He tells Moses to warn Pharaoh what is going to happen. God is Love and Justice, and He will deal fairly with us and give us the chance to do right. He doesn’t blind-side us.
24 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and tried to kill him.
We don’t know how long between the time of The Bush and the time Moses was able to leave. It may have been days or weeks.
25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and threw it at his feet, and said, “Surely a bloody husband you are to me.”
The best explanation I can find for this is that Zipporah gave birth to their youngest just before they left her father’s house and they hadn’t taken time to circumcise the baby. Zipporah evidently didn’t really want to do this ritual (though she obviously knew enough about it to know how). It is very likely that Midianites also circumcised, being descendants of Abraham, but since Ishmaelites delayed this ritual until the boy was thirteen, they probably did too.
Moses let his wife have her way, which is against God’s command that the man be the Head of the household. God evidently made Moses sick to death, so she acted to save her husband’s life, though with a bad attitude.
26 So He let him go: then she said, “A bloody husband you are,” because of the circumcision.
There is no more mention of Moses wife again until Exodus eighteen where Jethro brings her and the boys back to Moses. Evidently, she went home to Papa after this incident.
Again, look at the miracles she missed out on witnessing, the position in Israel she forfeited by not following her hubby as God commands wives to do.
27 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.
Why would Aaron be there? The only excuse I know of is simply that God told him to be.
28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs that he had told him to do.
29 And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the leaders of the children of Israel:
30 And Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and preformed the signs as they watched.
31 And the people believed God had sent them and was concerned about their slavery, they bowed their heads and worshiped.