Exodus 4:1-17 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Exodus 4:1-17. Let’s go!
Exodus 4:1-5 (NIV)
1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
2 Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.
3 The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.
4 Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
5 “This,” said the LORD, “is so 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.”
On verses 1-5: Moses wonders what to do when people question whether God really sent him. God responds with a question of his own: “What is in your hand?” (v2). Whenever God calls you to a great task, He doesn’t leave you empty handed. In fact the things that God wants you to use are often the very things God has already placed in your hand. (For example, when Jesus asked his disciples to feed the 5,000, he simply asked them to give Him whatever was already in their hand. When they gave him the little that they thought they had, God used it to feed a multitude.)
The staff in Moses’ hand represented his identity, his income and his influence. Just as Moses threw down the staff at God’s command and it became a snake, when you surrender your identity, your income and your influence to God for God’s purposes, God will do more with what He placed in your hand than you could.
Don’t underestimate what God has placed in your hand. Just offer it to God and watch Him do more with what is in your hand for His purposes than you could for your own purposes.
Exodus 4:6-9 (NIV)
6 Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.
7 “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
8 Then the LORD said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second.
9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
On verses 6-9: The signs that God gave Moses to perform were in many ways signs warning of coming judgment: a healthy hand becomes leprous; water turns to blood. In contrast, when Jesus arrives on the scene centuries later, the miraculous signs Jesus performs speak not of death and judgment but of life and restoration: Jesus turns water not into blood but into wine; Jesus doesn’t make a person leprous but heals them of their leprosy. God would send both Moses and Jesus, but remember that while Moses is a faithful servant in God’s house, Jesus is greater because Jesus is a faithful son over God’s house (see Hebrews 3:1-6).
Exodus 4:10-13 (NIV)
10 Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
11 The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
13 But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”
On verses 10-13: Do you ever doubt that God can use you? That was Moses’ struggle. Moses had tried helping the Israelites before, but he did it his own way and it backfired (see Exodus 2:11-15). Now God was calling him to help the Israelites, and Moses’ response was “please send someone else to do it” (v13). Several times Moses would question God on His plan to use him (see 3:11; 4:1, 10, 13). Partly it was because Moses was a beaver personality – very analytical and detail-oriented, not a confident people person. But more than that, Moses doubted himself and whether God could use him.
Deep down Moses wanted God to use his life, but Moses first had to learn an important lesson: God was teaching Moses to trust not in himself or his own abilities or his resume, but in God. When it comes to whether you can be effective in making a difference in other people’s lives, what matters most is not WHO you are, but WHOSE you are!
Exodus 4:14-17 (NIV)
14 Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you.
15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.
16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.
17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it.”
On verses 14-17: Knowing Moses’ weakness, God commissions Moses and his brother Aaron to go together to speak to the Israelites. Likewise, because God knows that we are weak on our own, He doesn’t send us to accomplish His mission alone. Rather He sends us as part of a team, a bigger body. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:20-21, “As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” You weren’t made to serve God by yourself, but as part of a team.
Heavenly Father, thank You that what matters most is not WHO I am but WHOSE I am. Thank You that because I belong to You, it’s not about my ability, but Yours. Thank You that You made me not to rely on myself, but to work with You and others. May I use wisely what You place in my hand to serve Your purposes. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
