Exodus 4

Ex 4:1-31.

MIRACULOUS

CHANGE OF THE

ROD, &c.

1. But, behold--Hebrew, "If," "perhaps," "they will not

believe me."--What evidence can I produce of my divine mission? There

was still a want of full confidence, not in the character and divine

power of his employer, but in His presence and power always

accompanying him. He insinuated that his communication might be

rejected and he himself treated as an impostor.

2. the Lord said, . . . What is that in thine

hand?--The question was put not to elicit information which God

required, but to draw the particular attention of Moses.

A rod--probably the shepherd's crook--among the Arabs, a long

staff, with a curved head, varying from three to six feet in

length.

6. Put now thine hand into thy bosom--the open part of his outer

robe, worn about the girdle.

9. take of the water of the river--Nile. Those miracles, two of

which were wrought then, and the third to be performed on his arrival

in Goshen, were at first designed to encourage him as satisfactory

proofs of his divine mission, and to be repeated for the special

confirmation of his embassy before the Israelites.

10-13. I am not eloquent--It is supposed that Moses labored

under a natural defect of utterance or had a difficulty in the free and

fluent expression of his ideas in the Egyptian language, which he had

long disused. This new objection was also overruled, but still Moses,

who foresaw the manifold difficulties of the undertaking, was anxious

to be freed from the responsibility.

14. the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses--The Divine

Being is not subject to ebullitions of passion; but His displeasure was

manifested by transferring the honor of the priesthood, which would

otherwise have been bestowed on Moses, to Aaron, who was from this time

destined to be the head of the house of Levi

(1Ch 23:13).

Marvellous had been His condescension and patience in dealing with

Moses; and now every remaining scruple was removed by the unexpected

and welcome intelligence that his brother Aaron was to be his

colleague. God knew from the beginning what Moses would do, but He

reserves this motive to the last as the strongest to rouse his languid

heart, and Moses now fully and cordially complied with the call. If we

are surprised at his backwardness amidst all the signs and promises

that were given him, we must admire his candor and honesty in recording

it.

18. Moses . . . returned to Jethro--Being in his

service, it was right to obtain his consent, but Moses evinced piety,

humility, and prudence, in not divulging the special object of his

journey.

19. all the men are dead which sought thy life--The death of the

Egyptian monarch took place in the four hundred and twenty-ninth year

of the Hebrew sojourn in that land, and that event, according to the

law of Egypt, took off his proscription of Moses, if it had been

publicly issued.

20. Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an

ass--Septuagint, "asses." Those animals are not now used in

the desert of Sinai except by the Arabs for short distances.

returned--entered on his journey towards Egypt.

he took the rod of God--so called from its being appropriated to

His service, and because whatever miracles it might be employed in

performing would be wrought not by its inherent properties, but by a

divine power following on its use. (Compare

Ac 3:12).

24. inn--Hebrew, "a halting place for the night."

the Lord met him, and sought to kill him--that is, he was either

overwhelmed with mental distress or overtaken by a sudden and dangerous

malady. The narrative is obscure, but the meaning seems to be, that,

led during his illness to a strict self-examination, he was deeply

pained and grieved at the thought of having, to please his wife,

postponed or neglected the circumcision of one of his sons, probably

the younger. To dishonor that sign and seal of the covenant was

criminal in any Hebrew, peculiarly so in one destined to be the leader

and deliverer of the Hebrews; and he seems to have felt his sickness as

a merited chastisement for his sinful omission. Concerned for her

husband's safety, Zipporah overcomes her maternal feelings of aversion

to the painful rite, performs herself, by means of one of the sharp

flints with which that part of the desert abounds, an operation which

her husband, on whom the duty devolved, was unable to do, and having

brought the bloody evidence, exclaimed in the painful excitement of her

feelings that from love to him she had risked the life of her child

[CALVIN, BULLINGER,

ROSENMULLER].

26. So he let him go--Moses recovered; but the remembrance of

this critical period in his life would stimulate the Hebrew legislator

to enforce a faithful attention to the rite of circumcision when it was

established as a divine ordinance in Israel, and made their peculiar

distinction as a people.

27. Aaron met him in the mount of God, and kissed him--After a

separation of forty years, their meeting would be mutually happy.

Similar are the salutations of Arab friends when they meet in the

desert still; conspicuous is the kiss on each side of the head.

29-31. Moses and Aaron went--towards Egypt, Zipporah and her

sons having been sent back. (Compare

Ex 18:2).

gathered . . . all the elders--Aaron was spokesman,

and Moses performed the appointed miracles--through which "the people"

(that is, the elders) believed

(1Ki 17:24;

Jos 3:2)

and received the joyful tidings of the errand on which Moses had come

with devout thanksgiving. Formerly they had slighted the message and

rejected the messenger. Formerly Moses had gone in his own strength;

now he goes leaning on God, and strong only through faith in Him who

had sent him. Israel also had been taught a useful lesson, and it was

good for both that they had been afflicted.