The Book of Exodus, Chapter 4

This chapter of Exodus is about Moses getting signs from God. Moses also returns to Egypt & meets up with Aaron, his brother. This is a precursor chapter really. It sets up the rest of Exodus, getting the “main characters” together. I hope you enjoy!!

Moses & God are still talking together. Moses asks God what if the Israelites don’t listen to him. God tells him to take his staff & throw it on the ground. Moses does & the staff becomes a snake! Moses runs from the snake. God then tells Moses to pick up the snake. He does & it becomes the staff again. God tells Moses that this will make them believe Moses.

God then tells Moses to put his hand into his cloak. He does. When he brings it out, the hand was leprous, like snow. God tells Moses to put his hand back into his cloak. Moses does & he was healed, like nothing ever happened. God tells Moses that if they don’t believe him or the 1st sign, they might believe the 2nd sign. (God wants Moses to perform the staff/snake “sign” & the leprosy “sign” for the Israelites.) God also tells Moses that if they don’t believe the 2 signs, that he needs to get water from the Nile & pour it out on the ground. The water will become blood on the ground.

Moses then busts out his infamous line: “I’m not an eloquent speaker. I’m slow of speech & tongue.” (Meaning that Moses probably had a speech impediment/disability.) God says to Moses: “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Is it not I, God? Now go! I’ll help you speak & will teach you what to say.” (Exodus 4:11, NIV) Moses asks for someone else to go in his stead.

God gets MAD at Moses. God tells Moses that Aaron the Levite, Moses’ brother, will speak for him. (Check out Exodus 7:1) God told Moses to take his staff with him to perform the sign for the people. (So pretty much Aaron is the spokesperson & Moses is a hype man, with a little pinch of ta-da!)

Then Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, & asked him if he (Moses) could go back to his own people in Egypt “to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro lets him. (I’ve always wondered why Moses NEEDED Jethro’s permission.) God told Moses, while he was still in Midian, that all the people in Egypt who wanted him to kill him were dead. So Moses took his wife & sons & started back to Egypt. Moses took the staff of God in his hand. (I’ve always been curious as to where this “staff of God” went off to & if it holds any power, like the Spear of Destiny.)

God then says to Moses: “When you get to Egypt, do all the things I told you to do. But do it in front of Pharaoh. I’m gonna harden his heart, so that he won’t let y’all go. Then you’re gonna say to Pharaoh, ‘God says Israel is my firstborn son (I’ve always been led to believe that Jesus was God’s ONLY son.however, on the flip side of the coin, John 3:16 says “…God’s only begotten son.” That doesn’t mean that God God doesn’t have more “human” children/demigods. Because let’s be honest, by definition, Jesus is a demigod. And being a part of the holy trinity means Jesus is also God too.), I told you, “Let my son go. So he can worship me.” (Yep.) But you, Pharaoh, didn’t let him go. So I’ll kill your firstborn son.'”

At a “lodging place” (I’m assuming that this would be like a inn, a hostel, or something like that, of that time period) God met Moses (some versions say Moses’ son. This will make the next part make sense.) & was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a knife made of flint, cut off her son’s foreskin & touched Moses’ (son’s) feet with it (yes, she cut off the foreskin, didn’t clean it off or anything, & touched someone’s feet with it!) She then says “Surely you’re a bridegroom of blood to me.” So God left him alone. (At that time the phrase “bridegroom of blood” was talking about circumcision.)

God told to Aaron, Moses’ brother, to go into the desert & meet Moses. So Aaron went to the mountain of God (probably Mount Horeb) & met Moses, kissing him. Moses then told Moses everything God had told them both what to say & do.

Moses & Aaron got all the elders of Israelites. Aaron told them everything that God had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people. They believed them. When the elders heard that God was concerned about them & saw their misery, they bowed down & worshipped.