Remember it is the angel of the Lord, the Christ, who is called God and LORD throughout the previous chapter and in this chapter, who speaks, Exodus 4:1-16.
Haynes Jr, in his commentary, says the following.
‘A study of these passages reveals that the Angel of the Lord appeared in human form, Genesis 18:2 / Genesis 22:1-18 / Hebrews 13:2, and performed normal human functions, Genesis 32:24 / Numbers 22:23 / Numbers 22:31, yet he was an awe-inspiring figure, Genesis 32:30 / Judges 6:22 / Judges 13:22, exhibiting divine attributes and prerogatives including predicting the future, Genesis 16:10-12, forgiving sin, Exodus 23:21, and receiving worship, Exodus 3:5 / Judges 13:9-20.’
Moses didn’t want the task of bringing his people out of Egypt, and so he gave God excuse after excuse.
1. “Who am I, that I should go?” Exodus 3:11.
2. “What shall I say when they ask, `What is his (God’s) name?’” Exodus 3:13.
3. “They will not believe.” Exodus 4:1.
4. “I am not eloquent”. Exodus 4:10.
5. “Send someone else.” Exodus 4:13.
Moses’ lack of leadership skills is really beginning to show, and understandably, he knew that his fellow Hebrews would really struggle to accept that he was now representing the one true God of Israel. The good news is that God totally understands, and so to give Moses some assurance, God is going to give him three signs.
Because Moses was a shepherd, he would have a staff with him, Exodus 4:2 / Exodus 3:1, and so, the staff would represent the leadership, care, and protection of a shepherd.
In other words, under God’s protection, Moses would lead, care for, and protect God’s people. When the staff became a snake, notice ‘he ran from it’, Exodus 4:3, this indicates that it was probably a poisonous snake, although we’re not told which kind of snake it was.
There’s no doubt that when God asked him to ‘take it by the tail’, Exodus 4:4, this was a real test of faith for Moses. It’s well documented that if you want to pick up a poisonous snake, you grab it by the head to avoid being bitten.
Here, God was strengthening the faith of Moses. The purpose of this miracle is told by God, that they, that is, His people, might believe, Exodus 4:5. Later in Exodus 7:8-13, we read that Aaron’s rod turned into a snake, and Pharaoh’s magicians did the same thing, but Aaron’s snake swallowed up the magicians’ snakes.
We can be misled by the word ‘snake’ in Exodus 7:8-10, because the Hebrew word used is ‘tanniyn’, which suggests some kind of marine or land monster. This is a different word which was used when Moses’ staff was turned into a snake, Exodus 4:3.
God gave Moses the second sign, which resulted in Moses’ hand becoming leprous, Exodus 4:6. Notice his hand became ‘white as snow’, Exodus 4:6; this is the worst kind of leprosy.
It appears that God is signifying that He would take care of their physical needs, Exodus 4:7. God again, with this sign, was strengthening Moses’ faith, Hebrews 11:24-29.
Notice that the angel of the LORD says, ‘if they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second’, Exodus 4:8. This tells us that miracles alone cannot actually give faith, John 6:14 / John 6:30 / John 12:37.
Fields, in his commentary, says the following.
‘People whose faith depends upon seeing signs often require a steady stream of miracles, or they forsake Christ, John 6:14 / John 6:30.’
The third and final sign for God’s people would be seen in the water of the river Nile, which would turn into blood, Exodus 4:9. The changing of the waters of the Nile into blood was the first of the ten plagues, Exodus 7:14-25.
The blood represents the struggle Israel would have in being delivered; God would bring judgment upon the Egyptians. These three signs were given to Moses to prove that he was a genuine messenger of God.
After being given assurance from God, Moses was still very reluctant to take on the mission God had for him, Exodus 4:10. He asks for God’s pardon on two occasions, Exodus 4:13. Asking for pardon doesn’t occur too many times within the Scriptures, Genesis 43:20 / Genesis 44:18 / Numbers 12:11 / Joshua 7:8.
It appears that Moses is still focused on his own abilities. Here, he gives the excuse that he isn’t a very good speaker, Exodus 4:10, that is, he has a speech problem. Some commentators believe he had a speech impediment, such as a stammer, Exodus 32:11-13, but we simply don’t know.
God appears to have excused Moses for all his other excuses but here, He doesn’t accept Moses’ excuse, instead, God rebukes him by reminding him of who He is and what He has done, Exodus 4:11.
I guess we need to ask the question, does God purposely make some people to be mute, deaf, or blind, and others with all such abilities? Exodus 4:11. In some instances, this is surely true, as in John 9:1-3.
Fields, in his commentary, says the following.
‘God is not responsible for all the cases of blindness and deafness. Many human handicaps are clearly the result of sin and or the violation, whether knowingly or not, of God’s eternal laws. The great lesson here is that one should not depreciate or despise the gifts which God has given, nor refuse to use those gifts which men may deem less perfect. Even the most gifted can find no grounds for pride and egotism, because, as Paul stated, ‘what hast thou that thou hast not received?’ 1 Corinthians 4:7. The answer to that question, of course, is nothing!’
God then commands Moses to ‘go’, and He will help him speak, Exodus 4:13 / Matthew 10:19.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The very greatest importance attaches to this, because, just as the inspiration of the holy apostles stemmed from this very promise, so also must it be understood that the words of Moses are, by the same promise, the Word of God. Jesus understood this and emphasised it, speaking of the Pentateuch in one breath as the word of Moses, Exodus 3:6 / Matthew 12:26, and in the next breath as the Word of God, Exodus 3:6 / Matthew 22:31-32)!’
Moses still refused to take up the mission and asked God to send someone else, Exodus 4:13, and it’s clear that God was becoming really angry with him. Notice that it was God who mentioned Aaron, Moses’ brother, but he also called him a Levite, Exodus 4:14.
It appears that God ordained that the priesthood should reside not in Moses but in Aaron and the Levites. As always, God was looking into the future. He knew that Aaron was a good speaker, and He knew Aaron was on his way to meet Moses, Exodus 4:27. God was going to equip them in speech and actions in order for them to do the mission ahead, Exodus 4:15-16.
God never asks us to do something He hasn’t already equipped us to do, and so Moses is told to take the staff with which he will show the Israelites the signs that He is representing the one true God, the God of their fathers, Exodus 4:17.
After all the doubts and excuses, Moses is now willing to obey God in faith, Hebrews 11:24-29. When Moses arrived back at Jethro, he asked to return to Egypt to see his people, Exodus 4:18.
Notice, he didn’t go into any detail about what had just happened at the burning bush or God’s mission for him. However, what he did tell Jethro was enough for Jethro to bless his visit. Exodus 4:18.
Moses obviously was still thinking about the time he fled from Egypt after killing an Egyptian and those who were out to kill him, Exodus 2:11-15, but God reassures him in Midian, Exodus 3:1, that all those who were out to kill him were now dead, Exodus 4:19.
It appears that the sons of Zipporah, Exodus 16:22 / Exodus 18:4, and Moses accompanied Moses on their journey, Exodus 4:20. Notice he took the staff of God in his hand, Exodus 4:20 / Exodus 4:9.
When Moses reaches Egypt, he uses ‘the staff of God’ to perform all the wonders God has enabled him to do. God says He will harden Pharaoh’s heart, Exodus 4:21, but the miracles that God would work before Pharaoh would leave Pharaoh without excuse. If Pharaoh refused to allow God to have His firstborn, that is, the nation of Israel, then God would take the firstborn of Egypt, Exodus 4:22-23 / Galatians 3:26.
Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Behind this question for many is the idea that Pharaoh didn’t have any free will, and therefore, he had no choice but to do what God wanted him to do.
In the Book of Exodus, we read how Moses had been commanded by God to go to Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh let his people go, Exodus 9:1. Understandably, Pharaoh was reluctant to do so because the Israelites were his slaves and they worked hard to help build and maintain his kingdom.
Moses goes to Pharaoh, and by faith and the power of God, he confirms that God is with him by using signs and wonders. These signs and wonders were used to confirm Moses’ message to Pharaoh, to let His people go, Exodus 7:1-7.
The last plague of Egypt was when the firstborn of every animal and human died, but none of the Israelites died, Exodus 11:4. It wasn’t until Pharaoh’s firstborn son died that he decided to let God’s people go, Exodus 12:31.
But even when he allowed them to go, his pride and arrogance led him to change his mind, and so he went after them. We don’t know if Pharaoh himself died, but many Egyptians died in the process, Exodus 14:28 / Exodus 15:19.
Now remember that all this hardening of the heart business was done during the ten plagues, but there’s an important point which is often overlooked. God said that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart ten times throughout the Book of Exodus, Exodus 4:21 / Exodus 7:3 / Exodus 9:12 / Exodus 10:1 / Exodus 10:20 / Exodus 10:27 / Exodus 11:10 / Exodus 14:4 / Exodus 14:8 / Exodus 14:17.
Now what is often overlooked is that Pharaoh himself is said to have hardened his own heart ten times throughout Exodus, Exodus 7:13 / Exodus 7:14 / Exodus 7:22 / Exodus 8:15 / Exodus 8:19 / Exodus 8:32 / Exodus 9:7 / Exodus 9:34 / Exodus 9:35 / Exodus 13:15.
The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is something which God told Moses He would have to do because God knew Pharaoh wouldn’t let His people go straight away, Exodus 4:21, but it’s clear after reading the above Scriptures that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was done by both God and Pharaoh himself.
What we see in all those Scriptures is that Pharaoh hardened his own heart during the first five plagues. Pharaoh hardened his own heart because he wouldn’t listen to Moses and Aaron; he wouldn’t let God’s people go, but God didn’t harden his heart until the sixth plague came, Exodus 9:12.
God gave him the opportunity to exercise his own free will five times. God called Pharaoh to humble himself and acknowledge that God is his authority, but Pharaoh chose to harden his own heart against the will of God, 1 Samuel 6:6.
When we read Romans 9:14-18, we find Paul answering a question that someone in Rome may have been asking, ‘What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!’ Romans 9:14.
Is there injustice on God’s part when He accepts and rejects people in this way, i.e. Jacob and Esau? Paul says, ‘Not at all’ or ‘perish the thought! Paul says don’t even think that for one minute.
Remember that God has absolute sovereignty; He Himself says, ‘I will have mercy on whoever I choose.’ Romans 9:15. The A.V. says, ‘him that runneth,’ he’s obviously using the illustration of the foot race, but it’s not a matter of the prize going to the one who wins the race. Your version may say, ‘it depends not on a man’s will, or exertion’, i.e., on his effort, but upon God’s mercy.
It was not an unjust selection that God had made if God selected Isaac and Jacob because they were the best instruments to work out His plans. It would not be out of harmony for God to reject the Jews because of unbelief and accept the Gentiles for their belief.
Paul quotes what God said to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion,’ Exodus 33:19. This brings us back to the truth that it’s God who determines the basis on which His mercy and compassion are offered to men.
Notice that the pronoun ‘I’ is emphasised. God alone has the right to choose regarding the ones on whom He will have mercy and compassion; no one can keep God from showing mercy and compassion to whom He wills.
The Jews said that God’s mercy should be to the Jews only; however, God thought differently, Luke 1:50 / Acts 10:34-35. In Romans 9:16, we read about the origin of mercy; mercy wasn’t bestowed because man originally wished or desired it. God is the original fountain of it.
‘It does not depend on human desire or effort’ means it didn’t result from any strenuous or intense effort on the part of man, but from God’s own decision to bestow it.
In Romans 9:17, Paul quotes the case of God’s dealing with Pharaoh, and we need to listen very carefully to what Paul says here because if we are not careful, we might get the wrong idea. God said that He had raised up Pharaoh in order to display His power through the Egyptian ruler.
Notice, ‘to display His power’, Romans 9:17. He did not say that He raised up Pharaoh to ‘destroy’ him, or to ‘drown him in the Red Sea’, but, through His dealings with Pharaoh, to let the nations around see how powerful Israel’s God was.
Now, just how God’s intention should be accomplished depended on Pharaoh himself and on the way he responded to God’s command through Moses. It was within the sphere of Pharaoh’s choice either to submit to the will of God, whom Moses represented or to take the course which, in fact, he did take, to resist God’s will and face the consequences.
Either way, either by Pharaoh’s immediate and voluntary submission to God’s demand or by being compelled to let the people go, when the children of Israel marched out of Egypt, the world would know the power of God.
In Exodus 9:16, God is speaking, and so, ‘for Scriptures says’ in Romans 9:17, is the same God who says, ‘for this very purpose, that I may show My power in you’. Each time Pharaoh refused to let Israel go, the power of God was more clearly demonstrated in another plague.
Everyone, including foreign nations, began to hear of God and the mighty power He demonstrated in delivering Israel, Joshua 2:10 / Joshua 9:9. The time had come for God to show mercy on Israel, and Pharaoh could not stop Him, Romans 9:18.
God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by demanding something Pharaoh didn’t want to do. God didn’t harden his heart, separate from his will, but used his evil disposition to carry out His plans.
God shows favour to whom He wills, just as He favoured Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. He rejects those whom He wills just as He did Ishmael, Esau, and Pharaoh. The means by which He shows mercy or rejection must be learned in other passages.
We know that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but maybe we should also ask the question, how did God harden Pharaoh’s heart?
Clarke, in his commentary, has the following useful thought.
‘God does not work this hardness of heart in man; but it may be said to harden him who refuses to soften, to blind him who refuses to enlighten, and to repel him who refuses to call.’ It is but just and right that He should withhold those graces which were repeatedly offered, and which the sinner had despised and rejected.’
In John 16, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, who would convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, John 16:8. In John 17, Jesus spoke of having given the apostles the word they would preach to the world, John 17:8 / John 17:18.
Jesus also spoke of all who would believe in Him through the apostles’ words, John 17:20. In Acts 2, the apostles preached the Gospel, that message given to them by the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:4.
We see in Acts 2:36-37 that it was the preaching of the Word of God as the means by which men were convicted in their hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Stephen accused his Jewish audience of being stiff-necked and resisting the Holy Spirit, Acts 7:51, but the question is, were they in a literal battle against the Holy Spirit, or were they resisting the words of Stephen given by the Holy Spirit?
Did the Lord operate directly on Lydia’s heart, or did He indirectly use some other means? Acts 16:14. Notice that it was the Spirit-given Word of God that was preached that convicted the Jews at Pentecost, and as it was the Spirit-given Word of God that was preached that Stephen’s audience resisted, it was the Spirit-given Word of God that Paul preached that opened Lydia’s heart and the hearts of those women with her.
It appears that the Spirit-given Word softens some people while it hardens others. It was the message and signs of God given through Moses that hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
Knowing all things, God knew that Pharaoh’s stubborn heart would not be persuaded. And so, He could speak of hardening Pharaoh’s heart when in truth, it was the Word and signs given through Moses that caused Pharaoh to further harden his own heart.
After considering the above texts, let’s see how this ties together with Pharaoh. In Exodus 10:1, we read that the Lord claimed to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart as well as the hearts of Pharaoh’s servants.
In Exodus 10:3, we read that Pharaoh is condemned for refusing to humble himself, which obviously implies he possessed free will. Notice in Exodus 10:7 that Pharaoh’s servants were pleading with Pharaoh to let Israel go.
In other words, the prospect of more plagues softened the hearts of Pharaoh’s servants while hardening the heart of their king. This tells us that both Pharaoh and his officials possessed free will but acted in opposite ways in the same situation.
Pharaoh’s part in hardening his own heart was an active part; he chose not to obey the will of God. God’s part was simply to empower Pharaoh to exercise that choice.
This is evident from the fact that Pharaoh was held fully responsible for his hardness and punished for it. God didn’t overrule Pharaoh’s power of choice; Pharaoh actively hardened his own heart, and God allowed him to do so.
That old saying, ‘the same sun that melts wax also hardens clay,’ is very applicable here. Through the Gospel, God hardens the hearts of some and melts the hearts of others. Those who accept the offer and obey its requirements are saved, selected, and favoured.
Those who reject it are lost, hardened, and rejected. The same idea is shown in God sending powerful delusions to those who refuse to love the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12.
The writer of Hebrews warns believers today not to harden their hearts when they hear the voice of God in His Word, Hebrews 3:8 / Hebrews 3:13 / Hebrews 3:15.
The Septuagint version of this passage, in common with several others such as the Arabic versions, says that it was ‘an angel of the Lord’ who met Moses and sought to kill him at the resting-place on the way to Egypt.
Probably the translators found it uncomfortable to have to think that the Lord Himself might have ‘sought to kill’ his servant Moses. Our English versions are true to the Hebrew text, and therefore we must take it that it was, indeed, God Himself who was involved in this remarkable Old Testament event.
Do we not find the language rather strange? Surely, if God had really wished to kill him, He could very easily have done so. I suggest that what occurred was of the nature of an ominous warning, and what is described was an illness, serious enough to be life-threatening, inflicted on Moses by God as a punishment for some offence or other. But a question now arises.
What was the reason for the punishment? What had the prophet done or failed to do that merited such a stern judgement? I believe we find the answer in the exclamation of Moses’ wife, Zipporah, which suggests that the reason for this divine act of judgment was the failure of her husband to have their newly born, second son, Eliezer, circumcised.
She said to Moses, ‘You are a husband of blood to me!’ Exodus 4:25. Zipporah was a Midianite, not an Israelite, and, apparently, it was not a custom of her people to practice the rite of circumcision.
Consequently, she regarded the religion of her husband as cruel, and, although she personally performed the crude surgery after the child had been circumcised, she reacted very vigorously, Exodus 4:20.
Customarily, the rite would have been performed by the father, and only in exceptional circumstances by the mother, and the implication is that Moses was, at that time, too ill to fulfil his responsibility.
However, Zipporah’s angry outburst reveals that she had no sympathy for a religion that demanded the shedding of the blood of children, by means of a ceremony which was, in her mind, both incomprehensible and cruel.
It was after the child had been circumcised that we read, ‘He let him go’, Exodus 4:20. This sounds rather puzzling, but it simply means that, after the deed was done, God allowed Moses to recover.
Notice, also, that it was after the ceremony had been performed that Zipporah explained to Moses why she had called him, ‘a husband of blood’. She declared that it was ‘because of the circumcision’, Exodus 4:26.
It is sometimes mistakenly thought that the rite of circumcision was first imposed on the Israelites as an essential part of their religion when God made His covenant with them at Sinai. But this is not true.
The earliest biblical reference to this ceremony is found in Genesis 17:10. There it is recorded that God commanded Abraham and his descendants to practice circumcision, and in Acts 7:8, Stephen reminds the Jews of this occasion. From that time, long before the time of Moses, the Hebrews faithfully obeyed God’s command.
Moses would or should, therefore, have circumcised his first son, Gershom, many years earlier, and the life-threatening illness with which God later afflicted him was a punishment for what appears to have been ongoing neglect on the part of the great man.
We cannot excuse, but we may try to explain this neglect. Remember Moses’ background. Although he was a Hebrew, we must not forget that only his infant years had been spent with his Hebrew family in Egypt. Whilst still a child, he had been taken by the Egyptian princess and raised and educated as an Egyptian, groomed to take a high place in Egyptian society.
Until he finally decided to leave Egypt, his entire lifestyle and, probably, even his mindset, shaped by an Egyptian education, Acts 7:22, had been Egyptian rather than Hebrew, and we may say with absolute certainty, that his rank as the ‘son of the daughter of Pharaoh’ would have been given little opportunity of associating with Hebrew slaves, whom the Egyptians scarcely regarded as human!
Remember that he was forty years old before he displayed interest in his Hebrew ancestry, and, for the following 40 years, the people with whom he associated were the Midianites, a nomadic people who later declined the invitation to join the Israelites, Numbers 14.
So, until he received God’s call, Moses had had very little contact with the Hebrews. I think we must take these facts into account before judging him too harshly.
Because later, at Sinai, Moses was to bring to the people the Covenant which he would receive from God. In the Covenant, circumcision would once again be declared obligatory for God’s chosen people.
It would be, in fact, the rite that secured entry into the Covenant, guaranteeing to the obedient Hebrew’ the promises which God had earlier made to Abraham, the federal head of the race, who was known as ‘Abram the Hebrew’, Genesis 14:13.
Since Moses was to fulfil this important role, he must not be seen to be in disobedience of the command of God. He must be made ready for his task, and, as preparation, he must learn that the higher the office and the honour, the greater the responsibility.
Regardless of his Egyptian upbringing, Moses was a Hebrew, and, as a Hebrew, not even he was excused from the obligation to practice circumcision. He had been in disobedience until God shocked him into an awareness of this fact in this drastic manner.
We need to remember that when God issues a general command, no one is granted an exemption. We don’t know all the details as to why Moses neglected to circumcise his son, Exodus 4:24, but we do know that he didn’t obey God in having his son circumcised, Acts 16:3.
Dummelow, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The whole design of this remarkable episode was ‘to show the importance of circumcision as the sign of the covenant between God and his people, and the sin and danger of neglecting it.’
It appears that Zipporah wasn’t happy about her son being circumcised, Exodus 4:25. Notice she touches Moses’ feet, then cut off foreskin, Exodus 4:25.
Jones, in his commentary, says the following.
‘She associated Moses with the act (making him, in a sense, a participant in it) by touching him with the blood from the circumcision wound.’
Zipporah wasn’t happy about her son being circumcised, which was also the reason why Moses didn’t have him circumcised in the first place, although some commentators suggest that Moses was seriously ill, Exodus 4:26.
Notice that the words ‘you are a bridegroom of blood to me’ are stated twice, Exodus 4:25-26. Moffatt translated the verse in the following way: ‘You are my bridegroom in blood by this circumcision’.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It is quite obvious that the whole bloody business of circumcision was repugnant to Zipporah, and the conjecture seems quite reasonable that it was because of her objections to the rite that Moses had delayed or neglected it. Seeing that it would cost her the life of her bridegroom unless it was done, she did it herself, therefore calling Moses a bloody husband, or a bridegroom in blood. Moses’ respect for his wife’s objections, however, was sinful.’
It’s believed by many commentators that it was at this point that Moses sent Zipporah and the sons back to Jethro in Midian. This is plausible because Moses actually calls for his family to return to him a year after the exodus had taken place, Exodus 18:2-3.
Earlier, God had told Moses that Aaron was on his way to meet Moses, Exodus 4:14. It appears that it’s at this point that Aaron goes to meet him, Exodus 4:27. God tells Aaron to meet Moses on the very same mountain He appeared to Moses, Mount Sinai, Exodus 4:27 / Exodus 19 1-2.
After explaining everything to Aaron, Exodus 4:28, both Moses and Aaron set off for Egypt, where they gathered together the spiritual leaders, that is, the elders of Israel, Exodus 4:29. It’s Aaron who speaks to them and tells them everything that God said to Moses, Exodus 4:30.
Notice he performed ‘the signs’ before the people, and they believed, Exodus 4:30-31. This was exactly what God said they were intended to do, Exodus 4:1-9. After seeing the signs, they believed and bowed down and worshipped God, Exodus 4:31, which is always the contentious action of anyone who is in the presence of God.
Haley, in his commentary, says the following.
‘They gave heed to Moses at first, but since instant deliverance did not come, in their disappointment and impatience, they would not (at that time) listen to him.’