#28 4:1-9 Answering Moses' Objections Part D

4:1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.

2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

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, hath appeared unto thee.

6 And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.

7 And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

8 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

9 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

In these verses we encounter Moses’ fourth objection to God’s commission to go to Pharaoh demanding that the Hebrew people be set free. Moses says, “They will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice.” There is reason to believe that this will be the case. The sinful heart of man finds it difficult to believe that God will work to bring about full deliverance from slavery (especially the slavery of sin).

God had permitted them to languish under bitter hard bondage for many years. Israel had become so accustomed to slavery that deliverance seemed like a wild impossible dream. Suddenly, here come Moses and his brother Aaron, saying that the God of their fathers had heard and seen their bondage and their oppression and was going to deliver them.

This same sense of never being able to break the slavery of sin settles upon all men and makes it very difficult for them to believe that deliverance is actually possible. Indeed, the man that is steeped in his sins comes to believe that, “If there is a God at all, He certainly has no interest in such a sinner. There is no hope,” he thinks. Overcoming this unbelief is only possible when God commands the light of Truth to shine into the sin-darkened heart.[1]

Once again, we quickly see that God sweeps aside Moses’ objection by simply revealing a small glimpse of His power as proof of His presence with Moses. What follows are three “signs” that God provides to Moses, each of which ought to convince the Hebrew people that God was, indeed, with Moses.

There is the sign of the staff becoming a serpent, Moses’ hand becoming leprous, and the water turned to blood. It is imperative to recall the words of the LORD Jesus Christ regarding those that require a sign:

A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign;[2]

In His dealings with Israel, God has plainly seen that they are, in fact “a wicked and adulterous people.” His willingness to provide these signs now simply reflects His foreknowledge of their inveterate unbelief in the centuries ahead. Simple signs such as these will suffice in the early-going for Moses with the Hebrew people. Later they will have far more “evidence” of God’s presence and power through the months of terrifying plagues God rains upon Egypt.

Any servant of the LORD that seeks to be obedient to God’s call to live redemptively will have all the “evidence” needed to verify God’s presence and power in the commission. As Jesus plainly told His disciples:

…and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.[3]

[1] 2 Corinthians 4:6 [2] Matthew 12:39 and 16:4 [3] Matthew 28:20