The Book of Exodus

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Moses fears the people will not believe that God appeared to him, so God gives him signs. He starts with a simple question: "What is that in thine hand?" It was only a shepherd's rod, an ordinary staff. God tells Moses to throw it down, and it becomes a serpent, so alarming that Moses flees from it. Then God tells him to pick it up by the tail, and it becomes a rod again. God gives two more signs: Moses' hand turns leprous when he puts it in his bosom, then is healed when he does it again, and water from the river will turn to blood on the ground. These signs are given so that "they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers ... hath appeared unto thee." God authenticates His messenger with evidence the people can see.

Gospel Focus

"What is that in thine hand?" God did not send Moses to find some new and impressive tool; He used the plain rod Moses already held. That ordinary shepherd's staff, surrendered to God, became "the rod of God" (verse 20) that would part the sea and strike the rock. This is how God works. He does not usually ask for what we do not have; He asks for what is already in our hand, and when we yield it to Him, He makes it mighty. Whatever you hold, your skill, your job, your voice, your small resources, lay it down before God and take it up again in His service, and He can do wonders with it. The same hand that could do nothing to free a nation became, in God's service, the instrument of the greatest deliverance in the Old Testament. Do not despise the ordinary thing in your hand; surrendered to God, it becomes extraordinary.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Moses raises his deepest objection: "I am not eloquent ... I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." He feels unqualified for the task because of his weakness in speaking. God's answer cuts to the root: "Who hath made man's mouth? ... have not I the LORD?" The God who made Moses' mouth, and who makes the deaf and the blind, is not limited by Moses' limitation. So God commands and promises together: "Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." Yet Moses still shrinks back, finally asking God to "send ... by the hand of him whom thou wilt send," that is, send someone else. This kindles God's anger, and though He graciously appoints Aaron to be Moses' spokesman, it is a concession, not the first plan. Moses will still carry the rod and do the signs; God simply provides a mouth alongside him.

Gospel Focus

"Who hath made man's mouth?" is God's answer to every excuse of inadequacy. When God calls, He is not asking whether we are able; He is promising to make us able. The Maker of the mouth can surely fill it: "I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." Jesus gave His disciples the same promise for their hardest moments: "it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you" (Matthew 10:20). Our weakness is no obstacle to God; it is His opportunity, for He told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). But there is a warning here too. God patiently answered every objection, but when Moses simply refused, asking Him to send another, God's anger was kindled. There is a difference between honest weakness, which God delights to strengthen, and unwilling excuse, which resists God's call. God can use the slow of speech; what He will not accept is a heart that will not go. When He calls, the answer is not "I cannot," but "here am I, send me."

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Moses gets Jethro's blessing, and God confirms that the men who sought his life are dead. So Moses sets his wife and sons on a donkey and returns to Egypt with "the rod of God in his hand." God warns Moses that Pharaoh's heart will be hard, but gives him the message to deliver: "Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn." This is the first time in the Bible God calls Israel His son. The demand follows: "Let my son go, that he may serve me," and the warning, that if Pharaoh refuses, God will take Pharaoh's own firstborn. The conflict is set as a matter between fathers and sons. Egypt held God's son in bondage; if Egypt would not release God's firstborn, Egypt's firstborn would fall. The whole struggle with Pharaoh is, at its heart, God reclaiming His son.

Gospel Focus

"Israel is my son, even my firstborn." God does not merely rule Israel as a king rules subjects; He loves them as a Father loves a son. That fatherly love is the reason for the whole Exodus: God is not only freeing slaves, He is bringing home His son. The prophet later looked back on this very deliverance and said, "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt" (Hosea 11:1). And the New Testament shows that this word reached its fullness in Christ, for Matthew tells us that when Jesus came up out of Egypt as a child, it fulfilled the saying, "Out of Egypt have I called my son" (Matthew 2:15). Israel the son was a shadow; Jesus is the true Son called out of Egypt. See also the purpose of the deliverance: "Let my son go, that he may serve me." God did not free Israel merely to be free, but to be His, to worship and serve Him. So it is with our redemption. Christ did not save us only from bondage but for God, that we, brought out of Egypt, might serve the Father who calls us His own.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

On the way to Egypt comes one of the most startling passages in Exodus: "the LORD met him, and sought to kill him." Moses, God's chosen deliverer, had failed to circumcise his son, the sign of God's covenant with Abraham. Zipporah quickly circumcises the boy, and the danger passes. The details are brief and sobering, but the point is clear: the man God was sending to lead His covenant people could not himself neglect the covenant in his own family. Then the scene turns bright. God sends Aaron to meet Moses in the wilderness, and they embrace; Moses tells him all God has said. Together they gather the elders, Aaron speaks God's words and does the signs, "and the people believed." When Israel hears "that the LORD had visited" them and "looked upon their affliction," they bow their heads and worship. The long-awaited visitation has begun.

Gospel Focus

The encounter at the inn is a solemn reminder that God holds His servants to obedience in their own homes, not only in public. Moses was about to confront Pharaoh and lead a nation, yet God stopped him over an unkept covenant in his own family. The New Testament asks the same question of those who would lead God's people: "if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?" (1 Timothy 3:5). Private obedience must come before public ministry; God will not overlook at home what He calls us to teach abroad. And notice how the chapter ends: the people "believed ... and worshipped" when they heard that God had visited them. This is the answer to the promise that closed Genesis, "God will surely visit you." The God who remembers His covenant had begun to act, and the right response to His visitation is faith and worship. When we hear that God has seen our affliction and come to save, our hearts too should bow. The deliverance had not yet happened, but the people worshiped the God who had promised it, trusting the visitation that had only begun.