Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/276

244 bringing Israel out of Egypt. 1. Moses objects the people's unbelief, (v. 1.) and God answers that objection by giving him a power to work miracles, (1.) To turn his rod into a serpent, and then into a rod again, v. 2..5. (2.) To make his hand leprous, and then whole again, v. 6..8. (3.) To turn the water into blood, v. 9. 2. Moses objects his own slowness of speech, (v. 10.) and begs to be excused; (v. 13.) but God answers this objection, (1.) By promising him his presence, v. 11, 12. (2.) By joining Aaron in commission with him, v. 14..16. (3.) By putting an honour upon the very staff in his hand, v. 17. II. It begins Moses's execution of his commission. 1. He obtains leave of his father-in-law to return into Egypt, v. 18. 2. He receives further instructions and encouragements from God, v. 19..23. 3. He hastens his departure, and takes his family with him, v. 20. 4. He meets with some difficulty in the way about the circumcising of his son, v. 24..26. 5. He has the satisfaction of meeting his brother Aaron, v. 27, 28. 6. He produces his commission before the elders of Israel, to their great joy, v. 29..31. And thus the wheels were set a-going toward that great deliverance.

ND Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The hath not appeared unto thee. 2. And the 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 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 God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. 6. And the 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.

It was a very great honour that Moses was called to, when God commissioned him to bring Israel out of Egypt; yet he is hardly persuaded to accept the commission, and does it at last with great reluctance, which we should rather impute to a humble diffidence of himself and his own sufficiency, than to any unbelieving distrust of God and his word and power. Note, Those whom God designs for preferment, he clothes with humility: the most fit for service are the least forward.

I. Moses objects, that, in all probability, the people would not hearken to his voice, (v. 1.) that is, they would not take his bare word, unless he showed them some sign, which he had not been yet instructed to do. This objection cannot be justified because it contradicts what God had said, (ch. 3. 18. ) They shall hearken to thy voice. If God says, They will, does it become Moses to say, They wiil not? Surely, he means, "Perhaps, they will not at first," or, "Some of them will not." If there should be some gainsayers among them who would question his commission, how should he deal with them? And what course should he take to convince them? He remembered how they had once rejected him, and feared it would be so again. Note, 1. Present discouragements often arise from former disappointments. 2. Wise and good men have sometimes a worse opinion of people than they deserve; Moses said, (v. 1.) They will not believe me; and yet he was happily mistaken, for it is said, (v. 31.) The people believed; but then the signs which God appointed in answer to this objection, were first wrought in their sight.

II. God empowers him to work miracles, directs him to three particularly, two of which were now immediately wrought for his own satisfaction. Note, True miracles are the most convincing external proofs of a divine mission attested by tHem. Therefore our Saviour often appealed to his works, as John 5. 36. and Nicodemus owns himself convinced by them, John 3. 2. And here Moses, having a special commission given him as a judge and lawgiver to Israel, has this seal affixed to his commission, and comes supported by these credentials.

1. The rod in his hand is made the subject of a miracle, a double miracle: it is but thrown out of his hand and it becomes a serpent, he resumes it and it becomes a rod again, v. 2..4. Now, (1.) Here was a divine power manifested in the change itself, that a dry stick should be turned into a living serpent, a lively one, so formidable a one, that Moses himself, on whom, it should seem, it turned in some threatening manner, fled from before it, though we may suppose, in that desert, serpents were no strange things to him; but what was produced miraculously, was always the best and strongest of the kind, as the water turned to wine: and then, that this living serpent should be turned into a dry stick again, this was the Lord's doing. (2.) Here was an honour put upon Moses, that this change was wrought, upon his throwing it down and taking it up, without any spell, or charm, or incantation: his being empowered thus to act under God, out of the common course of nature and providence, was a demonstration of his authority, under God, to settle a new dispensation of the kingdom of grace. We cannot imagine that the God of truth would delegate such a power as this to an impostor. (3.) There was a significancy in the miracle itself; Pharaoh had turned the rod of Israel into a serpent, representing them as dangerous, (ch. 1. 10.) causing their belly to cleave to the dust, and seeking their ruin; but now they should be turned into a rod again: or thus, Pharaoh had turned the rod of government into the serpent of oppression, from which Moses had himself fled into Midian; but by the agency of Moses the scene was altered again. (4.) There was a direct tendency in it to convince the children of Israel that Moses was indeed sent of God to do what he did, v. 5. Miracles were for signs to them that believed not, 1 Cor, 14.22.

2. His hand itself is next made the subject of a miracle; he puts it once into his bosom, and takes it out leprous; he puts it again into the same place, and takes it out well, v. 6, 7. This signified, (1.) That Moses, by the power of God, should bring sore diseases upon Egypt, and that, at his prayer, they should be removed. (2.) That whereas the