The Lord has been assuring Moses the Israelites will listen to him and that the mission of rescuing the Israelites from Egypt will be a success. But Moses still has doubts. He's still afraid. The Lord provides some signs for Moses to bolster his faith and to convince the people that the power of God is behind him.
Some commentators are critical of Moses for needing extra reassurance but I am not at all inclined to be judgmental of him. It's human nature to want promises repeated to us more than once. It's human nature to feel apprehensive when faced with a task that appears monumental, even when in our hearts we know the Lord is calling us to perform the task. The last time Moses stood on Egyptian soil he was ridiculed by his own people right before the Egyptian king issued a warrant for his arrest and execution. It's understandable that he needs to hear the Lord say, more than once, that he's not making this journey and risking his life for nothing.
"Moses answered, 'What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you?'" (Exodus 4:1) Moses asks, "What if they think I'm crazy? Many years ago I went to them expecting them to understand I'm the man You've chosen to deliver them. They thought I was delusional then. How much more delusional will they think I am now that I've spent forty years in the hot sun on the backside of the desert? If they didn't believe You spoke to me when I was young and strong and powerful, why should they believe You've spoken to me now that I'm a nobody? As far as that goes, won't they wonder why You'd choose someone like me---who was raised as an Egyptian---instead of one of the rabbis or elders of their community?"
The Lord doesn't waste time providing more verbal assurances. He knows Moses needs more than that, so He gives Moses a visual demonstration of the mighty works He's going to enable Moses to perform in Egypt. "Then the Lord said to him, 'What is that in your hand?' 'A staff,' he replied. The Lord said,' Throw it on the ground.' Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it." (Exodus 4:2-3) Oh, Moses, I've never felt I had more in common with you than I do right now! If I drop a stick on the ground and it turns into a snake, you better believe I'm going to run from it. I'm going to run from any snake I see anywhere. When I picture this scene in my mind I can't help being amused and that's okay; some things in the Bible are funny. I think they're meant to be. Life itself and human nature are funny sometimes and it's a good thing they are because a merry heart, as King Solomon said, is like a medicine. God gave us a sense of humor for a reason---because He knew we'd need it. When I picture Moses grabbing up two handfuls of his long shepherd's robes and hightailing it to higher ground as fast as he can, dust flying from underneath his sandals, I can relate to his fear and I can laugh because I'd have done the same thing.
Now the Lord asks Moses to do something I'm not sure I'd have the courage to do. "Then the Lord said to him, 'Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.' So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 'This,' said the Lord, 'is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers---the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob---has appeared to you.'" (Exodus 4:4-5) Moses displays more faith than I can be sure I'd have in this situation. He trusts the Lord enough to grab the snake by its tail. He's afraid but he obeys the Lord anyway. This is training for what lies ahead of him, for when he arrives in Egypt he's still going to be afraid but he's going to obey the Lord anyway.
"Then the Lord said, 'Put your hand inside your cloak.' So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous---it had become as white as snow. 'Now put it back into your cloak,' He said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh." (Exodus 4:6-7) Various scholars use the various signs of Exodus 4 to symbolize various things, and they do not always agree with each other on what these particular signs represent. Why did the Lord choose the sign of the snake and the sign of leprosy? Why did He choose the next sign He tells Moses about but doesn't demonstrate at this time? I'm going to share with you the idea that came to me while studying our portion of Scripture today, and I can't be certain whether this idea is right, but I feel there's nothing doctrinally wrong with them. The snake may represent the Lord's power over the animal kingdom, since some of the plagues of Egypt are going to involve swarms of invading creatures. The sign of leprosy may represent the Lord's power over the human race, since some of the plagues involve the illness and death of human beings. The third sign, which we conclude our study with today, may represent the Lord's power over nature, since one of the plagues will involve the waters turning into blood.
"Then the Lord said, 'If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.'" (Exodus 4:8-9) Right now the Lord is talking about signs Moses is to perform for his own people, but these signs will be reproduced on a bigger scale for the Egyptians. The Israelites are not going to be adversely affected by the plagues that fall upon the Egyptians, but they will be a witness to them. The plagues that fall upon the Egyptians will reinforce the Israelites' trust in the Lord because these plagues demonstrate His mighty power over all the earth and everything in it. The plagues that fall upon the Egyptians will put the fear of the Lord in their hearts---well, in everyone's heart but the king's. I don't know whether any Egyptians converted to the God of Israel during the plagues of Egypt, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they did. If nothing else, they certainly had to accept that the God of the Israelites existed and was enormously powerful, so even if they didn't forsake the false gods of Egypt and turn to Him, at the very least they had to admit He was no figment of the Israelites' imagination.
Is Moses ready to go to Egypt now? No, he is not. He believes the Lord is powerful to accomplish great things in Egypt but he has little confidence in himself. He believes that forty years ago he might have been the right man for the job but he no longer believes he's got what it takes. In tomorrow's passage he's going to try to talk the Lord out of sending him. He's going to try to convince the Lord that he's no longer the best choice for the task at hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment