Signs for a Man Who Will Not Go
1 Moses answered, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’” 2 Yahweh said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.” 3 He said, “Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses ran away from it. 4 Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand, and take it by the tail.” He stretched out his hand, and took hold of it, and it became a rod in his hand. 5 “This is so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 Yahweh said furthermore to him, “Now put your hand inside your cloak.” He put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. 7 He said, “Put your hand inside your cloak again.” He put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, behold, it had turned again as his other flesh. 8 “It will happen, if they will not believe you or listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. 9 It will happen, if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, that you shall take of the water of the river, and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.” 10 Moses said to Yahweh, “O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” 11 Yahweh said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yahweh? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.” 13 Moses said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else.” 14 Yahweh’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Also, behold, he is coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 You shall speak to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. 16 He will be your spokesman to the people. It will happen that he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God. 17 You shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”
Three signs and four objections, and the point at which patient answering turns to anger is the point where the objection becomes refusal.
Moses answered, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’”
God has just said they will listen Exodus 3:18. Moses contradicts him flatly and is answered with equipment rather than rebuke. The patience of this exchange is one of its lessons, and so is its limit.
What is that in your hand? Exodus 4:2. The question is put to a man who has been arguing that he has nothing to work with. What he has is a shepherd's rod, worth nothing, and it is the only instrument he will ever be given. Through it the Nile turns to blood, the sea divides, and water comes out of rock. Nothing is added to Moses except a use for what he was already carrying.
The three signs are chosen rather than random. The rod becomes a snake and Moses runs from it, then takes it by the tail at command and finds a rod in his hand again Exodus 4:3–4; the serpent was the emblem on the Egyptian crown, and the sign says the power he is afraid of can be picked up by the wrong end and carried like a stick. The hand goes into the cloak and comes out leprous, then goes in again and is restored Exodus 4:6–7 — a God who can inflict and heal, demonstrated on the messenger's own body before anyone else's. The third, held in reserve, is Nile water poured on dry ground and turning to blood Exodus 4:9.
Each sign is given for a stated reason: this is so that they may believe Exodus 4:5. The signs are not for Moses. He has already seen a bush burn without being consumed.
Moses said to Yahweh, “O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”
The third objection is the honest one and is, by now, beside the point. The answer widens the question until the excuse has nowhere to stand: who made man's mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn't it I, Yahweh? Exodus 4:11. The disability and the calling come from the same hand. This is not said cruelly, and it does not minimize the impediment; it removes the assumption that God had overlooked it.
Oh, Lord, please send someone else Exodus 4:13.
Here the objections end and the refusal begins, and here alone the tone changes: Yahweh's anger burned against Moses Exodus 4:14. The distinction deserves care, because the passage is easily misread as a rebuke of timidity. Three times Moses raised a difficulty and three times he was answered without a word of reproach. What provokes anger is not inadequacy but the request to be excused after the inadequacy has been answered.
Even the anger produces a provision rather than a punishment. Aaron is already on the road Exodus 4:14, so the arrangement was in place before the argument that produced it. But it is a concession, and it costs something. Israel will now hear God's words at second hand, and the brother appointed as a mouth in this chapter is the man who makes the calf in chapter thirty-two.
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