Biblion Bible Commentary
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Signs for a Man Who Will Not Go
Exodus 4:1-17
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.’” · WEB
Three signs and four objections, and the point at which patient answering turns to anger is the point where the objection becomes refusal.
But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, "Yahweh has not appeared to you" Exodus 4:1.
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.
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 Exodus 4:10.
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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