Moses’ Staff
1Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’”
- EX 4:1[MIRACLE]Moses' staff to serpent; hand becomes leprous and is healed; water to blood
2And Yahweh asked him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
3“Throw it on the ground,” said Yahweh. So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it.
4“Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail,” Yahweh said to Moses, who reached out his hand and caught the snake, and it turned back into a staff 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.”
Moses’ Hand
6Furthermore, Yahweh said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, white as snow.
7“Put your hand back inside your cloak,” said Yahweh.
So Moses put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his skin.
8And Yahweh said, “If they refuse to believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe that of the second. 9But if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. Then the water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”
The Appointment of Aaron
10“Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”
11And Yahweh said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? 12Now go! I will help you as you speak, and I will teach you what to say.”
13But Moses replied, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”
14Then the anger of Yahweh burned against Moses, and He said, “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well, and he is now on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will help both of you to speak, and I will teach you what to do. 16He will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and it will be as if you were God to him. 17But take this staff in your hand so you can perform signs with it.”
Moses Leaves for Egypt
18Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my brothers in Egypt to see if they are still alive.”
“Go in peace,” Jethro replied.
19Now Yahweh had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought to kill you are dead.” 20So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
21Yahweh instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
22Then tell Pharaoh that this is what Yahweh says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son, 23and I told you to let My son go so that he may worship Me. But since you have refused to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son!’”
- EX 4:22[PROPHECY]If Pharaoh refused, God would kill Pharaoh's firstborn son → EX 12:29
24Now at a lodging place along the way, Yahweh met Moses and was about to kill him. 25But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched it to Moses’ feet. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said.
26So Yahweh let him alone. (When she said, “bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.)
The People Believe Moses and Aaron
27Meanwhile, Yahweh had said to Aaron, “Go and meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28And Moses told Aaron everything Yahweh had sent him to say, and all the signs He had commanded him to perform.
29Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites, 30and Aaron relayed everything Yahweh had said to Moses.
And Moses performed the signs before the people, 31and they believed. And when they heard that Yahweh had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.