Chapter 4
Chapter starts with Moses still talking to God at the burning bush. Asks how he will make the Israelites believe that he is telling them God's word. God demonstrates by turning the staff into a serpent and turning Moses' hand leprous, and turning Nile water to blood.
2021 - Yet still Moses balks. This verse:
10 But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue." [Exo 4:10 ESV] These words from the man who wrote the entire Pentateuch! He really did not want to go back to Egypt. Think of the change that goes through from this time until he looks over into Canaan.
11 Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? [Exo 4:11 ESV]
Surely this has been preached many times to those of us who are timid about witnessing, about confessing that Jesus is Lord right out loud and so on. "I'm just not good at talking to people about that." But here is God's own first hand response to that excuse. Who made your mouth?
2023 - Note also that God here takes responsibility for the mute, the deaf and the blind. They are not surprises to him. God makes them that way.
Moses is still balking. Now says he is not eloquent. God gets angry with Moses and tells him Aaron can do the actual talking, but God will still speak directly to Moses.
13 But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else." [Exo 4:13 ESV] Moses balks for so long that God gets angry with him. Few of us get the kind of direct, unambiguous direction that Moses got but still he balked.
God tells Moses to go from Midian to Egypt and show Pharaoh the signs. But God says he will harden Pharoah's heart. So Moses is to say that Israel is God's firstborn son, and that if Pharaoh won't let them go, God will kill Pharoah's firstborn son:
22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, "Let my son go that he may serve me." If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.'" [Exo 4:22-23 ESV]
This sets up the nation of Israel as a type for Christ, surely. But I don't recall ever hearing any sermons about it. MSB gives this a very different meaning. MSB looks at it in the context of how Egypt considered a firstborn son. Special, even sacred. God is telling Pharaoh that he considers Israel sacred, and that He will protect them, make a nation of them, and lead them. These verses move the Egyptian concept from application to a son to application to a whole nation as a singular entity. Using Israel as a type for Christ might be going way too far...as Israel didn't act much like Christ in its relationship to God.
At a lodging on the way, the Lord seeks to kill Moses. Zipporah quickly circumcises her son. She calls Moses a bridegroom of blood. MSB says that Zipporah thought circumcision a repulsive practice, and so had kept Moses from doing it to their son. But once she knows her husband can die over it, she relents. Why would God wait until they were here, on the way to Egypt, before getting so angry? Perhaps so Zipporah would realize she couldn't travel home alone without Moses, if God killed him in this place?
Aaron comes to meet Moses.
2023 - This verse:
27 The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. [Exo 4:27 ESV]. So Aaron travels to Mt. Sinai. It seems unlikely that he went all the way into interior Midian, meeting Moses just as Moses began the journey to Egypt. This implies that Sinai is MUCH closer to Egypt. Aaron was a slave. How did he get leave to go very far at all out into the desert? I'm betting we have no clue where the real Mt. Sinai is. We probably think we do...but we don't.
Moses and Aaron gather the elders of Israel, show the signs, and they believe. So things start off very well. Not only do they believe, but they worship. For many, it is likely this was the first time they'd heard of God, the first time they'd worshiped Him. I think these signs were necessary to show them there was a legitimate difference between the God of Moses and the gods of the Egyptians that they were used to worshiping. The Egyptian gods couldn't do miracles.