Exodus 4

Exodus 4

Summary

Moses is afraid that he will fail at his task of convincing the elders of what God wants of them. So the LORD gives Moses a few signs that he can use to convince them: A staff that turns into a snake, his hand can become leprotic and healed at will, and he can turn river water to blood.

Moses continues to while that he’s not a good speaker and shouldn’t God find someone else. God gets angry, but agrees that they can enlist the help of Aaron, his brother to speak while Moses performed the signs.

Moses sets out for Egypt from his homeĀ bringing his family. At which point God discusses the plan with him. He’s to attempt to convince the Pharaoh, but God will harden his heart anyway.

When Moses got to a lodging place, the LORD was going to kill him, but Zipporah, his wife, circumcises their son and God let him live.

Moses explained to Aaron what was going on, they went to the elders performing the signs, who then believed them and bowed down to worship.

Commentary

First off, whining apparently works on God. But he will also kill you for no apparent reason after giving you his plans for his people. He sounds more like a movie villian than the creator of the universe, to me.

Also, God plans to harden the heart of the Pharaoh to make sure he refuses to let the Hebrews leave. Does this mean the Pharaoh would have let them go otherwise? Isn’t that what God wants? So he merely has a desire to inflict suffering on the people of Egypt. Well, they were slavers, so God must hate slavery. I’m sure we’ll see that theme again later.

I also want to call attention to Exo 4:11 where God is making an allusion to the idea that all good and bad is by his hand alone.

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