Exodus Chapter 4 Verses 1-9

:1 “And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. 2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. 3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. 4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: 5 That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. 6 And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. 7 And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. 8 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. 9 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.”

Moses continued with his doubts, objections, and excuses about doing what the Lord had commanded him to do.  In this regard, Moses is very typical of God’s elect children.  There have been times in all of our lives that we have doubted the Lord, we have made objections or excuses why we could not obey the word of the Lord.  Yet, as God was gracious to Moses, so is he also to us. 

The objection Moses made unto the Lord was that the children of Israel would not believe him and would not hearken unto his voice.  Moreover, they will doubt that the LORD had sent him.  On the one hand, Moses was speaking from prior experience when forty years before he had gone out and thought that they would have understood how that God would use him to deliver the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage.  They had answered him and said, “Who hath made you a judge and ruler over us?”  However, Moses had gone that time without direction of the LORD.  When we go without direction from the LORD we should expect to fail.   

“And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. 3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. 4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: 5 That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.”  To manifest his graciousness unto Moses and to assure him that the childen of Israel would hear his voice and believe that God had sent him, God gave Moses three signs to show unto the children of Israel.  While the sign itself was miraculous and obviously came from the Lord, yet it has spiritual significance unto us today.  Throughout the scriptures, “the rod,” is a symbol of the commandment and authority of God.  We will see the rod used several times as God sent forth his sore judgments upon Pharaoh and Egypt.  Likewise, the serpent is a symbol of Satan and sin.  When the commandment and authority of God is cast down, it becomes a serpent (sin) to chase us.  When Adam transgressed the commandment and authority of God in the Garden of Eden, he suffered the deadly consequences of sins bite.  When Christ, the second Adam, became sin for us, he delivered the elect from the deadly (eternal) consequences of sin.  Christ put forth his hand and delivered us from the sins of our flesh.  Now the rod or authority of God is in the hands of Christ and we are to be obedient and submissive to his authority. 

Just like Moses cast the rod upon the ground, so we likewise had cast the commandment of God upon the ground, and like Moses fled from before his own sins, so we fled from before our sins.  Moreover, when Moses followed the commandment of God to take up the serpent, then it became a rod in his hands, by which he would be blessed to bring forth great judgments upon Egypt.  Likewise, when we break God’s commandment we flee from the consequences of our sin which chase us.  However, when we take up the commandments of God, we go in the authority of God and can do whatever God would have us to do. 

“And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. 7 And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.”  Leprosy is a disease known to mankind and is basically incurable by man.  Leprosy is used as a symbol of sin in the book of Leviticus.  Again, using the examples of Adam and Christ, we can see a typical picture of sin being brought into the world of Adam multiplied by the hand of Adam, when he disobeyed the commandment of God.  Next, we see a typical picture of Christ delivering us from sin by the work of Christ’s hand.  In all cases, the type is never as perfect as the antitype.  When Christ delivered us from the consequences of our sins, he did not just restore us to a state of innocence, but delivered us into a far greater and better state.  He gave us eternal life, which Adam did not have before he broke the commandment of God.   

“And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. 9 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.”  Here we have a typical picture of Christ’s atonement for the sins of his people.  Christ, being the pure river of the water of life, poured out his life giving it to redeem his people from their sins.  The waters of his perfect life were poured upon the dry and barren land of the lives of his people.  According to the scriptures, “the life is in the blood.”  Thus, through the atoning sacrifice of Christ we are given eternal life by the sprinkling of his precious blood.  In our depraved state before the application of Christ’s atonement to us, we were totally barren of anything good or worthy in our lives.  After the application of Christ’s atonement for us we are given eternal spiritual life and now can bear the wondrous fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.           

The Lord assured Moses that the children of Israel would believe and hearken to the voice of the above three signs.  This is not to say that they would have understood the spiritual significance of those signs, but rather they would at least recognize that the miraculous signs had to come from God and thus Moses was sent to bring them forth from the bondage of Egypt.