And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, Jehovah has not appeared to thee.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Jehovah said to him, What is that in thy hand? And he said, A staff.
Moses has just told God that Israel will not believe him. Instead of a rebuke, God asks him about the ordinary shepherd's staff already in his hand.
Moses had contradicted a direct promise of God.
Could unbelief be more presumptuous? The Lord had said, "They will listen to your voice." Moses replies, "They will not believe me." It would have been no wonder if the Lord had utterly rejected His servant for daring to contradict Him to His face. But He is slow to anger and of great mercy. This scene is full of beauty. It reveals the depth of the tenderness and patience of His heart. So He will bear with His servant and stoop lower still. He will even give miraculous signs to strengthen him in his weakness and to drive out his unbelief.
Each fresh objection draws out something new.
We might suppose that Moses had seen and heard enough to set his fears aside. Still, Moses raises questions, and still God answers them. Each new question brings out fresh grace... The Lord would just take him as he was, and use what he had in his hand.
The writers call it a rod; older translations use that word where the ESV has "staff." The stick itself was worth nothing, and that is the point of the question.
Here is a great principle in a small subject... You may be sure that the rod was in itself nothing but a piece of common dead wood. The principle is this. Men are apt to think, "How much would I do if I only had such and such instruments." God is saying, "What is that in your hand? Do it with that." "With that? It is only a bit of stick. If only it were a sceptre, or even a bishop's staff! But it is just a shepherd's crook." Yet do you not know that you can do greater wonders with that bit of common stick, if God sends you, than you ever could with a sceptre or a staff?
The same principle runs right through the Bible's account of God's chosen tools.
He had tended Jethro's sheep with that rod. Now God was about to use it to deliver Israel and to punish the land of Egypt. It would open a way through the deep for the ransomed of the Lord to cross over. It would bring water out of the hard rock to refresh Israel's thirsty crowds in the desert. God takes up the weakest instruments to reach His mightiest ends. "A rod," "a ram's horn," "a cake of barley meal," "an earthen pitcher," "a shepherd's sling" — anything, in short, when used of God, will do the appointed work. Men imagine that splendid ends need splendid means. But that is not God's way.
In Egypt, a rod was more than a walking stick.
The rod in the East is a symbol of authority and power... The old monuments of Egypt show, in hundreds of cases, gods and men with sceptre-like rods in their hands... Satan had the power and the authority, and Jehovah would commit these to Moses as His servant; and often, as the story goes on, we read that Moses holds the rod of God.
But it is a shepherd's rod, and that shapes the power it stands for.
"All power belongs to God," and this shepherd's rod shows us how He uses it. Power with Him always waits upon love. Do you doubt this? Do you ask, "Is the rod of iron, with which He will crush His enemies — is that love?" I answer that every passage about it reads exactly, "He shall shepherd them with a rod of iron." Hard as the blow may fall, love guides it.
Moses did not have to wait for a better tool to arrive.
Now you will notice that Moses had this equipment for his service from the first. The rod was in his hand at the very moment when the excuses were in his mouth. Human eyes saw only the rod, but God was working the mighty wonders through His servant.
- Question — God met Moses' objection with a question, not a rebuke. Each new question drew out fresh grace.
- Hand — the equipment was already there; the rod was in his hand while the excuses were still in his mouth.
- Common wood — the rod was only dead wood. God takes up weak instruments — a horn, a pitcher, a sling — to reach His mightiest ends.
- Authority — in Egypt a rod stood for power and rule, and God was handing that authority to His servant. It is a shepherd's rod, so love guides the power, even when it strikes.
- Result — human eyes saw only a stick, but God was doing the mighty wonders through His servant.
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.
God tells a hesitant Moses to throw down the only thing he is holding — a shepherd's staff — and it turns into a snake he runs from. Commentators read this first sign on two levels. It taught Moses about himself. It also pictured power in the world, in Egypt, and in Satan's hand.
Writers take the shepherd's staff as the standing picture of authority. One commentator asks what kind of power a shepherd's rod stands for.
"All power belongs to God," and this shepherd's rod shows us how He uses it. With Him, power always serves love. Do you doubt this? Do you ask, "Is the rod of iron, with which He will crush His enemies — is that love?" I answer that in every passage that speaks of it, the exact rendering is, "He shall shepherd them with a rod of iron." It may strike hard, but love guides it.
Another writer explains why God gave the signs, and what the rod stands for in Scripture.
Miraculous signs then follow, to prove that Jehovah sent His servant… The word is vague. It probably has a wider meaning than the more definite "serpent." It is the same word used for sea monsters in general… This wonder showed power — which is what a "rod" means in Scripture — changing into something satanic. The rod is the symbol of authority. It can also stand for chastening. But no chastening is right unless it flows from just authority, and this emblem joins the two ideas.
The change happens the moment the rod leaves Moses' grip. One writer explains what power becomes once it is thrown down, and where that leaves Christians today.
A rod is the symbol of authority. Cast to the ground, and so brought low, it becomes wholly evil, even satanic, and a man may run from it… In Egypt power was brought low and satanic. God ordered Moses to seize it, and then the authority, rescued from Satan, would be in his hands. Satanic power is more and more in evidence in our own day. But as Christians we have no command to seize the serpent by the tail. If we try it before the time, we will only get bitten.
If power in the world looks out of God's control, one commentator points to the exact wording of the sign.
Notice the beautiful accuracy of the picture, and the comfort it holds for us. The rod was cast out of Moses' hand; it did not slip out. God has not lost control of the world, after all. Of His own will, and for His own wise purposes, He has put man under the rule of the prince man chose for himself.
The snake that rose up was Egypt's own royal emblem.
When Moses threw his rod on the ground, up rose the form of the cobra, the uraeus. This was the very serpent Egypt used as its emblem of majesty. It reared up and hissed at him, and Moses fled before it! … The majesty of Egypt had the mastery, and Israel fled before it.
One writer sees Moses' flight as a lesson about the power in his own hand.
Here, indeed, was a lesson for him. The power of his own hand was under Satan's direction and influence. That rod was the one he had already tried out in Egypt when he killed the Egyptian. Left to himself, and leaning on himself, the natural force he had and the weapon he trusted were under the enemy's power, and Satan guided them.
His flight also pictures where every person stands before evil — and points to the One who does not flee.
Moses fleeing from the serpent would show man's inability to face the power of evil. The Lord Jesus alone could do this. Mark's Gospel is remarkable here. It presents God's perfect Servant as the One who can meet and overcome every part of Satan's power. He can also clothe His disciples with that power, so that they can "take up serpents."
Before the sign convinced anyone else, it tested Moses.
A rod was a weak thing, easy to despise, to use for setting a nation free. But by it Jehovah was going to test whether His servant would obey His instructions without hesitating or objecting. Would Moses use the rod right then, just as God told him?
- Rod — the shepherd's staff stands for authority. In God's hand, love guides that authority — never bare force.
- Dropped — out of the hand that held it, power changes character and turns satanic. That was Egypt. Yet God cast the rod down on purpose; He never lost control.
- Serpent — the snake was Egypt's own emblem of majesty. The sign named the enemy God was sending Moses to face.
- Fled — Moses ran. Man cannot face evil, and Moses' own strength had served the enemy.
- Seized — Moses was told to grasp the serpent; obedience turned the thing he fled from into authority in his hand.
And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out thy hand and take it by the tail -- and he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand --
Moses fears that Israel will not believe him. So the Lord gives him a sign on the spot. He throws down the shepherd's staff in his hand, it turns into a serpent, and Moses runs from it. Then God tells him to pick the thing up by the wrong end. Two questions follow. Why does God arm His servant with something so ordinary? And why does He make him grab the very thing he just fled?
The staff was a shepherd's tool, nothing impressive. One writer notes how God works with what the man already carries:
The Lord would just take him as he was, and use what he had in his hand. He had tended Jethro's sheep with that rod. Now it would deliver the Israel of God and punish the land of Egypt. It would open a way through the deep for the ransomed of the Lord to pass over. It would bring water out of the hard rock to refresh Israel's thirsty crowds in the desert. God takes up the weakest instruments to do His mightiest work.
A rod is not just a stick. One writer notes that this one is a shepherd's rod, and that this says something about the power it stands for:
Power with Him always waits on love. The rod in Moses' hand, then, is the type of divine power, marked by tenderness and care, like a shepherd's rod. Moses is then told to cast it on the ground; and out of his hand, the rod changes its character; it becomes a serpent.
Once the rod leaves his hand and hits the ground, its nature changes. That picture matched the country God was sending Moses into.
The point of this wonder was the change of power (which a "rod" means in scripture) into something satanic. The rod is the symbol of authority; it may also represent chastening. But chastening is right only when it flows from just authority. So the two ideas belong together in this emblem. The rod of power then taking satanic form seems to be what the first sign given to Moses means. Such was exactly the state of things in the land of Egypt.
Kelly also observes that the Hebrew word is broader than "serpent" — it is the same word used for large creatures of the sea.
The command runs against instinct. Grabbing a snake by the tail leaves its head free to strike, and one writer faces that:
To grab the serpent by its tail, leaving its head free to strike with its poisonous fangs, seemed unwise and dangerous. But God's directions are always the wisest and the best, even when they seem to run against our own reason and wishes. Here, I think, we shall understand the inner meaning of God's command by looking at His prophetic word given in Eden. The Seed of the woman would in due time bruise the serpent's head. That is why His servant could take it by the tail without harm.
The sign was meant to steady a frightened man. What terrifies him turns out to be borrowed strength:
The serpent is typical of Satan, who has power that is dreaded by mankind. But where does he get his power? In effect he is only a rod in the hand of God... God is in perfect control. When He wants, He can turn the serpent into a rod as fast as He turned the rod into a serpent. So Moses should realize this: Satan's opposition may be strong, but God was in sovereign control. He could put power into the hand of Moses to overcome all the power of Satan.
One writer adds a caution. Believers are not told to handle evil powers now:
We live in a day when satanic power shows itself more and more. But as Christians we have no command to seize the serpent by the tail. If we try to do it before the time, we shall only get bitten. That action is reserved for the One of whom Moses serves as a type. He will do it finally and gloriously at His second coming.
- Rod — God uses what is already in the hand and sends the man out with it. The weakest instrument does the appointed work.
- Dropped — authority dropped on the ground turns satanic. That was Egypt, and Moses fled from it.
- Grasped — obedience takes it by the tail. The command runs against reason, and it is still the safest thing to do.
- Restored — in the obedient hand the serpent is a rod again. The enemy's power is only borrowed, and God stays in control.
- Reserved — the final seizing belongs to the One Moses pictures. Believers who try it early only get bitten.
that they may believe that Jehovah, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
Moses had just told God that Israel would not believe him. Verse 5 gives God's answer: the sign of the rod is proof that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had appeared to him.
God gives the sign to a servant who has just contradicted Him.
Could unbelief be more presumptuous? The Lord had said, "They will listen to your voice." Moses replies, "They will not believe me." Would it be any surprise if the Lord had rejected His servant outright for daring to contradict Him to His face? But He is slow to anger and of great mercy... So He will bear with His servant and stoop lower still. He will even give miraculous signs to strengthen him in his weakness and clear away his unbelief.
God does not hand Moses a new instrument. He asks what he is holding, and uses that.
The Lord would just take him as he was, and use what he had in his hand. He had used that rod to look after Jethro's sheep. Now God would use it to rescue the Israel of God, to punish the land of Egypt, to open a way through the sea for the ransomed of the Lord to cross, and to bring water out of the hard rock for Israel's thirsty crowds in the desert. God takes up the weakest instruments to achieve His mightiest ends. A rod, a ram's horn, a cake of barley bread, a clay jar, a shepherd's sling — anything at all, when God uses it, will do the appointed work.
On the ground, the rod pictures a world that looks out of God's hands. One writer stresses that it did not fall there by accident:
The rod was cast out of Moses' hand; it did not slip out. God has not lost control of the world after all. Of His own will, and for His own wise purposes, He has put man under the rule of the one man himself has chosen as his prince.
Moses ran from the serpent. Then God told him to pick it up by the tail. The lesson lands where verse 5 says it should — on proof that God had appeared to him.
The serpent is a picture of Satan, who has power that mankind dreads. But where does he get his power? He is in effect only a rod in the hand of God. God does give him freedom, up to a point, to act by his own will, and so he becomes a dangerous enemy to man. Still, God is in perfect control. As He desires, He may turn the serpent into a rod as quickly as He turned the rod into a serpent. So Moses should realise that God was in sovereign control, however strong Satan's opposition might be. God could put power into Moses' hand to overcome all the power of Satan. How clear a witness that the God of his fathers had appeared to Moses!
The seizing was commanded. One writer traces what the rod and the serpent stand for, then warns us not to copy the act:
A rod is the symbol of authority. Thrown to the ground and so brought low, it becomes thoroughly evil, even satanic, so that a man may run from it... In Egypt power was debased and satanic. At God's order, Moses was to seize it, and then the authority, rescued from Satan, would be in his hands. We live in a day when satanic power is more and more in evidence. But as Christians we have no command to seize the serpent by the tail. If we try to do it before the time, we will only get bitten. That work belongs to the One whom Moses pictures.
Why name the fathers just as Israel is about to become a nation?
The time was coming when they would no longer be a family but a nation. Just as God was about to reveal Himself in a special way, He also brings before them His link with their fathers. We must never forget the ways in which God has acted before if we are to appreciate what He is doing now... He directs attention to His being the God of promise, and so joins the names of the fathers with His own.
The sign aimed at belief. One writer names what has to come first:
They must have faith in the deliverer to find the deliverance. It is the same today. Faith in Christ Himself is the first and essential thing on which everything else depends.
Yet not every response to a sign runs deep. One writer draws a line between the two:
Read Exodus 4:1-9 and 29-31 together with Exodus 14:30-31. What is spoken of there is the people believing the evidence of what they saw. That is a very different thing from the faith that connects the soul with God.
- Objection. Moses contradicted God to His face. Instead of rejecting him, God stooped lower and gave signs to clear away his unbelief.
- Instrument. God used the shepherd's rod already in his hand. He takes up weak instruments to achieve His mightiest ends.
- Control. Moses threw the rod down at God's word; it did not slip out. God has not lost control of a world that looks satanic.
- Mastery. Grasping the serpent showed that Satan is only a rod in God's hand. God commanded that grasp, and the final seizing belongs to Christ.
- Belief. The sign aimed at faith in the deliverer, and without that there is no deliverance. Believing what the eyes see is not yet faith that connects the soul with God.
And Jehovah said moreover to him, Put now thy hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom, and took it out, and behold, his hand was leprous, as snow.
Moses has just seen his shepherd's staff turn into a snake and back again. Now God gives him a second sign, and this one is worked on his own body. A clean hand goes into the fold of his cloak and comes out white with disease. The question is no longer about Egypt's power. It is about what lies inside a man.
God had promised that Israel would listen. Moses flatly contradicted Him. What follows is not rebuke but patience.
Could unbelief be more presumptuous? The Lord had said, "They will listen to your voice." Moses replies, "They will not believe me." Would it have been surprising if the Lord had rejected His servant outright? He dared to contradict Him to His face. But He is slow to anger and of great mercy... So He will bear with His servant. He will stoop lower still and give even miraculous signs to strengthen him in his weakness and to drive out his unbelief.
This second sign differed from the first in who it touched.
To confirm this God gives a second sign, this time to affect only Moses personally... Leprosy is typical of sin, and in this way God was showing His ability to expose the sin of our own hearts by showing it in the works of our hands. More miraculous still, God shows His healing power in a heart changed by faith in the Son of God. He has power over sin as well as over Satan.
The disease in this sign has a settled meaning through Scripture, and its details matter.
Leprosy is the Old Testament type of sin, in its loathsomeness, malignity, and power to spread. It might at first give little evidence of itself outwardly. The spot upon the skin might not truly represent the extent of the disease, which lay much deeper — in the blood itself; no local thing, but corrupting the whole man. Unless God steps in, it is sure to keep spreading. It whitens the hair and exposes the raw flesh. In the end the man becomes a vivid picture of Isaiah's words: "From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds."
Scripture does not use only one image for sin, and this one has a companion.
Throughout the word of God there are two standing types of sin... Paralysis, or palsy as older translations call it, is the type of the effects of sin. It completely destroys human strength and plunges the guilty into weakness — "without strength," as an older translation of Romans puts it. Leprosy is the type of it in its defilement.
The hand was clean before it went in. Where it went matters as much as what happened to it. The older wording is "into his bosom" — the fold of the cloak against the chest, over the heart.
It deals, not with outward power like the first, but with inward defilement. Moses was to put his hand into his bosom and it came out leprous and defiled. It was not a case of his hand defiling his heart but of his heart defiling his hand. Here we have in picture what our Lord taught in His words, recorded in Mark 7:21-23... This is a sign that cleansing must begin in the heart, which no one sees. Only then can the hand, which everyone sees, become clean.
The sign has two movements, and the second undoes the first.
The leprous hand and its cleansing present to us the moral effect of sin, and also the way in which sin has been met in the perfect work of Christ. The clean hand, placed in the bosom, becomes leprous; and the leprous hand placed there becomes clean. Sin came in by the first man, and the second put it away... Man brought in ruin, man brought in redemption; man brought in guilt, man brought in pardon; man brought in sin, man brought in righteousness.
The sign also said something about the people Moses was sent to rescue.
The sign of the leprous hand teaches another lesson. Sin, typified by leprosy, and cleansing from sin are shown in this sign. Israel was in a leprous condition, but the power of Jehovah could cleanse His people. When Moses came the first time to deliver his people, they treated him as an outcast; but when he put his hand in his bosom the second time to act, the reproach was removed.
- Patience — Moses argued back. God answered his unbelief with another sign, not with rejection.
- Exposure — this sign touched Moses himself. God exposes the sin of our own hearts by showing it in the works of our hands.
- Depth — leprosy pictures sin as no surface blemish. It runs deeper than the skin and spreads unless God steps in. Palsy pictures the other side: sin as lost strength.
- Direction — the heart defiled the hand, not the hand the heart. Cleansing must start in the unseen heart before the visible hand can be clean.
- Reversal — the same bosom that made the hand leprous made it whole again: sin came in by the first man, and the second put it away.
And he said, Put thy hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again, and took it out of his bosom, and behold, it was turned again as his flesh.
God has just turned Moses' rod into a serpent and back again. Now He gives a second sign, worked on Moses' own body, and it turns on one question: where does sin come from?
Moses had just told God that Israel would not believe him — a flat contradiction of God's promise.
Could unbelief be more presumptuous? The Lord had said, "They will listen to your voice." Moses replies, "They will not believe me." It would be no surprise if the Lord had rejected His servant outright. He dared to contradict Him to His face. But He is slow to anger and of great mercy. This scene is full of beauty. It reveals the depths of the tenderness and long-suffering of His patient heart.
The writers call that place the bosom, the fold of the robe against the chest. Two things carry the meaning: where the hand went, and what came out.
The Lord told Moses to put his hand in his bosom. Undoubtedly the place was significant, as well as the effect; for when he took it out again, his hand was leprous as snow — the well-known type of sin, at least in its defiling character if not in the powerlessness to which it reduces man.
Leprosy fit the picture because of how it works, not just how it looks.
Leprosy is the Old Testament type of sin, in its loathsomeness, malignity, and power to spread. At first it might show little sign of itself on the outside. The spot on the skin might not show the true extent of the disease. It lay much deeper — in the blood itself. It was no local thing, but corrupted the whole man.
The hand was clean before it went in. It came out ruined, so the trouble travelled from the inside out.
It deals, not with outward power like the first, but with inward defilement. Moses was to put his hand into his bosom and it came out leprous and defiled. It was not a case of his hand defiling his heart, but of his heart defiling his hand… Then, as commanded, Moses put his defiled hand to his heart again, and it came back whole, like the other. This is a sign that cleansing must begin in the heart, which is unseen. Only in this way can the hand, which is seen, be cleansed.
That closes off a common excuse: blaming your surroundings.
Let no man deceive himself with the false theory that sin is the effect of his circumstances, and that he is the victim of his environment. "The tree is known by its fruit." "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander." Depend upon it: if the hand is leprous, the heart is no better, but worse. It is the very seat, the source of the disease.
The way back starts with sin brought out into the open.
Leprosy in the heart is sin hidden, but leprosy on the hand is sin exposed. The hand plucked out of the bosom makes clear what is there. And "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Here it is leprosy in the hand that is shown. This is not the mere admission that sin is in our hearts or in our natures. It is confession of sin actually committed — a very different thing. We can admit easily, and without any conscience, that we are all sinners. But it is for the sins actually committed that we feel responsible before God.
The same place that brought the disease brought the cure — and behind it stand two men.
The leprous hand and its cleansing show us the moral effect of sin. They also show how the perfect work of Christ has met sin. The clean hand, placed in the bosom, becomes leprous. The leprous hand placed there becomes clean. Leprosy is the well-known type of sin. Sin came in by the first man, and the second man put it away… Man brought in ruin, man brought in redemption. Man brought in guilt, man brought in pardon. Man brought in sin, man brought in righteousness.
The sign also pointed to Israel, and to Moses' two visits.
Israel was in a leprous condition, but the power of the Lord could cleanse His people. When Moses came the first time to deliver his people, they treated him as an outcast. When he put his hand in his bosom the second time to act, the reproach was gone.
- Patience. Moses contradicted God to His face. God answered with mercy, not rejection.
- Source. The clean hand went in and came out diseased — the heart defiled the hand, not the other way round.
- Exposure. Leprosy hidden in the bosom is sin concealed. Leprosy on the hand is sin out in the open, where a person can confess it.
- Cleansing. The disease begins at the heart, so the cure begins there too. The hand heals only by going back to the same place.
- Reversal. The bosom that ruined the hand also restored it: what the first man brought in, the second Man put away.
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 other sign.
Moses had objected that Israel would not believe him. God answered with signs: a rod that turned into a serpent, and a hand that came out leprous and then whole again. This verse looks past the first sign to the second. Why give more than one sign, and what was each one saying to a people still in slavery?
God gave these signs to His own messenger, who had just contradicted a promise God made to him.
Could unbelief be more presumptuous? The Lord had said, "They will listen to your voice." Moses replies, "They will not believe me." No one could be surprised if the Lord had rejected His servant outright for daring to contradict Him to His face. But He is slow to anger and of great mercy... So He will bear with His servant. He will stoop lower still, and even give miraculous signs to strengthen him in his weakness and clear away his unbelief.
The "first sign" here is the rod Moses threw down.
A rod is the symbol of authority. Cast to the ground and so debased, it becomes thoroughly evil, even satanic, so that a man may flee from it. But Moses grabbed the serpent by the tail, as God commanded him, and it became a rod in his hand again. The meaning is plain. In Egypt, power had become debased and satanic. At God's order, Moses was to seize that power, and then the authority, rescued from Satan, would be in his hands.
The second sign moves from outward power to the state of the person.
The second sign is the sign of sin and its cleansing... Leprosy is the Old Testament type of sin: it is loathsome, malignant, and has power to spread... In Moses' case the picture is vivid: the disease works from the heart to the hand, not from the hand to the heart. The clean hand goes into the bosom and comes out leprous — white as death... Be sure of this: if the hand is leprous, the heart is not better but worse. It is the seat of the whole disease. So cleansing must begin with the heart, not with the hand.
The sign does not stop at the diagnosis. The same bosom that showed the disease also healed it.
The leprous hand and its cleansing show us the moral effect of sin. They also show how the perfect work of Christ has met sin. The clean hand, placed in the bosom, becomes leprous. The leprous hand placed there becomes clean. Leprosy is the well-known type of sin. Sin came in by the first man, and the second man put it away. "For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead."
The "they" of this verse is Israel, not Pharaoh. That is easy to miss, since one sign was later repeated before the king.
God meant these signs mainly for Israel, not for the Egyptians.
The signs also pointed to the man God had sent.
The Lord gives him three signs. They witness to the power at work for the people, and they witness for Moses as the deliverer God raised up for them. The people had to trust the deliverer to find the deliverance. It is the same today. Faith in Christ Himself comes first. It is necessary, and everything else depends on it.
Verse 8 leaves room for refusal. A third sign waits behind the second.
The third sign is a prediction of judgment for stubborn unbelief. Nothing suggests that Moses had to perform it to overcome their unbelief. Water stands for what refreshes. It is the means of life and refreshment coming from God. But poured out on the ground, it becomes the symbol of judgment and of what judgment brings. God gives this stream of life and blessing to needy people "in a favorable time" and "a day of salvation." Must it not turn into wrath and judgment if His goodness does not lead them to repentance? Every blessing becomes so much judgment if a person ignores a Saviour's voice.
Israel did believe when they saw the signs. One writer warns against reading too much into that word.
Read verses 1-9 and 29-31 of Exodus 4, with verses 30 and 31 of Exodus 14. You will see that the people believed the evidence of what they saw. That is a very different thing from the faith which connects the soul with God. As I once said to you, we see the same sort of "belief" in people who were certainly not saved.
- Patience. Moses doubted a promise God had already given. God bore with His servant instead of rejecting him.
- Power. The first sign showed authority fallen into satanic hands and taken back at God's command.
- Purity. The "latter sign" put the disease in the heart, not the hand, and pictured the cleansing that starts there.
- Person. All the signs pointed to the deliverer God raised up. The people had to trust him to receive the deliverance.
- Peril. When people refuse the signs, a third waits. The stream of blessing itself turns to judgment when they ignore a Saviour's voice.
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also those two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour [it] on the dry [land]; and the water that thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry [land].
God gives Moses a third sign. Unlike the first two, He does not perform it on the spot. Moses is to use it only if Israel refuses both earlier signs. Water from the Nile, poured on the ground, would turn to blood. Why does the last sign of the deliverer picture death?
Moses performed the first two signs there and then. This one comes with a condition attached, and the condition tells you what the sign is for.
This was a solemn and very expressive picture of what comes from refusing to bow to God's testimony. Moses was to perform this sign only if they refused the other two. It was, first, a sign to Israel, and afterwards a plague on Egypt. (Compare Ex. 7:17)
So what does this third sign announce?
The third sign is a prediction of judgment for stubborn unbelief. But nothing suggests that Moses performed it as something needed to overcome their unbelief.
The change from water to blood is a change of meaning.
In water is life, but blood (outside of a body) is the sign of death. God had power also to turn Egypt's sources of refreshment into the corruption of death. So the three great enemies of man — Satan, sin and death — are seen to be subject to the great power of God. It was that power God was graciously giving into the hand of His servant Moses.
Taken together, the three signs cover the whole field.
All this shows God's absolute command of every circumstance, but in His servant's hands, and in favour of His people. Let them know that God would work according to what belongs to Him alone. There could be nothing more thorough. Look at authority in the world, at what belongs to man, or at the resources of nature. In all of these, a man brings the credentials of One who was sovereign over every domain.
The rod that turned into a serpent came back as a rod in Moses' hand. God healed the leprous hand. The third sign has no second half — and in Egypt these signs went further.
In the two personal signs there is first restoration (the leprosy is healed), and then the power Moses fled from becomes the rod of God in his hand. The water becoming blood is simple judgment. In Egypt the first sign is not found; there Moses acted for God, but the last two signs were developed much more fully. Of the personal healing — that is, the removal of sin — there was nothing there. But power completely destroys every display of Satanic power, and the worshipped source of wealth for the flesh and for the world became death and judgment to it.
The water in the sign is the same water either way. What changes is how the hearer responds.
God says, "If they will not believe even these two signs … you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water … will become blood." (Ex. 4:9-10.) What is the appointed means of life and purity — the water — becomes to the one who rejects it the terrible symbol of death and judgment. "There remains … but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries."
The chapter later reports that the people believed when they saw the signs. But what kind of belief was that?
If you read verses 1-9, with 29-31 of Ex. 4, and verses 30 and 31 of Ex. 14, you will see that this speaks of the people believing the evidence of what they saw. That is a very different thing from the faith that connects the soul with God. As I once said to you, we see the same sort of "belief" in people who were certainly not saved, in Ex. 8:16-19; John 2:23-25; Acts 8:6, 9, 10, 13, 20-23.
- Reserved. The third sign came with a condition. Moses was to use it only if Israel refused the first two. It is a warning, not a display of power.
- Refusal. Its subject is the cost of refusing to bow to God's testimony. There is no record that Moses ever had to use it.
- Reversal. Water carries life; blood poured out on the ground carries death. God shows He can turn Egypt's own refreshment into corruption.
- Range. The serpent, the leprous hand and the blood are the credentials of One sovereign over every domain. Satan, sin and death all answer to Him.
- Response. The first two signs end in restoration. This one is judgment with no healing. And signs may convince a person and still leave them short of the faith that joins the soul to God.