Exodus 4:2-5 And the LORD said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod.… The staff was the shepherd's crook, with which he had hitherto conducted the flock of Jethro. Hence it represented his vocation as a shepherd. This he was to throw away, i.e., he was to give up his calling and follow a new one. But the staff which he had thrown away became a serpent, and Moses fled before it. His vocation hitherto had been a poor and despised one; but it was also quiet, peaceful, and free from danger. When this was given up, he was to be exposed to dangers of such magnitude, that even his life would be threatened. Moses could foresee all this, and hence the obstinacy with which he refused to enter upon his new vocation. But at the word of God he laid hold of the snake, and it became a staff in his hand once more. This showed that, by the power of God, he would be able to overcome the dangers that would surround him, when he relinquished his present calling. By overpowering the snake he recovered his staff, but it was no longer his staff; it was the rod of God (ver. Exodus 4:20), and with the staff thus altered he was to perform the work entrusted to him (ver. Exodus 4:17). It was still a shepherd's staff, and his new vocation was a shepherd's calling. From being a shepherd of Jethro's sheep he was to become the shepherd of God's sheep, the leader and lawgiver of the people of God. And he became so, by overcoming the dangers which intervened between these two different employments. We must also observe, that this was the rod with which he was to bring the plagues upon Egypt; and therefore it was the retributory counterpart to the rod with which the Egyptian taskmasters had beaten the Israelites (ver. Exodus 4:14). As soon, then, as Moses appeared before the people and performed this sign, it showed them, first, that the dangers to which the mission of Moses would expose them — dangers which they soon experienced (chap. Exodus 5.) — would be overcome; and secondly, that the staff of shepherd and ruler, with which Moses was to lead and govern them, was not assumed without authority, but given to him by God, and therefore the question could not be asked, as it was before, "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?" (Exodus 2:14). He afterwards performed the same miracle in the presence of Pharaoh (Exodus 7:10, etc.). (J. H. Kurtz, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.WEB: Yahweh said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." |
    |