"Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail," the LORD said to Moses, who reached out his hand and caught the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. Sermons
I. HE WAS AS YET UNFURNISHED WITH DISTINCT CREDENTIALS. In so grave a matter Moses could not expect the people to believe his bare word. This was a real difficulty. Before committing themselves to his proposals, the Hebrews would be entitled to ask for very distinct proofs that the message brought to them had really come from God - that there was no mistake, no deception. God acknowledges the justice of this plea, by furnishing Moses with the credentials that he needed. From which we gather that it is no part of the business of a preacher of the Gospel to run down "evidences." Evidences are both required and forthcoming. God asks no man to confide in a message as of Divine authority, without furnishing him with sufficient grounds for believing that this character really belongs to it. The reality of revelation, the supernatural mission of Christ, the inspiration of prophets and apostles, the authority of Scripture, all admit of proof; and it is the duty of the preacher to keep this fact in view, and in delivering his message, to exhibit along with the message the evidences of its Divine original. II. MORAL CAUSES, AS DISTINGUISHED FROM MERE DEFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE, WOULD MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR HIM TO SECURE CREDENCE. Moses anticipated being met, not simply with hesitation and suspense of judgment, which would be all that the mere absence of credentials would warrant, but by positive disbelief. "The Lord hath not appeared to thee." How account for this? 1. The message he had to bring was a very wonderful one. He had to ask the people to believe that, after centuries of silence, God, the God of the patriarchs, had again appeared to him, and had spoken with him. This in itself was not incredible, but it would assume an incredible aspect to those whose faith in a living God had become shadowy and uninfluential - who had learned to look on such appearances as connected, not with the present, but with a distant and already faded past. Credulous enough in some things, they would be incredulous as to this; just as a believer in witchcraft or fairies might be the hardest to convince of a case of the supernatural aside from the lines of his ordinary thinking and beliefs. It is a similar difficulty which the preacher of the Gospel has to encounter in the indisposition of the natural mind to believe in anything outside of, or beyond, the sphere in which it ordinarily works and judges, - the sphere of things sensible (John 14:17). The supernatural is strange to it. It pushes it aside as inherently incredible, or at least as of no interest to it. From this the advance is easy to that which is so peculiarly a characteristic of our age, the denial of the supernatural as such - the fiat assertion that miracle is impossible. 2. The announcement contained in his message was so good as almost to surpass belief. Great good news has often this effect of producing incredulity. Cf. Genesis 45:26, - "Jacob's heart fainted, and he believed them not," and Psalm 126. And would not the Hebrews require evidence for the great good news that God had visited them, and was about to bring them out of Egypt, and plant them in Caanan! In like manner, is it not vastly wonderful, almost passing belief, that God should have done for man all that the Gospel declares him to have done! Sending his Son, making atonement for sin, etc. 3. The difficulties in the way of the execution of the purpose seemed insuperable. Even with God on their side, it might seem to the Israelites as if the chances of their deliverance from Pharaoh were very small. True, God was omnipotent; but we know little if we have not learned how much easier it is to believe in God's power in the abstract, than to realise that this power is able to cope successfully with the actual difficulties of our position. The tendency of unbelief is to "limit the Holy One of Israel" (Psalm 78:41). And this tendency is nowhere more manifest than in the difficulty men feel in believing that the Gospel of the Cross is indeed the very "power of God unto salvation" - able to cope with and overcome the moral evil of the world, and of their own hearts. 4. One difficulty Moses would not have to contend with, viz.: aversion to his message in itself. For, after all, the message brought to the Israelites was in the line of their own fondest wishes - a fact which ought, if anything could, powerfully to have recommended it. How different with the Gospel, which, with its spiritual salvation, rouses in arms against itself every propensity of a heart at enmity against God! The Israelites must at least have desired that Moses' message would turn out to be true; but not so the mass of the hearers of the Gospel. They desire neither God nor his ways; have no taste for his salvation; are only eager to find excuses for getting rid of the unwelcome truths. To overcome an obstacle of this kind, more is needed than outward credentials - even an effectual working of the Holy Ghost. III. INFERENCES FROM THESE CONSIDERATIONS. 1. Preachers of the Gospel must prepare themselves for encountering unbelief. It is the old complaint - "Who hath believed our report?" (Isaiah 53:1). 2. The success of Moses in overcoming the people's unbelief shows that he must have possessed decisive credentials of his mission. The complaint of this verse does not tally with what is sometimes alleged as to the unlimited drafts that may be made on human credulity. Moses did not find the people all readiness to believe him. He was bringing them a message in the line of their dearest wishes, yet he anticipated nothing but incredulity. He had never much reason to complain of the over-credulity of the Israelites; his complaint was usually of their unbelief. Even after signs and wonders had been wrought, he had a constant battle to fight with their unbelieving tendencies. How then, unless his credentials had been of the clearest and most decisive kind, could he possibly have succeeded? For, mark (1) It was not merely a few enthusiasts he had to carry with him, but the whole body of the people. (2) He was no demagogue, but a man of slow, diffident, self-distrustful nature, the last man who might be expected to play successfully on popular credulity or enthusiasm. (3) His plans were not to be laid before the multitude at all, but before the "elders" - the cool, cautious heads of the nation, who would be sure to ask him for very distinct credentials before committing themselves to a contest with Pharaoh. The inference is that there must have been a true supernatural in the founding of the Mosaic era; as afterwards there must have been a true supernatural in the founding of the Christian era. Imposture, credulity, the force of mere ideas, the commanding power of a great personality, are, together or apart, incapable of explaining all the facts. Wonders must have been wrought, alike in the accrediting of the mission of Moses and in the stupendous work of the deliverance itself. - J.O.
The people believed. 1. The people's faith should closely follow upon God's word ministered, and by His works confirmed. A good connection.2. Where God promiseth success to His ministers in the faith of others, there they shall believe (Exodus 3:18). 3. All professed believers, receive not God's word with the same faith. 4. Hearing is the usual sense of bringing in faith and the fruits of it. 5. God's gracious visitation of His Church, and providential sight of its afflictions, is very good to be heard by them. 6. Such hearing of God's visiting love and redeeming providence must affect God's Israel. 7. Faith working by this sense stirs up souls to suitable returns unto God. 8. The humblest and sincerest worship in body and spirit is the most suitable return to God for His redemption. (G. Hughes, B. D.) 1. Their belief. 2. Their reverence. 3. Their devotion. II. THE ATTITUDES PREDICATED OF GOD. 1. He saw the affliction of Israel. 2. Visited Israel. (J. S. Exell, M. A.) (H. C. Trumbull.) The Roman noblemen could give no greater proof of their confidence in their city and army, than when they bought the land on which their Carthaginian enemies were encamped around the city. And we can give no greater proof of our confidence in God, than by trusting Him in the land which our enemies, darkness and sickness and trouble, seem to possess, and acting as if He were their master, and mightier than they all.(W. Baxendale.) I. God always furnishes sufficient evidence to justify belief. Moses was a stranger to the people; Aaron doubtless well known. He had a welcome message — deliverance. Miracles in outward form: miracles typical in character: rod changed to a serpent and back, Moses changed from a shepherd to a ruler; cleansing of leprosy, the purifying of the human for Divine use.II. HEARING PRECEDES BELIEVING. God sent Aaron to speak. Ministers sent to preach. III. THE ISRAELITES MANIFEST THEIR FAITH PUBLICLY. We must confess Christ in token of faith. IV. GOD PREPARES THE WAY FOR THE RECEPTION OF HIS TRUTH. Aaron called to meet Moses. God's Spirit precedes and accompanies the truth we utter. V. FAITH SECURES DELIVERANCE. By it the Israelites secured theirs. So must we by ours. It is unto us according to our faith. (Dr. Fowler.) 1. Some heads are bowed with business cares. During the last four years many homes have been broken, and others sadly reduced, not so much through men's own folly, as from the long and serious depression in trade.2. Some heads are bowed with sorrow over sinful children. That never-fading picture of the Prodigal Son, painted by a master hand, is often too truly representative of our own families. Young men, think of all the pain and anguish you cause for those dear parents by your lives of sin. 3. Some heads are bowed with bereavement. To many of us there have come dark days of sorrow and pain. Roses have withered in our domestic gardens; buds have been nipped before they had time to bloom; lights we loved have gone out. (Charles Leach.). People Aaron, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jethro, Moses, Pharaoh, ZipporahPlaces Egypt, Horeb, Midian, Nile RiverTopics Becometh, Caught, Forth, Grasp, Grip, Hand-, Hold, Laid, Lay, Layeth, Putteth, Reached, Rod, Snake, Staff, Stretch, Stretched, TailOutline 1. Moses's rod is turned into a serpent.6. His hand is leprous. 10. He loathes his calling. 13. Aaron is appointed to assist him. 18. Moses departs from Jethro. 21. God's message to Pharaoh. 24. Zipporah circumcises her son. 27. Aaron is sent to meet Moses. 29. The people believe them. Dictionary of Bible Themes Exodus 4:1-9Library January 13. "Thou Shalt be to Him Instead of God" (Ex. Iv. 16). "Thou shalt be to him instead of God" (Ex. iv. 16). Such was God's promise to Moses, and such the high character that Moses was to assume toward Aaron, his brother. May it not suggest a high and glorious place that each of us may occupy toward all whom we meet, instead of God? What a dignity and glory it would give our lives, could we uniformly realize this high calling! How it would lead us to act toward our fellow-men! God can always be depended upon. God is without variableness or shadow of turning. … Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth May the Eleventh but -- --! May the Twelfth Mouth and Matter A Bundle of Myrrh is My Well-Beloved unto Me; He Shall Abide Between My Breasts. Preaching (I. ). To the Saddest of the Sad The Sweet Uses of Adversity "For if Ye Live after the Flesh, Ye Shall Die; but if Ye through the Spirit do Mortify the Deeds of the Body, Ye Shall Live. The Hardening in the Sacred Scripture. The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6. Flight into Egypt and Slaughter of the Bethlehem Children. Appendix xii. 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