and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped. The people believedThis phrase signifies a pivotal moment of faith and trust among the Israelites. The Hebrew root for "believed" is "aman," which conveys a sense of firmness, support, and reliability. This belief is not merely intellectual assent but a deep-seated trust in God's promises. Historically, this marks a turning point where the Israelites, after years of oppression, begin to see the possibility of deliverance. Their belief is a response to the signs and wonders performed by Moses, which authenticate his divine mission. when they heard
Hearing in the Hebrew context often implies more than just auditory reception; it involves understanding and responding. The Hebrew word "shama" is used here, which can mean to listen, to hear, and to obey. This indicates that the Israelites not only heard the words but also comprehended the significance of God's intervention. It reflects a readiness to act upon the message delivered by Moses and Aaron. that the LORD had attended to
The phrase "had attended to" is derived from the Hebrew word "paqad," which means to visit, to attend to, or to care for. This implies a personal and attentive action by God towards His people. It is a reminder of God's covenantal faithfulness and His active role in the lives of the Israelites. This divine attention is a source of hope and reassurance for a people who have long felt abandoned. the Israelites
The term "Israelites" refers to the descendants of Jacob, also known as Israel. This identity is crucial as it ties the people to the promises made to the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It underscores their chosen status and the special relationship they have with God. Historically, the Israelites are in Egypt due to Joseph's rise to power, but over time, they have become enslaved, setting the stage for God's redemptive action. and had seen their affliction
The word "seen" in Hebrew is "ra'ah," which means to see, perceive, or understand. God's seeing is not passive observation but an active awareness that leads to intervention. The "affliction" refers to the suffering and oppression the Israelites endured under Egyptian bondage. This acknowledgment of their suffering is crucial, as it demonstrates God's compassion and justice, affirming that He is not indifferent to human suffering. they bowed down and worshiped
Bowing down and worshiping is a physical expression of reverence and submission to God. The Hebrew word for "worship" is "shachah," which means to bow down or prostrate oneself. This act signifies humility, adoration, and acknowledgment of God's sovereignty. It is a response of gratitude and faith, recognizing God's power and mercy. Historically, this worship is a precursor to the formalized worship practices that will be established later in the wilderness, highlighting the centrality of worship in the life of God's people. Persons / Places / Events 1. The IsraelitesThe descendants of Jacob, also known as the children of Israel, who were living in Egypt under harsh slavery. 2. MosesThe chosen leader of the Israelites, who was called by God to lead His people out of Egypt. 3. AaronMoses' brother, who served as his spokesperson to the Israelites and Pharaoh. 4. The LORD (Yahweh)The covenant God of Israel, who revealed Himself to Moses and promised to deliver His people from bondage. 5. EgyptThe land where the Israelites were enslaved, representing a place of oppression and suffering. Teaching Points Faith in God's PromisesThe Israelites' belief in God's promise of deliverance demonstrates the importance of trusting in God's word, even before seeing the fulfillment. God's Awareness and CompassionThe verse highlights that God is attentive to the suffering of His people, reminding us that He sees and cares for our afflictions. Response of WorshipThe natural response to God's intervention and promises should be worship and reverence, acknowledging His sovereignty and goodness. Community of BelieversThe collective belief and worship of the Israelites emphasize the strength and encouragement found in a community united in faith. Preparation for DeliveranceJust as the Israelites prepared their hearts for God's deliverance, we should be ready to act in faith when God calls us to move. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the belief of the Israelites in Exodus 4:31 challenge us to trust in God's promises today, even when we face difficult circumstances? 2. In what ways can we be more attentive to God's awareness of our afflictions, and how should this influence our prayer life? 3. What are some practical ways we can incorporate worship into our daily lives as a response to God's faithfulness? 4. How can we foster a sense of community and shared faith within our church or small group, similar to the Israelites' collective belief? 5. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's deliverance. How did you prepare your heart for His intervention, and what lessons can you apply to future challenges? Connections to Other Scriptures Exodus 3:7-10This passage describes God's awareness of the Israelites' suffering and His plan to deliver them, which sets the stage for their belief and worship in Exodus 4:31. Hebrews 11:24-29This New Testament passage highlights the faith of Moses, which is mirrored in the faith of the Israelites as they believe in God's promise of deliverance. Psalm 106:12This verse reflects on the Israelites' belief and worship after witnessing God's mighty works, similar to their response in Exodus 4:31. People Aaron, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jethro, Moses, Pharaoh, ZipporahPlaces Egypt, Horeb, Midian, Nile RiverTopics Affliction, Believe, Believed, Bent, Bow, Bowed, Cause, Concerned, Faith, Heads, Hearing, Low, Misery, Obeisance, Remembered, Sons, Troubles, Visited, Worship, Worshiped, WorshippedDictionary of Bible Themes Exodus 4:31 5138 bowing
5767 attitudes, in prayer Exodus 4:29-31 5727 old age, attitudes
8624 worship, reasons Exodus 4:30-31 1416 miracles, nature of Library 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 -- --!
"And Moses answered and said, But----" --EXODUS iv. 1-9. We know that "but." God has heard it from our lips a thousand times. It is the response of unbelief to the divine call. It is the reply of fear to the divine command. It is the suggestion that the resources are inadequate. It is a hint that God may not have looked all round. He has overlooked something which our own eyes have seen. The human "buts" in the Scriptural stories make an appalling record. "Lord, I will follow Thee, but----" There …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year May the Twelfth Mouth and Matter
"Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth." --EXODUS iv. 10-17. And what a promise that is for anyone who is commissioned to proclaim the King's decrees. Here can teachers and preachers find their strength. God will be with their mouths. He will control their speech, and order their words like troops. He does not promise to make us eloquent, but to endow our words with the "demonstration of power." "And I will teach thee what thou shall say." The Lord will not only be with our mouths, …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year A Bundle of Myrrh is My Well-Beloved unto Me; He Shall Abide Between My Breasts.
When the Bride, or rather the lover (for she is not yet a bride), has found her Bridegroom, she is so transported with joy, that she is eager to be instantly united to Him. But the union of perpetual enjoyment is not yet arrived. He is mine, she says, I cannot doubt that He gives Himself to me this moment, since I feel it, but He is to me, as it were, a bundle of myrrh. He is not yet a Bridegroom whom I may embrace in the nuptial bed, but a bundle of crosses, pains and mortifications; a bloody husband …
Madame Guyon—Song of Songs of Solomon Preaching (I. ).
Earthen vessels, frail and slight, Yet the golden Lamp we bear; Master, break us, that the light So may fire the murky air; Skill and wisdom none we claim, Only seek to lift Thy Name. I have on purpose reserved the subject of Preaching for our closing pages. Preaching is, from many points of view, the goal and summing up of all other parts and works of the Ministry. What we have said already about the Clergyman's life and labour, in secret, in society, in the parish; what we have said about his …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren To the Saddest of the Sad
I often wonder what those preachers do who feel called to make up their message as they go on; for if they fail, their failure must be attributed in great measure to their want of ability to make up a moving tale. They have to spread their sails to the breeze of the age, and to pick up a gospel that comes floating down to them on the stream of time, altering every week in the year; and they must have an endless task to catch this new idea, or, as they put it, to keep abreast of the age. Unless, indeed, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888 The Sweet Uses of Adversity
Now, I propose to address myself to the two classes of persons who are making use of this question. First, I shall speak to the tried saint; and then I shall speak to the seeking sinner, who has been seeking peace and pardon through Christ, but who has not as yet found it, but, on the contrary, has been buffeted by the law, and driven away from the mercy-seat in despair. I. First, then, to THE CHILD OF GOD. I have--I know I have--in this great assembly, some who have come to Job's position. They …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859 "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.
Rom. viii. s 13, 14.--"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. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." The life and being of many things consists in union,--separate them, and they remain not the same, or they lose their virtue. It is much more thus in Christianity, the power and life of it consists in the union of these things that God hath conjoined, so that if any man pretend to …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Hardening in the Sacred Scripture.
"He hath hardened their heart."-- John xii. 40. The Scripture teaches positively that the hardening and "darkening of their foolish heart" is a divine, intentional act. This is plainly evident from God's charge to Moses concerning the king of Egypt: "Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not harken unto you, and I will lay My hand upon Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6.
Several interpreters, Paulus especially, have asserted that the interpretation of Micah which is here given, was that of the Sanhedrim only, and not of the Evangelist, who merely recorded what happened and was said. But this assertion is at once refuted when we consider the object which Matthew has in view in his entire representation of the early life of Jesus. His object in recording the early life of Jesus is not like that of Luke, viz., to communicate historical information to his readers. …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Flight into Egypt and Slaughter of the Bethlehem Children.
(Bethlehem and Road Thence to Egypt, b.c. 4.) ^A Matt. II. 13-18. ^a 13 Now when they were departed [The text favors the idea that the arrival and departure of the magi and the departure of Joseph for Egypt, all occurred in one night. If so, the people of Bethlehem knew nothing of these matters], behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise [this command calls for immediate departure] and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt [This land was ever the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Appendix xii. The Baptism of Proselytes
ONLY those who have made study of it can have any idea how large, and sometimes bewildering, is the literature on the subject of Jewish Proselytes and their Baptism. Our present remarks will be confined to the Baptism of Proselytes. 1. Generally, as regards proselytes (Gerim) we have to distinguish between the Ger ha-Shaar (proselyte of the gate) and Ger Toshabh (sojourner,' settled among Israel), and again the Ger hatstsedeq (proselyte of righteousness) and Ger habberith (proselyte of the covenant). …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah A Canticle of Love
It is not only when He is about to send me some trial that Our Lord gives me warning and awakens my desire for it. For years I had cherished a longing which seemed impossible of realisation--to have a brother a Priest. I often used to think that if my little brothers had not gone to Heaven, I should have had the happiness of seeing them at the Altar. I greatly regretted being deprived of this joy. Yet God went beyond my dream; I only asked for one brother who would remember me each day at the Holy …
Therese Martin (of Lisieux)—The Story of a Soul Exodus
The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt--opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Exodus 4:31 NIVExodus 4:31 NLTExodus 4:31 ESVExodus 4:31 NASBExodus 4:31 KJV
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