Exodus 4:8 Study Bible: "It will happen, if they will neither believe you nor listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

◄ Exodus 4:8 ►

And the LORD said, "If they refuse to believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe that of the second.

Study Bible

And the LORD said
This phrase establishes divine authority and communication. The Hebrew word for "LORD" is "YHWH," the sacred name of God, emphasizing His eternal and self-existent nature. This introduction underscores that the instructions and assurances given to Moses are not of human origin but are divinely ordained. It reflects the personal relationship God has with His chosen leaders and His active role in guiding His people.

If they do not believe you
The phrase addresses the potential skepticism of the Israelites. The Hebrew word for "believe" is "aman," which means to confirm or support. This highlights the challenge Moses faces in gaining the trust of the Israelites, who have been oppressed for generations. It also reflects a broader theme in Scripture: the struggle between faith and doubt. God anticipates human hesitation and provides reassurance through signs.

or heed the witness
To "heed" means to pay attention or listen carefully. The Hebrew root "shama" implies not just hearing but obeying. The "witness" refers to the testimony or evidence provided by the signs. This phrase suggests that God understands the need for tangible evidence to bolster faith. It also points to the importance of obedience in the faith journey, as hearing God's message should lead to action.

of the first sign
The "first sign" refers to the miraculous transformation of Moses' staff into a serpent, as described earlier in Exodus 4. Signs in the biblical context are not mere wonders but are meant to convey a deeper spiritual truth or divine message. This sign serves as a demonstration of God's power over creation and His ability to protect and deliver His people.

they may believe
Here, "believe" again uses the Hebrew "aman," emphasizing the potential for faith to be established through divine intervention. This phrase offers hope that even if initial skepticism exists, God provides multiple opportunities for belief. It reflects God's patience and His desire for His people to come to faith through understanding and experience.

the witness of the second
The "second" sign refers to Moses' hand becoming leprous and then being healed. This sign further demonstrates God's power over health and disease, symbolizing His ability to purify and restore. The use of multiple signs indicates God's comprehensive approach to revealing Himself and His purposes. It underscores the theme of redemption and the transformative power of God's intervention in human affairs.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Moses
The central figure in this passage, chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. He is receiving instructions from God on how to convince the Israelites of his divine mission.

2. The LORD (Yahweh)
The God of Israel, who is speaking to Moses and providing him with signs to demonstrate His power and authority.

3. Signs
Miraculous events or actions given by God to Moses to authenticate his message and mission. In this context, they are meant to convince the Israelites of God's involvement.

4. Israelites
The descendants of Jacob, living in Egypt under oppression. They are the intended audience of the signs and the people Moses is called to lead to freedom.

5. Egypt
The land where the Israelites are enslaved, and from which God plans to deliver them through Moses.

Teaching Points

The Purpose of Signs
Signs are given by God to confirm His word and mission. They serve as a divine endorsement of the messenger and the message.

Faith and Evidence
While faith is essential, God often provides evidence to support belief. This passage shows God's understanding of human nature and His willingness to meet us where we are.

God's Patience and Provision
God is patient with our doubts and provides multiple opportunities for belief. He equips His servants with what they need to fulfill their calling.

The Role of Obedience
Moses is called to obey God's instructions, trusting that the signs will accomplish their purpose. Obedience to God's commands is crucial in fulfilling His plans.

The Importance of Perseverance
Even if the first sign is not believed, God encourages perseverance by providing additional signs. Persistence in God's work is vital, even in the face of initial unbelief.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the provision of signs in Exodus 4:8 demonstrate God's understanding of human nature and our need for assurance?

2. In what ways can we see the purpose of signs in the New Testament, and how do they relate to the signs given to Moses?

3. How can we apply the principle of obedience seen in Moses' response to God's instructions in our own lives today?

4. What does this passage teach us about God's patience and provision when we face doubt or disbelief?

5. How can we practice perseverance in our faith journey, especially when our initial efforts to share God's message are met with skepticism or rejection?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Exodus 3:12
God promises Moses that He will be with him, providing assurance of His presence and support, similar to the assurance given through the signs in Exodus 4:8.

John 20:30-31
The purpose of signs is to lead to belief, paralleling the signs given to Moses to inspire faith in the Israelites.

Hebrews 2:4
God testifies to His message through signs and wonders, reinforcing the idea that divine signs serve to confirm God's word and mission.

Sermons

The Third Difficulty: How is Moses to Deal with an Incredulous Israel?	D. Young	Exodus 4:1-9
Weakness and Strength for God's Service	J. Urquhart	Exodus 4:1-9
A Trilogy of Signs	J. Orr	Exodus 4:1-10
Divine Supplements for Human Infirmity	H.T. Robjohns	Exodus 4:1-17
Ministers Exposed to Unbelief	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 4:8-9
Miracles	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 4:8-9
The Divine Treatment of Human Doubt	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 4:8-9
The Folly of Rejecting the Gospel of Emancipation		Exodus 4:8-9
The Obstinacy of Unbelief	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 4:8-9
The Paralysis of Doubt	J. Halsey.	Exodus 4:8-9
The Voice of the First Sign	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 4:8-9

People

Aaron, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jethro, Moses, Pharaoh, Zipporah

Places

Egypt, Horeb, Midian, Nile River

Topics

Attention, Believe, Ear, Faith, Hearken, Heed, Latter, Listen, Miraculous, Pass, Pay, Sign, Voice, Witness

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Exodus 4:1-9

1449 signs, purposes

Exodus 4:1-13

7758 preachers, call

Exodus 4:5-9

5104 Moses, foreshadower of Christ

Exodus 4:8-9

8836 unbelief, response

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

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