Exodus 4:17 | Pastor Jerry A. Burns

Thou shalt take this rod - From the story of Moses's rod the heathens have invented the fables of the thyrsus of Bacchus, and the caduceus of Mercury. Cicero reckons five Bacchuses, one of which, according to Orpheus, was born of the river Nile; but, according to the common opinion, he was born on the banks of that river. Bacchus is expressly said to have been exposed on the river Nile, hence he is called Nilus, both by Diodorus and Macrobius; and in the hymns of Orpheus he is named Myses, because he was drawn out of the water. He is represented by the poets as being very beautiful, and an illustrious warrior; they report him to have overrun all Arabia with a numerous army both of men and women. He is said also to have been an eminent law-giver, and to have written his laws on two tables. He always carried in his hand the thyrsus, a rod wreathed with serpents, and by which he is reported to have wrought many miracles. Any person acquainted with the birth and exploits of the poetic Bacchus will at once perceive them to be all borrowed from the life and acts of Moses, as recorded in the Pentateuch; and it would be losing time to show the parallel, by quoting passages from the book of Exodus.

The caduceus or rod of Mercury is well known in poetic fables. It is another copy Of the rod of Moses. He also is reported to have wrought a multitude of miracles by this rod; and particularly he is said to kill and make alive, to send souls to the invisible world and bring them back from thence. Homer represents Mercury taking his rod to work miracles precisely in the same way as God commands Moses to take his.

Ἑρμης δε ψυχας Κυλληνιος εξεκαλειτο

Ανδρων μνηστηρων· εχε δε ῬΑΒΔΟΝ μετα χερσιν

Καλην, χρυσειην, τῃ τ' ανδρων ομματα θελγει,

Ὡν εθελει, τους δ' αυτε και ὑπνωοντας εγειρει.

Odyss., lib. xxiv., ver. 1.

Cyllenian Hermes now call'd forth the souls

Of all the suitors; with his golden Wand

Of power, to seal in balmy sleep whose eyes

Soe'er he will, and open them again.

Cowper.

Virgil copies Homer, but carries the parallel farther, tradition having probably furnished him with more particulars; but in both we may see a disguised copy of the sacred history, from which indeed the Greek and Roman poets borrowed most of their beauties.

Tum Virgam Capit: hac animas ille evocat Orco

Pallentes, alias sub tristia Tartara mittit;

Dat somnos, adimitque, et lumina morte resignat

Illa fretus agit, ventos, et turbida tranat. Aeneid, lib. iv., ver. 242.

But first he grasps within his awful hand

The mark of sovereign power, the magic wand;

With this he draws the ghosts from hollow graves,

With this he drives them down the Stygian waves;

With this he seals in sleep the wakeful sight,

And eyes, though closed in death, restores to light.

Thus arm'd, the god begins his airy race,

And drives the racking clouds along the liquid space.

Dryden.

Many other resemblances between the rod of the poets and that of Moses, the learned reader will readily recollect. These specimens may be deemed sufficient.

the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses--The Divine Being is not subject to ebullitions of passion; but His displeasure was manifested by transferring the honor of the priesthood, which would otherwise have been bestowed on Moses, to Aaron, who was from this time destined to be the head of the house of Levi (Ch1 23:13). Marvellous had been His condescension and patience in dealing with Moses; and now every remaining scruple was removed by the unexpected and welcome intelligence that his brother Aaron was to be his colleague. God knew from the beginning what Moses would do, but He reserves this motive to the last as the strongest to rouse his languid heart, and Moses now fully and cordially complied with the call. If we are surprised at his backwardness amidst all the signs and promises that were given him, we must admire his candor and honesty in recording it.

And thou shall take this rod in thine hand,.... Which he then had in his hand, and was no other than his shepherd's staff:

wherewith thou shall do signs: wondrous things, meaning the ten plagues inflicted on Egypt.

Moses raised another difficulty. "I am not a man of words," he said (i.e., I do not possess the gift of speech), "but am heavy in mouth and heavy in tongue" (i.e., I find a difficulty in the use of mouth and tongue, not exactly "stammering"); and that "both of yesterday and the day before" (i.e., from the very first, Gen 31:2), "and also since Thy speaking to Thy servant." Moses meant to say, "I neither possess the gift of speech by nature, nor have I received it since Thou hast spoken to me."

Exo 4:11-12

Jehovah both could and would provide for this defect. He had made man's mouth, and He made dumb or deaf, seeing or blind. He possessed unlimited power over all the senses, could give them or take them away; and He would be with Moses' mouth, and teach him what he was to say, i.e., impart to him the necessary qualification both as to matter and mode. - Moses' difficulties were now all exhausted, and removed by the assurances of God. But this only brought to light the secret reason in his heart. He did not wish to undertake the divine mission.

Exo 4:13

"Send, I pray Thee," he says, "by whom Thou wilt send;" i.e., carry out Thy mission by whomsoever Thou wilt. בּיד שׁלח: to carry out a mission through any one, originally with accus. rei (Sa1 16:20; Sa2 11:14), then without the object, as here, "to send a person" (cf. Sa2 12:25; Kg1 2:25). Before תּשׁלח the word אשׁר is omitted, which stands with בּיד in the construct state (vid., Ges. 123, 3). The anger of God was now excited by this groundless opposition. But as this unwillingness also arose from weakness of the flesh, the mercy of God came to the help of his weakness, and He referred Moses to his brother Aaron, who could speak well, and would address the people for him (Exo 4:14-17). Aaron is called הלּוי, the Levite, from his lineage, possibly with reference to the primary signification of לוה "to connect one's self" (Baumgarten), but not with any allusion to the future calling of the tribe of Levi (Rashi and Calvin). הוּא ידבּר דּבּר speak will he. The inf. abs. gives emphasis to the verb, and the position of הוּא to the subject. He both can and will speak, if thou dost not know it.

Exo 4:14-17

And Aaron is quite ready to do so. He is already coming to meet thee, and is glad to see thee. The statement in Exo 4:27, where Jehovah directs Aaron to go and meet Moses, is not at variance with this. They can both be reconciled in the following simple manner: "As soon as Aaron heard that his brother had left Midian, he went to meet him of his own accord, and then God showed him by what road he must go to find him, viz., towards the desert" (R. Mose ben Nachman). - "Put the words" (sc., which I have told thee) "into his mouth;" and I will support both thee and him in speaking. "He will be mouth to thee, and thou shalt be God to him." Cf. Exo 7:1, "Thy brother Aaron shall be thy prophet." Aaron would stand in the same relation to Moses, as a prophet to God: the prophet only spoke what God inspired him with, and Moses should be the inspiring God to him. The Targum softens down the word "God" into "master, teacher." Moses was called God, as being the possessor and medium of the divine word. As Luther explains it, "Whoever possesses and believes the word of God, possesses the Spirit and power of God, and also the divine wisdom, truth, heart, mind, and everything that belongs to God." In Exo 4:17, the plural "signs" points to the penal wonders that followed; for only one of the three signs given to Moses was performed with the rod.

Exo 4:18

In consequence of this appearance of God, Moses took leave of his father-in-law to return to his brethren in Egypt, though without telling him the real object of his journey, no doubt because Jethro had not the mind to understand such a divine revelation, though he subsequently recognised the miracles that God wrought for Israel (Exo 18). By the "brethren" we are to understand not merely the nearer relatives of Moses, or the family of Amram, but the Israelites generally. Considering the oppression under which they were suffering at the time of Moses' flight, the question might naturally arise, whether they were still living, and had not been altogether exterminated.

Moses still continues backward to the service for which God had designed him, even to a fault; for now we can no longer impute it to his humility and modesty, but must own that here was too much of cowardice, slothfulness, and unbelief in it. Observe here,

I. How Moses endeavours to excuse himself from the work.

1. He pleads that he was no good spokesman: O my Lord! I am not eloquent, Exo 4:10. He was a great philosopher, statesman, and divine, and yet no orator; a man of a clear head, great thought, and solid judgment, but had not a voluble tongue, or ready utterance, and therefore he thought himself unfit to speak before great men about great affairs, and in danger of being run down by the Egyptians. Observe, (1.) We must not judge of men by the readiness and fluency of their discourse. Moses was mighty in word (Act 7:22), and yet not eloquent: what he said was strong and nervous, and to the purpose, and distilled as the dew (Deu 32:2), though he did not deliver himself with that readiness, ease, and elegance, that some do, who have not the tenth part of his sense. St. Paul's speech was contemptible, Co2 10:10. A great deal of wisdom and true worth is concealed by a slow tongue. (2.) God is pleased sometimes to make choice of those as his messengers who have fewest of the advantages of art or nature, that his grace in them may appear the more glorious. Christ's disciples were no orators, till the Spirit made them such.

2. When this plea was overruled, and all his excuses were answered, he begged that God would send somebody else on this errand and leave him to keep sheep in Midian (Exo 4:13): "Send by any hand but mine; thou canst certainly find one much more fit." Note, An unwilling mind will take up with a sorry excuse rather than none, and is willing to devolve those services upon others that have any thing of difficulty or danger in them.

II. How God condescends to answer all his excuses. Though the anger of the Lord was kindled against him (Exo 4:14), yet he continued to reason with him, till he had overcome him. Note, Even self-diffidence, when it grows into an extreme - when it either hinders us from duty or clogs us in duty, or when it discourages our dependence upon the grace of God - is very displeasing to him. God justly resents our backwardness to serve him, and has reason to take it ill; for he is such a benefactor as is before-hand with us, and such a rewarder as will not be behind-hand with us. Note further, God is justly displeased with those whom yet he does not reject: he vouchsafes to reason the case even with his froward children, and overcomes them, as he did Moses here, with grace and kindness.

1. To balance the weakness of Moses, he here reminds him of his own power, Exo 4:11. (1.) His power in that concerning which Moses made the objection: Who has made man's mouth? Have not I the Lord? Moses knew that God made man, but he must be reminded now that God made man's mouth. An eye to God as Creator would help us over a great many of the difficulties which lie in the way of our duty, Psa 124:8. God, as the author of nature, has given us the power and faculty of speaking; and from him, as the fountain of gifts and graces, comes the faculty of speaking well, the mouth and wisdom (Luk 21:15), the tongue of the learned (Isa 50:4); he pours grace into the lips, Psa 45:2. (2.) His power in general over the other faculties. Who but God makes the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? [1.] The perfections of our faculties are his work, he makes the seeing; he formed the eye (Psa 94:9); he opens the understanding, the eye of the mind, Luk 24:45. [2.] Their imperfections are from him too; he make the dumb, and deaf, and blind. Is there any evil of this kind, and the Lord has not done it? No doubt he has, and always in wisdom and righteousness, and for his own glory, Joh 9:3. Pharaoh and the Egyptians were made deaf and blind spiritually, as Isa 6:9, Isa 6:10. But God knew how to manage them, and get himself honour upon them.

2. To encourage him in this great undertaking, he repeats the promise of his presence, not only in general, I will be with thee (Isa 3:12), but in particular, "I will be with thy mouth, so that the imperfection in thy speech shall be no prejudice to thy message." It does not appear that God did immediately remove the infirmity, whatever it was; but he did that which was equivalent, he taught him what to say, and then let the matter recommend itself: if others spoke more gracefully, none spoke more powerfully. Note, Those whom God employs to speak for him ought to depend upon him for instructions, and it shall be given them what they shall speak, Mat 10:19.

3. He joins Aaron in commission with him. He promises that Aaron shall meet him opportunely, and that he will be glad to see him, they having not seen one another (it is likely) for many years, Exo 4:14. He directs him to make use of Aaron as his spokesman, Exo 4:16. God might have laid Moses wholly aside, for his backwardness to be employed; but he considered his frame, and ordered him an assistant. Observe, (1.) Two are better than one, Ecc 4:9. God will have his two witnesses (Rev 11:3), that out of their mouths every word may be established. (2.) Aaron was the brother of Moses, divine wisdom so ordering it, that their natural affection one to another might strengthen their union in the joint execution of their commission. Christ sent his disciples two and two, and some of the couples were brothers. (3.) Aaron was the elder brother, and yet he was willing to be employed under Moses in this affair, because God would have it so. (4.) Aaron could speak well, and yet was far inferior to Moses in wisdom. God dispenses his gifts variously to the children of men, that we may see our need one of another, and each may contribute something to the good of the body, Co1 12:21. The tongue of Aaron, with the head and heart of Moses, would make one completely fit for this embassy. (5.) God promises, I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth. Even Aaron, that could speak well, yet could not speak to purpose unless God was with his mouth; without the constant aids of divine grace the best gifts will fail.

4. He bids him take the rod with him in his hand (Exo 4:17), to intimate that he must bring about his undertaking rather by acting than by speaking; the signs he should work with this rod might abundantly supply the want of eloquence; one miracle would do him better service than all the rhetoric in the world. Take this rod, the rod he carried as a shepherd, that he might not be ashamed of that mean condition out of which God called him. This rod must be his staff of authority, and must be to him instead both of sword and sceptre.

4:14-17 God would not let Moses evade responsibility, but he would accommodate Moses’ concern by allowing Moses’ brother Aaron to become Moses’ mouthpiece (14:16). As the narrative unfolds, the text records fewer and fewer occasions of Aaron serving in this capacity. Moses’ speaking problem was perhaps not as serious as he made it out to be, or the problem began to dissipate as his experience increased.

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