Exodus 4 - Signs For Moses

Exodus 4 Devotional

RYAN KARAYIANNIS

Four hundred years had passed since the era of patriarchal revelations, and the people were no longer accustomed to prophetic voices. It helps us understand Moses and the anxiety he has when Jehovah calls him to be the voice for the people. What if they would not believe him?

And so while it was a great honour that Moses was called and YHWH commissioned him to bring Israel out of Egypt, like many of us today, he is, with difficulty, persuaded to accept the commission. He does it at last with great reluctance. We can perceive this as a humble modesty, a low esteem of himself and his own sufficiency, or, an unbelieving distrust of God and his word and power. Either way, we have to acknowledge that those whom God designs for divine appointment he clothes with humility; the most fit for service are the least forward.

God does not blame Moses for his doubts, rather, He gives him three marks of authentication; the miracle of the rod turning into the serpent, the giving and healing of leprosy, and the promise of the Nile river turning into blood.

The casting down of the shepherd’s rod may signify the giving up of his previous pastoral occupation. If we are to participate in God’s redemptive purposes and plans for those around us, we must lay down who we once were to become who He is now asking us to be. So, who is He asking you to be today and what must we lay down to enter into His invitation for us?The origins of the serpent comes from the enemy of the woman’s seed, the old serpent, and inevitably constitutes the background of Egyptian hostility toward the Israelites. Throughout history, this serpent has been manipulating the “powerful” to dominate and destroy the vulnerable. However, we glimpse into the true power of YHWH when Moses seizes the serpent by the tail, by its weaponless natural part, as is illustrated in the Egyptian plagues, and it becomes a rod again. Now, however, a divine rod of the shepherd of the people. With great ease, God will send this timid shepherd into the heartbeat of the serpent's palace to dismantle and dislodge the power at hand and reveal the only true power at work in the rescuer of the people. Do not be surprised if we too are sent into the very centre of the enemy’s plans to dismantle and dislodge power by the way of the Spirit of God. Where is He sending you today?