How does God answer Moses’ doubts about being believed and about speaking?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

God gives signs for unbelief, promises to teach Moses what to say, and appoints Aaron to speak to the people with the words Moses gives him.

Chapter breakdown

How does God answer Moses’ doubts about being believed and about speaking? God gives signs for unbelief, promises to teach Moses what to say, and appoints Aaron to speak to the people with the words Moses gives him.

Moses says the people will not believe or listen to him, but will say that the Lord has not appeared to him. God asks what is in his hand; Moses answers that it is a rod. God tells him to throw it on the ground. It becomes a serpent, and Moses flees. God tells him to take it by the tail. When Moses does so, it becomes a rod again in his hand. The sign is given so that they may believe the Lord God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to him.

God tells Moses to put his hand into his bosom. When he takes it out, it is leprous, white as snow. God tells him to put it back; when he takes it out again, it is like the rest of his flesh. If the people do not believe or listen to the first sign, they will listen to the second. If they still do not believe either sign or listen to Moses, he is to take water from the river and pour it on dry land. Whatever he draws from the river will become blood. This third sign is an instruction at this point.

Moses asks God to consider that he has not been eloquent yesterday or the day before, and says that since God has spoken to him he has more difficulty and a slower tongue. God asks who made the human mouth and who makes a person mute or deaf, able to see or blind: is it not the Lord? He tells Moses to go; he will be in Moses’ mouth and teach him what to say. Moses replies by asking the Lord to send whom he will send.

The Lord is angry with Moses and names his brother Aaron the Levite, who is able to speak well. Aaron is coming to meet him and will be glad in his heart when he sees him. Moses is to speak to Aaron and put God’s words into his mouth. God will be in both their mouths and show them what to do. Aaron will speak to the people as Moses’ mouth; Moses will stand in relation to Aaron in the things that belong to God. Moses must take the rod with which he will work the signs.

Moses returns to his father-in-law Jethro and asks to go back to his brothers in Egypt to see whether they are alive. Jethro tells him to go in peace. In Madian, the Lord tells Moses to return to Egypt because all those seeking his life are dead. Moses takes his wife and sons, puts them on a donkey and returns to Egypt, carrying the rod of God.

God tells Moses, as he returns to Egypt, to do before Pharao all the wonders God has put in his hand. God says he will harden the king’s heart, and the king will not let the people go. Challoner’s note explains this as God withdrawing the dew of grace as a just punishment and allowing the heart to grow harder; the note says God is not the cause that brings about sin. Moses must tell Pharao that Israel is God’s son, his firstborn. God told him to let his son go to serve him, but he refused. God warns that he will kill Pharao’s firstborn son.

On the journey, at the inn, the Lord meets Moses and would kill him. Sephora immediately takes a very sharp stone, circumcises her son, touches his feet and says, “A bloody spouse art thou to me.” He is let go after she has spoken these words because of the circumcision. Challoner’s note explains that an angel representing the Lord met Moses because he had neglected to circumcise his younger son. According to the note, his wife understood the cause, circumcised the child on the spot, and the angel let him go. The verse uses “his feet” without naming whose feet; this account keeps that wording.

The Lord tells Aaron to go into the desert to meet Moses. Aaron meets him at the mountain of God and kisses him. Moses tells Aaron all the words of the Lord’s commission and all the signs he was commanded to perform. Moses and Aaron gather all Israel’s elders. Aaron speaks all the words the Lord said to Moses, and the signs are worked before the people. The people believe. Hearing that the Lord has visited Israel and seen their suffering, they fall down and adore.

The story inside

The chapter starts with Moses predicting that the people will reject his account. God supplies signs, including a further instruction if both earlier signs are rejected. Moses then raises his difficulty speaking. God promises to teach him, and after Moses’ further request God appoints Aaron as spokesman. The journey includes the separate danger at the inn and the circumcision. At the end, Moses and Aaron gather the elders, the words and signs are presented, and the people believe and adore. Their response answers the doubt with which Moses began. (Exodus 4:1–31.)

Lessons worth keeping

1
The signs answer a stated doubt. Moses expects the people to deny that the Lord appeared to him. The rod and hand signs address that claim, and the water instruction is given if they reject both. Keep these conditions rather than calling belief automatic. (4:1–9.)
2
Aaron’s role has clear limits. Moses gives Aaron God’s words; Aaron speaks them to the people. God promises to guide both and show them what to do. Their roles explain how the speaking difficulty is addressed. (4:10–17.)
3
The people’s response completes the chapter’s opening question. At the beginning Moses predicts disbelief. At the end the people hear the words, see the signs, believe and adore because they hear that the Lord has visited them and seen their suffering. (4:1, 27–31.)

Test your recall

Why is the water-to-blood instruction conditional? It is given for the case in which the people do not believe either of the first two signs and do not listen to Moses. (4:8–9.) Why may Moses return to Egypt? The Lord tells him that all those who were seeking his life are dead. (4:19.) How does Challoner explain the danger at the inn ending?

Show answer

His note says Moses had neglected his younger son’s circumcision; his wife understood, circumcised the child, and the angel let Moses go. The explanation belongs to the note on 4:24.

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 6264–6268
Exodus Chapter 4 Moses is empowered to confirm his mission with miracles: his brother Aaron is appointed to assist him.
Lines 6269–6284
4:1. Moses answered, and said: They will not believe me, nor hear my voice, but they will say: The Lord hath not appeared to thee. 4:2. Then he said to him: What is that thou holdest in thy hand? He answered: A rod. 4:3. And the Lord said: Cast it down upon the ground. He cast it down, and it was turned into a serpent, so that Moses fled from it. 4:4. And the Lord said: Put out thy hand, and take it by the tail. He put forth his hand, and took hold of it, and it was turned into a rod. 4:5. That they may believe, saith he, that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to thee.
Lines 6285–6297
4:6. And the Lord said again: Put thy hand into thy bosom. And when he had put it into his bosom, he brought it forth leprous as snow. 4:7. And he said: Put back thy hand into thy bosom. He put it back, and brought it out again, and it was like the other flesh. 4:8. If they will not believe thee, saith he, nor hear the voice of the former sign, they will believe the word of the latter sign. 4:9. But if they will not even believe these two signs, nor hear thy voice: take of the river water, and pour it out upon the dry land, and whatsoever thou drawest out of the river, shall be turned into blood.
Lines 6298–6309
4:10. Moses said: I beseech thee, Lord, I am not eloquent from yesterday and the day before; and since thou hast spoken to thy servant, I have more impediment and slowness of tongue. 4:11. The Lord said to him: Who made man’s mouth? or who made the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? did not I? 4:12. Go therefore, and I will be in thy mouth; and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak. 4:13. But he said: I beseech thee, Lord, send whom thou wilt send.
Lines 6310–6321
4:14. The Lord being angry at Moses, said: Aaron the Levite is thy brother, I know that he is eloquent: behold he cometh forth to meet thee, and seeing thee, shall be glad at heart. 4:15. Speak to him, and put my words in his mouth: and I will be in thy mouth, and in his mouth, and will shew you what you must do. 4:16. He shall speak in thy stead to the people, and shall be thy mouth: but thou shalt be to him in those things that pertain to God. 4:17. And take this rod in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do the signs.
Lines 6322–6331
4:18. Moses went his way, and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said to him; I will go and return to my brethren into Egypt, that I may see if they be yet alive. And Jethro said to him: Go in peace. 4:19. And the Lord said to Moses, in Madian: Go, and return into Egypt; for they are all dead that sought thy life. 4:20. Moses therefore took his wife, and his sons, and set them upon an ass; and returned into Egypt, carrying the rod of God in his hand.
Lines 6332–6346
4:21. And the Lord said to him as he was returning into Egypt: See that thou do all the wonders before Pharao, which I have put in thy hand: I shall harden his heart, and he will not let the people go. I shall harden, etc.... Not by being the efficient cause of his sin; but by withdrawing from him, for his just punishment, the dew of grace that might have softened his heart; and so suffering him to grow harder and harder. 4:22. And thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Israel is my son, my firstborn. 4:23. I have said to thee: Let my son go, that he may serve me, and thou wouldst not let him go: behold I will kill thy son, thy firstborn.
Lines 6347–6362
4:24. And when he was in his journey, in the inn, the Lord met him, and would have killed him. The Lord met him, and would have killed him.... This was an angel representing the Lord, who treated Moses in this manner, for having neglected the circumcision of his younger son; which his wife understanding, circumcised her child upon the spot, upon which the angel let Moses go. 4:25. Immediately Sephora took a very sharp stone, and circumcised the foreskin of her son, and touched his feet, and said: A bloody spouse art thou to me. 4:26. And he let him go after she had said: A bloody spouse art thou to me, because of the circumcision.
Lines 6363–6379
4:27. And the Lord said to Aaron: Go into the desert to meet Moses. And he went forth to meet him in the mountain of God, and kissed him. 4:28. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord, by which he had sent him, and the signs that he had commanded. 4:29. And they came together, and they assembled all the ancients of the children of Israel. 4:30. And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had said to Moses: and he wrought the signs before the people. 4:31. And the people believed. And they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction: and falling down they adored.