Bible Commentaries
Exodus 4

Verses 1-31

A further difficulty was now declared. The man who first doubted himself and then doubted because of his ignorance of God now doubted because of the people to whom he was to be sent. God had told him that the people would hearken, but now he questioned this. All fear of man is evidence of feeble faith in God. In the presence of such fear what we need is clearer vision of God. The story shows that God understood and answered the fear of His servant by granting him signs.

Then is revealed the strangest of all the difficulties. Moses returned to the first stated and declared his own weakness and incompetence. At the beginning it was natural, and the answer was one of grace. Now it was unwarranted and God was angry with him. The result was that Aaron was given to him as a mouthpiece. This is a strange and yet recurring experience. Faltering faith is answered by the supply of something that might have been done without, and the result is sorrow.

At last, difficulties having been dealt with, Moses commenced to walk in the path of obedience. Here we have the record of something certainly strange in the way in which it is told. Jehovah meets him on the pathway and seeks to kill him. The explanation is to be found in what follows. There can be no doubt that for some reason unrecorded Moses had failed to carry out the divine instructions concerning circumcision. The lesson is self- evident. No great consecration to service can excuse failure in what may appear to be smaller matters of conduct. Obedience completely established, everything moved forward.