Exodus 4:1-9
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.
And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): This passage continues God’s discourse with Moses at the burning bush concerning bringing Israel out of Egypt. Moses objects to the people’s unbelief, and God answers that objection by giving him a power to work miracles—to turn his rod into a serpent, and then into a rod again—to make his hand leprous, and then whole again—and to turn the water into blood.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Man’s unbelief and God’s boundless grace are here made manifest in a striking way. We might suppose that Moses had seen and heard enough to set his fears entirely aside. The consuming fire in the unconsumed bush, the condescending grace, the precious comprehensive titles, the divine commission, the assurance of the divine presence—all these things might have quelled every anxious thought, and imparted a settled assurance to the heart. Still, however, Moses raises questions, and still God answers them, and each successive question brings out fresh grace.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There is a deep meaning to these three signs. They were designed to teach important lessons to Moses, to Israel, and to us—that these three signs are the first recorded in Scripture denotes that they are of prime importance and worthy of our most careful study. The first of these signs was the turning of the rod into a serpent, and then back again into a rod.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: This is a deeply significant sign. The rod became a serpent, so that Moses fled from it; but, being commissioned by Jehovah, he took the serpent by the tail, and it became a rod.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): What are we to make of this?
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): “The Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand?” This is a proof that questions are frequently asked in the Scripture, not merely for the purpose of information—the Lord could not be ignorant of what Moses had in his hand. This remark may be useful for rightly understanding many texts of Scripture.
THE EDITOR: God is drawing attention to this rod’s significance. What should we understand by it?
ADAM CLARKE: As it was made the instrument of working many miracles, it was afterwards called “the rod of God,” Exodus 4:20.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: The whole land of Egypt was made to tremble beneath the successive strokes of “the rod of God,”—and in Exodus 17:5,6, we have a type of Christ smitten for us, by the hand of God in judgment: “The Lord said onto Moses, go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.” Note: “Thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river,” Why should this particular stroke of the rod be referred to? Exodus 7:20 furnishes the reply: Moses “lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.” It was the same rod which turned the water into blood that was to smite “that Rock which was Christ,” that streams of life might flow for us, 1 Corinthians 10:4.
THE EDITOR: God’s judgment, and His grace, is definitely connected to this rod. And the Bible also depicts a “rod” as a figure of Christ Himself: in Numbers 17:1-10, God caused a “rod” with Aaron’s name written upon it, to become a living branch with leaves, buds, and fruit, which demonstrated God’s choice of Aaron as Israel’s priest; it was an allegory of Christ’s resurrection, which demonstrated Jesus as God’s chosen Priest. “Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH…and he shall build the temple of the LORD, ” Zechariah 6:12.
A. W. PINK: In Psalm 110:2, the Lord Jesus is also called the “Rod of God:” “The Lord shall send the Rod of Thy strength out of Zion: rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.” The reference is to the second advent of Christ when His governmental authority and power shall be fully displayed. But when He was on earth the first time, it was in weakness and humiliation, and to this Moses casting down the “rod” on the ground points. But it will be objected, surely there is no possible sense in which the Rod became a “serpent!”
THE EDITOR: Isn’t a serpent a figure of the devil, who was cursed in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:1,14? And again, in Revelation 20:2. Is there any other Old Testament usage of a serpent as a figure of Christ?
A. W. PINK: Yes, there is, and none other than the Lord Jesus is our authority for such a statement. The “serpent” is inseparably connected with the curse, and on the cross, Christ was “made a curse” for His people, Galatians 3:10-13. Said He to Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” John 3:14.
THE EDITOR: The Israelites were dying, bitten by fiery serpents that God had sent among them because of their sin. Moses raised up a brass serpent on a pole, saying that if they looked at the serpent, they would live, Numbers 20:6-8. What they saw, was their sin being judged! In a figure, they saw Christ on the cross, bearing the sin of His people upon His own body—so God has laid all our iniquity on Jesus, “for he hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. Those who believed Moses, looked at the serpent and lived; but those who didn’t believe, didn’t look—and thus they died in their sin.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Now, we may rest assured these facts are full of spiritual meaning.
THE EDITOR: When Moses cast his rod to the ground, it became a serpent—see Christ in a similar figure, “being made sin for us,” cast down into the grave in His death for us. Moses fled from the serpent, just as God hid His face while His wrath against sin was poured out upon Jesus, Who cried out in agony, “My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken me?” Then Moses returned, picked up the serpent, and it became a rod again; just as God raised Jesus from the dead. This sign was a figure demonstrating Christ’s death and resurrection, by which God declared Jesus to be the Son of God, Romans 1:4. Later, when Aaron cast down this same rod before Pharaoh, it became a serpent again; and when Pharaoh’s magicians did the same thing, Aaron’s serpent swallowed up all their serpents, Exodus 7:10-12.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): What did that signify?
THE EDITOR: That there is no other atonement for sin. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4:12; As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” John 14:6.
