Exodus 4:6,7
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.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Moses’ hand itself is next made the subject of a miracle. This signified that Moses, by the power of God, should bring sore diseases upon Egypt, and that, at his prayer, they should be removed; that whereas the Israelites in Egypt had become leprous, polluted by sin—by being taken into the bosom of Moses they should be cleansed and cured; and that Moses was not to work miracles by his own power, nor for his own praise, but by the power of God and for His glory.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This was an astonishing miracle, that he should be at once smote with a leprosy; that this should be only in his hand, and not in any other part of his body; and that it should be cured immediately, without the use of any means. By this miracle Moses and the Israelites might be instructed and confirmed in the power of God, that He was able to deliver them out of captivity, which was as death.
MATTHEW HENRY: A leper is “as one dead,” Numbers 12:10-12.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Hence, when the king of Syria sent his general Naaman to the king of Israel to cure him of his leprosy, he rent his clothes, saying, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?” 2 Kings 5:7. This appears to be the reason why God chose this sign, as the instantaneous infliction and removal of this disease were demonstrations which all would allow of the sovereign power of God. We need, therefore, seek for no other reasons for this miracle: the sole reason is sufficiently obvious.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): I confess the subject appears to have a much higher and more spiritual meaning.
THE EDITOR: Those explanations fail to address the most obvious salient detail of this miracle—the one thing most necessary to rightly understand its full spiritual significance.
ADAM CLARKE: And what is that?
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Leprosy is the well-known type of sin…In both instances of this particular miracle, the Lord tells Moses to put his hand “in his bosom,”—and then take it out again.
THE EDITOR: That’s the key to understanding its spiritual significance. Moses’ first sign was about what Christ has done for us. The second sign is about our spiritual condition, and what we must do—and what God will do.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The principal effect this sign was calculated to have on Moses himself was a humbling one. Lest he become puffed up by the power of the rod, he is forcibly reminded of that sink of iniquity, the corrupt heart within him.
THE EDITOR: God showed Moses the true spiritual condition of his own human heart by nature. Moses hand was leprous, because his heart was leprous. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9. God knows our hearts, “for the LORD seeth not as man seeth—the LORD looketh on the heart,” 1 Samuel 16:7. Most men will admit they are sinners in some general way, but they will never be convinced that they are nothing but sin, until God shows them what their true spiritual condition is in His eyes.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): It is true, the natural man discerns it not…So long as men remain in their natural blindness of understanding, they are not sensible of their spiritual wants, and of this in particular. But as soon as God opens the eyes of their understanding, they see the state they were in before; they are then deeply convinced, that “every man living”―themselves especially, are by nature “altogether vanity”―that is, folly and ignorance, sin and wickedness.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Let us but lay our hands upon our hearts, thrust them into our bosoms to look there, and we shall be sure to take them out leprous.
THE EDITOR: Secondly, “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one,” Job 14:4. As leprosy is incurable, so is sin. It’s impossible for a man to cleanse his own heart of its wickedness, by the works of his own hands, because anything his leprous hand touches becomes unclean, Leviticus 22:3-6.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The Gospel regards the unconverted man as “dead in trespasses and sins.” It tells him that, first of all, he must be quickened by a new life—he must be born-again, or else he is not capable of those actions which would be acceptable with God.
ROBERT HAWKER: Our best things, which from sinners by nature “dead in trespasses and sin,” can be no otherwise than dead.
C. H. SPURGEON: Such is human nature. It can by no means help towards its own restoration—Man, think not to save yourself by your works.
A. W. PINK: Cleansing must begin with the heart—here signified by the leprous hand being thrust into the bosom before the loathsome disease was removed.
THE EDITOR: Precisely. When Moses removed his hand from bosom the second time, his hand was healed because his heart was healed. God had spiritually circumcised his heart, Romans 2:28,29. But consider this: if Moses hadn’t obeyed God’s command to put his hand in his bosom again, both his heart and hand would have remained leprous! Later, Moses admonished the Jews “to circumcise the foreskin of your hearts, and be no more stiff-necked,” Deuteronomy 10:16. But how can dead sinners circumcise their own hearts? So asked the Philippian jailor, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” Acts 16:30,31. Now God “has commanded all men everywhere to repent,” Acts 17:30; therefore, turn away from stiff-necked unbelief, and do what Christ has commanded—“Repent, and believe the Gospel,” Mark 1:15. By your own power? No. “The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,” Romans 1:16.
JOHN GILL: The Gospel, and the truths of it, which are the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ, are the means of conveying the Spirit of God as a spirit of illumination and sanctification into the hearts of men, and of quickening sinners dead in trespasses and sins.
THE EDITOR: Jesus said, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth—the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life,” John 6:63. The power of God’s Spirit is in the effectual voice of His Word. In Deuteronomy 30:6, Moses gave God’s promise of what He would do for all who obey that voice—“the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart…to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” Think also of this promise of God: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them,” Ezekiel 36:26,27. “Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts,” Hebrews 3:7,8.
